THE UNCONSCIOUS MARIONET: THE NEWSPAPER IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD

　Nowadays, due to the strongly built the Internet society, information spreads in an instant and becomes deeply engraved in people's memories.

　There are many cases where ordinary people upload videos and articles about their hobbies to the Internet, and by chance they receive attention that rivals professionals in the field, and as a result receive large amounts of compensation.

　On the other hand, regardless of the actual situation, it is not uncommon for the so-call rumor damage, where the image precedes the spread of information and causes actual harm. The information now remains semi-permanently on the Internet as a digital tattoo.

　In recent years, it can be said that the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet society have become apparent.

　Before the Internet media took society by storm, television was the mainstream and had an impact on the world. Before that it was radio and even before that it was newspaper.

　During the Edo period, kawaraban which summarized current events in a simplified manner, became popular and became an advertising medium.

　Through these advertising media, people are influenced by image manipulation to some extent.

　From the end of the Edo period to the Meiji period, modern newspapers were published one after another.

　It has become a medium that not only delivers the latest news to people, but also instills an image of public opinion.

　If there is a major incident, newspapers will be sold to help people learn about the incident. In order to sell newspapers, newspaper companies also try to attract more readers. One of these is drawing illustrations for articles.

　The early Meiji period was the Edo period until recently. The illustrations were also drawn by ukiyo-e artists who have been around since the Edo period.

　In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War broke out between Japan and the Qing Dynasty over sovereignty for the Korean Peninsula.

　Naturally, this was a major incident, and newspaper reporters accompanied the troops to report on the daily war situation. Ukiyo-e artists who illustrated newspapers also traveled across battlefields as war painters.

　Newspapers report on the ever-changing war situation on the ground every day.

　The people of Japan who were watching the progress of the war, also competed to by newspapers and keep a close eye on the war situation.

　War painters were active in visually explaining the war situation in an easy-to-understand manner. The realistic battle scenes drawn by ukiyo-e artists had a great impact on newspaper readers.

　The point here is that the illustrations by war painters were drawn subjectively.

　Japanese readers subscribe to newspapers expecting to see a successful advance by the Japanese army.

　On the actual battlefield, a fierce battle continues between the Japanese army and the Qing Dynasty army.

　The Qing Dynasty army purchased the latest weapons from Western powers and maintained the appearance of a modern army. Naturally, there were many Japanese soldiers killed in battle, and war painters must have witnessed this with their own eyes.

　However, the war painters intentionally drew in a highly deformed manner depicting the Japanese army's successive victories and the Qing Dynasty's army being nothing to be feared.

　The equipment of the Qing Dynasty army will be spears or bows and arrows, also the army uniform will be pre-modern.

　They drew an illustration of Japanese soldiers standing in orderly formations looking like a modern army, firing at them all at once panicking and running away. This is because it will be better received by the Japanese readers.

　The Sino-Japanese War ended the following year in 1895.

　Japan won.

　The main reason is that Japan's society as a whole is modernizing and is becoming more enterprising. During the Qing Dynasty power struggles continued between powerful people in the imperial court, and the inability to centralize control of national power had a major impact.

　However, the seeds of the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army were born among the people, who watched the war situation through daily newspapers and imagined the illustrations.

　Newspapers that cater to people's image sell well, so newspapers publish articles that reinforce the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army. This creates a loop in which the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army is further instilled in people.

　As a result, if you wrote an anti-war tone, you would be criticized by your readers creating an atmosphere that made it difficult to write.

　Easy- to-understand illustrations, photos and videos are subjective creations that more easily reflect the creator's intentions, and they are only one side of the truth and do not represent the whole situations.

　Viewers are also required to have an objective attitude when looking at these things.