Right-wing comics revel in Japan's colonial past

TOKYO - In the world according to Ko Bunyu, China is incapable of democracy, practises cannibalism and mass murder and has exported 600,000 "Aids-infested" prostitutes across the world. "The only good thing to come out of China is food," he says.

Bunyu is the sort of man you might avoid, but in Japan he has sold almost one million books. A single comic volume, Introduction to China, has sold nearly 200,000 copies in four months.

Introduction is one of several right-wing comics to have hit the Japanese bestseller lists this year.

Hate Korea, a 300-page manga that says Japan brought civilisation to the Korean peninsula during its colonial rule of 1910-45, has sold almost 350,000 copies in three months.

In a country where popular manga show everything from violent rape to economic policy, nationalist comics are not new; Yoshinori Kobayashi has sold millions of xenophobic books that beautify Japan's colonial adventures.

But the two new volumes have sold in number at a time when Japan's Asian relations have sunk to new lows.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has enraged Chinese and Koreans with visits to a controversial war memorial that honours war criminals.

A film on the giant World War II ship Yamato, set for release this week, is targeting millions of young people. The Yamato's final mission - a suicide attack on US forces - resulted in the loss of several thousand crew.

"The Japanese should be proud of their history," says producer Haruki Kadokawa, who denies any nationalist leanings. "I want people to know the real facts."

- INDEPENDENT