Kenichi Ara


Kenichi Ara is a Japanese political commentator and researcher on modern history. Until the 1980s, he used the pen name Hideo Hatakenaka.
He is associated with the far-right and has participated in a number of organizations to promote far-right causes. Currently he is chairman of the Chūgoku no Kōnichi Kinenkan no Futō na Shashin no Tekkyo o Motomeru Kokumin no Kai, which seeks the removal of "inappropriate photographs" from war museums in China, and is advisor to both the Tamogami Ronbun to Jieikan no Meiyo o Kangaeru Kai, which supports Toshio Tamogami, and the ultranationalist Shuken Kaifuku o Mezasu Kai.
He was born in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture and is a graduate of Sendai Niko High School and the Faculty of Literature at Tohoku University. He worked at King Records from the spring of 1966 but retired around the age of 40.

Principal writings

Ara publishes essays mainly in the conservative magazines Seiron and Shokun.
Between May 1986 and May 1987 he published a series of oral testimonies from witnesses of the Nanking Incident of 1937 in the pages of Seiron Magazine which were released in book form in 1987 and then re-edited and re-released in 2002.
The book was poorly received by mainstream historians. Ikuhiko Hata stated that "It’s plain to see that his strategy is to avoid the people who will give evidence of atrocities and seek out only those who assert their innocence and thus conclude that nothing improper happened". Tokushi Kasahara also noted that both editions of the book cut out inconvenient testimonies from the original Seiron articles.
In his book Saikenshō: Nankin De Hontō Wa Nani Ga Okotta No Ka he alleges that the person who sheltered Yoon Bong-Gil prior to his 29 April 1932 bombing in Shanghai was George Ashmore Fitch.

Works

Books