On May 8th, Kyodo News published an article concerning former New York Times Tokyo bureau chief Henry S. Stokes and his recent best-seller 英国人記者が見た連合国戦勝史観の虚妄  (Falsehoods of the Allied Nations’ Victorious View of History, as Seen by a British Journalist).  The Kyodo News article raised questions about the veracity of the book and whether it really represented Mr. Stokes’s views or the views of the two right wing individuals, Hiroyuki Fujita, who helped “translate” the book and Hideaki Kase aka Tony Kase.

I am a journalist who is just starting her career and I was asked to do the transcripts for an English version of the book. After some time, I realized that I felt that Mr. Stokes, who is a very nice elderly journalist who I respect, was having his words taken out of context. I resigned from the job and relinquished any further payments. Here are the resignation letters I sent to Mr. Fujita and my notice and apology to Mr. Stokes.

I did speak with Kyodo News about why I resigned. I have no further comments. If you would like to know more, please speak to the publisher or the individuals involved.

The controversial book by Henry S. Stokes. Does it represent his views or those of the extremist “translators” who put it together?

May 2nd, 2014 

 

Here are the recordings which I have finished so far. If they are included in the 50, 000 yen sum that you gave me, then that is fine. I don’t require any more payment. 

 

Sincerely, 

 

Angela Kubo 

 

May 4th 2014

Dear Henry, 

This is Angela Kubo, who had been working on the transcripts for the book.

I’m very sorry to let you down, but I’ve decided to resign from the job because I had a moral issue with compiling these transcripts. I felt that what you said in the transcripts was completely different on important points from what is written in your book. Below is my resignation letter, which I sent to Fujita-san.

Henry, I have a lot of respect for you, and I pulled out of this job because of this respect. I will be at the press club tomorrow and would like to speak to you about this transcripts. Perhaps you should consider speaking to someone about this issue, because I find it very serious that your book is very different from what you say in the audio.

Sincerely,

Angela Erika Kubo

 

A note from the editor-in-chief:  The questions as to whether Henry Stokes, a long time acquaintance, was deceived and turned into a mouthpiece for the Japanese right wing is a very fascinating one. However, I’m friends with and work with Angela Kubo. I know the reporter at Kyodo News who wrote the story well and we have worked together and I know Henry. The foreign journalist community in Japan is very small.  All that being said, therefore, I’m unable to objectively write about this story at this time and will recuse myself for the time being.  –Jake Adelstein