Chapter 105 The situation is getting intense, so let's add more fuel to the fire!
Chapter 105 The situation is getting intense, so let's add more fuel to the fire! (Please subscribe and vote)
Japan's political arena emulates the Western political system of separation of powers.
That is, the judiciary, legislation and administration are controlled by different state organs respectively, which exercise their powers independently and check and balance each other.
The executive branch, or the Japanese government, consists of the Prime Minister and his cabinet, which form the highest power group.
These people who hold the highest power basically revolve around the prime minister. A small number of them are little brothers sent in by other political parties. On the surface, they are there to provide supervision, but in reality they are doing the work of traitors.
The legislative body is the Diet, which consists of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. It is also the highest authority in Japan. It holds greater power and voice, and can often decide the appointment of the prime minister and can effectively impeach the prime minister.
The judicial system is the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs, but there are a group of special guys in the prosecutorial group of Japan. They have the independent power to handle cases bypassing the judicial, legislative and administrative organs. They are called the Special Investigation Department, which is similar to the Independent Commission Against Corruption in Hong Kong, but has more power because they are backed by the American daddy.
The Minister of Defense is a loyal follower of Tomiichi Murayama, but since this "Okinawa American Military Girls Atrocities Incident" is related to the Americans, he does not dare to intervene casually. After all, there are judicial institutions such as the courts and the procuratorate in between!
The Prime Minister called him urgently in the middle of the night and asked him to come to the office for a meeting. He knew what was going on, so he could only run over nervously, stand trembling on the side, and listen to the storm in Tomiichi Murayama.
The Minister of Defense shrank his head like a quail after being scolded. He didn't dare to glance at the aggressive old man, so he could only look around the table.
There was an open copy of "Literature and Art" there.
He had heard of this magazine. It should be said that now there is probably no one in Tokyo who doesn’t know about "Wenyi" because the new haiku trend started by Kitagawa Hide is so popular that it even reached his home!
A few days ago, when he returned home and just loosened his suit tie, his wife rushed up to him and said, "It was the night of fireworks, and 50 years passed in a flash." He was moved and confused.
Later, after listening to his wife's explanation, he realized that this was a new type of haiku that had emerged recently. Anyone could create it. It had nothing to do with romance, it was just a matter of interest.
This made him curious about these things as well.
"have you understood?!"
His thoughts were interrupted by an angry roar from the Prime Minister.
Tomiichi Murayama took a sip of the hot tea handed to him by Secretary Ozawa, ended his lengthy criticism in a stern voice, and then picked up the book "I Am a Cat" again and began to read it with relish.
The Minister of Defense understood that this time the Prime Minister intended to fight the U.S. military to the end to seek justice for the innocent soul of the girl who died in Okinawa. As the Prime Minister's number one henchman, he had to charge to the front and tear open this bloody first scene.
He immediately bowed 90 degrees to apologize, indicating that he understood what the Prime Minister meant.
Then he rushed back to the office without stopping, made a few phone calls and called his trusted subordinates off from their mistresses in the middle of the night, and had them gather around him for a meeting.
This time he became the one sitting cross-legged in the boss' chair, and his confidants who were unaware of the situation had to bow and apologize repeatedly, and were inexplicably scolded into a state of autism.
"Do you understand?!" He yelled at his subordinates, and his depressed mood was finally relieved.
Then these subordinates returned to their own territories, gathered the lower-level cattle and horses, and repeated the process of scolding and isolation.
In this way, the entire Cabinet Office evolved from the autism of one person to the autism of countless people, and the high-ranking officials who were usually high and mighty were all working hard to resolve the "Okinawa American military girl atrocity incident."
As time went on, lawyers, social elites, chaebol families, and well-known writers all joined the battle, and several consortiums that controlled the newspaper industry deliberately guided public opinion at the suggestion of the United States.
Newspapers that did not dare to openly support American soldiers pretended to be dead and reported whole sections of entertainment gossip that had nothing to do with the recent hot news, like a certain comedy TV station in later generations that continued to broadcast cartoons even when the prime minister was assassinated.
In order to allow entertainment gossip to cover up the heat, ordinary celebrity scandals are not enough, so the newspapers have been filled with a lot of top news recently, which also allows entertainment fans to enjoy it.
For example, Takuya Kimura was photographed having a secret date with a female star again, Izumi Sakai was suspected of having cancer, Akina Nakamori fell from the throne, and her album sales suffered another setback, etc.
However, newspapers like Nippon Shimbun, which are completely controlled by the chaebols and are eager to kneel down and kowtow to their American father, simply use large articles to whitewash the three American soldiers who committed the evil deeds and ignore the emotions of the readers.
In short, the media industry handles such matters in the same way as later generations.
It was only later with the advent of the Internet that people began to use celebrity gossip to replace negative public opinion news by buying hot searches. Now that the Internet is not well developed, this effect can be achieved by manipulating magazines and newspapers.
After the writers came out one after another to express their opinions, literary critics were not to be outdone. The loyal dogs of the American empire used their perfect dog-licking skills, submitting reviews as if they were free, criticizing Okinawa women from various angles and glorifying US troops stationed in Japan.
Yumeko and her three friends who were attending a literary exchange meeting at Kyoto University had just bought a copy of the latest evening edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun. They immediately went back to the dormitory and began to read it eagerly.
Ever since that open class at the University of Tokyo, Tomoyo Kobayashi and Hui Chizuru have also become brainless fans of Kitagawa Hide. The two of them insisted on dragging Jabami Rei along, and the three of them imitated the Three Heroes of Peach Garden to form the "Tokyo University Kitagawa Hide Fan Group", and then regarded Jabami Rei as the big brother - the number one Kitagawa fan at the University of Tokyo, Tomoyo Kobayashi and Hui Chizuru ranked second and third respectively. They vowed to defend Kitagawa's reputation in the literary world to the death from now on!
Agatsuma Yumeko was hugging a pillow and laughing beside her. At this time, Kobayashi Tomoyo and Chizuru Hui didn't know that she was in a relationship with Kitagawa Hide. They could be called the "Unit 2" and "Unit 3" who became social dead after Jabami Rei.
In order to increase the influence of the team, Tomoyo Kobayashi and others sincerely invited Yumeko Agatsuma to play the role of "Zhuge Liang" in the fan group, but she decisively refused.
And Jabami Rei, who was thinking "If my company is doomed, everyone will be doomed", fanned the flames and the Kitagawa fan club of the three of them became known to everyone in an instant.
Now even the students of Kyoto University know about the fascination and admiration that these three funny ones have for Kitagawa Hide.
"Hey, come and see! This matter actually involves Teacher Kitagawa?" The chubby Qian Hehui was only wearing a white T-shirt. She was lying on the newspaper, arching her snow-white buttocks and shouting at the three people.
Three heads immediately gathered around, wanting to see what was going on.
This time, the literary section of the evening edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun was almost dominated by two literary critics.
A literary critic who goes by the pen name "Ichiro" used a review article of over a thousand words to list the ten original sins of "Okinawa women", the innocence and pity of American soldiers, and then changed his tone, first accusing the deceased of wearing such sexy and cool clothes and wandering around at night, and then saying that the American soldiers just made a mistake that all men would make.
This guy has an outstanding ability to confuse right and wrong. If readers are not careful, they will be convinced by his excellent writing and fall into his thinking trap.
His opponent was a literary critic named Tetsutaro Mori.
The reason why Chizuru Hui said that this matter involved Kitagawa Hide was because Mori Tetsutaro often quoted original words from Kitagawa Hide's novel when scolding "Ichiro".
The second issue of "I Am a Cat" happened to write about a group of double-faced intellectuals and ugly capitalists, especially Mrs. Kaneda's words "This guy will surrender soon."
It completely detonated and slapped the faces of those who hated the atrocities committed by the US military.
Reality is often more magical than fiction.
As the incident continued to ferment, the writers and capitalists who were involved perfectly matched the disgusting image that Kitagawa Hide portrayed in "I Am a Cat", and the criticality of this novel was instantly maximized, and the value of the novel was constantly raised by these villains. The angry "Ichiro" was at a disadvantage in the literary criticism war for the first time. He found that his opponent was still an unknown industry insider, and the other party was a die-hard flatterer of Kitagawa Hide.
This immediately ignited his competitive spirit, and to date this is the sixth verbal battle between "Ichiro" and Mori Tetsutaro.
The first five episodes were serialized in Toren Keizai, Asahi Shimbun, and Yomiuri Shimbun, and were like a TV series that people couldn't stop watching.
After "Ichiro" and Tetsutaro Mori had a quarrel over the U.S. military incident, Tetsutaro Mori successfully used "I am a Cat" to attract his attention to Hide Kitagawa.
The two stopped discussing the US military and started talking about "I Am a Cat" and new haiku.
Tetsutarou Mori's words were sharp and he directly mocked the Akutagawa Prize.
The Akutagawa Prize disliked Kitagawa Hideo for being too popular and his novels for not being critical. Now they've been slapped in the face, right?
The reason why he dared to jump like this now and was so bold was that he got first-hand information on the sales of "Wenyi" from many newspaper editorial departments during this round of verbal battle.
Since October, the new issue of "Wenyi" has directly surpassed "Gunzo" which did not serialize Kitagawa Hide's works because of the gradual improvement of "I Am a Cat". The haiku column that the latter wanted to use to make a comeback has also become a huge joke.
Tetsutaro Mori also predicted that as time goes on, the October issue of "Wenyi" should have several times more sales than "Gunzo" in the end. This may be the first time that the two magazines have reversed the trend since their establishment. Moreover, "Gunzo" was able to maintain good sales data this month, and it also benefited from the traffic bonus of the completion of "A Wild Sheep Chase".
If "Qun Xiang" fails to come up with anything new in November, when "I Am a Cat" ushers in its final chapter, "Qun Xiang" will most likely be pulled down from the third place and become a stepping stone for the rise of "Wenyi".
What is the biggest fear of literary critics who like to confuse right and wrong?
That is the real data that cannot be changed.
"Ichiro" can talk nonsense and dare to say black is white, but he cannot refute "Gun Portrait" when it comes to real data.
After nearly half a month of sales, "Group Portrait" has sold 29.7 copies, while "Literature and Art" ranks first with 58.1 copies, and the gap is still widening.
He couldn't explain it any further, so he had to change the subject back to haiku.
Now the lifeline for this group of people is the haiku master from the University of Tokyo who has yet to show up.
The poem "Tanka of the Thunder God" became popular all over the country and single-handedly launched the entire haiku market.
Although the haiku that Kitagawa Hide published later were excellent, they always seemed to be lacking a step and failed to reach that level.
In fact, on the one hand, "Thoraga Tanka" is indeed a jackpot, and on the other hand, the pseudonym of Haiku Sage reaped the benefits of being the first to try it. In addition, his unknown identity and the praise from all walks of life put him at a natural disadvantage.
Ichiro seized the opportunity and brought up Mutsuro Takahashi again, saying bluntly, "Whose haiku is unparalleled in contemporary times?" This conclusion will be revealed at the literary exchange meeting at Kyoto University.
Mutsuro Takahashi was already preparing his speech about "The Master of Haiku has opened up a whole new genre", and more and more literary masters were invited. As if they had agreed in advance, they all flocked to Kyoto and began to support Mutsuro Takahashi one after another.
The driving force behind this is naturally Airi Noma, Shintaro Ishihara and others.
After "I Am a Cat" became a hit, it seemed that the view that Kitagawa Hide's novels were not "critical" was no longer tenable. The Akutagawa Prize was awarded not long ago. If these judges were slapped in the face, then the Akutagawa Prize would be in tatters in the future.
Therefore, they had to unite and focus their attack on Kitagawa Hide, at least to prevent him from taking down critical literature and haiku, and then use this to improve his status in the literary world again.
The Youth Trilogy made Kitagawa Hide jump from a new writer to a well-known figure in the industry, and he had a group of loyal fans across the country.
The popularity of No Longer Human made it clear that he would win the title of the best-selling author of 1995, and he truly became famous among ordinary people.
If the haiku that everyone is writing is in full swing now and he is the king, and "I Am a Cat" is able to secure its position as the first critical literary novel in modern Japan.
They dared not imagine whether Kitagawa Hide's status in the literary world would break through the "middle stream" and directly stand in the "upper class" like Ishihara Shintaro and others.
This flame must be snuffed out no matter what is said!
The four female college students read with great interest and bought back the newspapers covering the previous wars of words to review them. They could not help but sigh that the literary world was as exciting as the entertainment industry and was not at all as serious as they had imagined, with the bigwigs all having gloomy faces.
They looked at each other for a few seconds, then Jabami Rei slapped her head, stood up and took the three new haiku she had copied earlier: "Speaking of haiku, the 'Haiku Master of the University of Tokyo' has published a new work!"
"What?!" Tomoyo Kobayashi subconsciously looked at Yumeko Agatsuma.
She originally thought that my wife Yumeko had stopped writing, but it seemed that her inspiration seemed to have resurfaced and she couldn't stop writing, and she wrote three poems in one go.
The silly Chizuru Hui didn't even care why Jabami Rei had a new work by the haiku master, she just took it out and started reading.
Agatsuma Yumeko also leaned in. She had learned about this from Rei-chan not long ago. These three haiku will be handed over to Mutsuro Takahashi and a group of bigwigs by Professor Takeuchi Osamu tomorrow.
Poor Professor Takeuchi Osamu didn't know that he was just a tool. After receiving the text message from Jabami Rei, he was very excited and wanted to run to the girls' dormitory to observe the new work of the haiku master.
Currently, professors who support Kitagawa Hide and professors who are more optimistic about the haiku master are arguing fiercely. Takeuchi Osamu is in the middle. He likes "Tanga of the Thunder God" very much and also admires Kitagawa Hide's poems very much.
The reason why the two groups argued endlessly and neither could convince the other was very simple.
The levels of several haiku are similar, but the Kitagawa school believes that Kitagawa Hide is more stable and has more works, while the Haiku Master only has one masterpiece and is also unpredictable.
A laurel wreath cannot be given to a person who does not even show his face.
The Haiku School believes that no matter how much Kitagawa Hide's works are, they cannot match "Tanka of the Thunder God" when all are created. Moreover, the Haiku School is composed of many literary giants. Although their total number is small, their voice carries weight.
The two factions argued endlessly, and it was estimated that no result would be reached on the day Mutsuro Takahashi arrived.
But now.
The haiku master has a new work.
Everything seems to be settled.
(End of this chapter)