The Asahi-shimbun correspondent, Masataka Ito arrived in South Africa in the spring of 1970. At the time, Ito had just finished covering Nigeria's Biafran war. He wrote that new reporting on racial issues was not allowed by the "white imperial" South African government, and was effectively infiltration.
In South Africa, which was founded by Dutch and British immigrants, apartheid, which meant racial segregation, continued until 1994. It was not just a policy that discriminated against non-white people. It was a cunning structural mechanism for white people to monopolize abundant rare resources and their rights. Ito travels 11,000 kilometers in South Africa to uncover the "darkness of humanity" that is darker than war, and depicts the truth from the same perspective as the people living at the bottom.
"In Biafra, it was a matter of the probability of being hit by a cannonball. In South Africa, the constant scorn tears your heart out. You cannot endure such horror for long." Quote/Chuko Shinsho, "The Inside Story of the Republic of South Africa"
Apartheid's origins date back to the 19th century, when the Netherlands and Britain fought for control of South Africa. The victorious British Empire, along with Dutch immigrant Afrikaners, institutionalized all kinds of discrimination against non-white people, including their residence, movement, employment, and marriage, and built a society based on segregation and exploitation. Shocked by the idea of a "white-only country," Ito traveled to various parts of South Africa to visit victims of the "modern-day witch-hunts" that occur when racial coexistence is not tolerated.
Ito's reportage was introduced not only in the press in Japan, but also in Europe, including the UK, and the United Nations. Because he is a Japanese who received the disgraceful designation of an "honorary white" by the South African government, he was able to sharply understand the contradictions in this country. Despite being non-white, they were treated as exceptions because they were powerful trading partners, but what was the actual situation? In every situation, Ito was forced to choose between being a white person or a non-white person. "It loomed over me as seriously as Dante's inscription on the Gates of Hell," he wrote. (to be continued)
*This text was taken from the author's Waseda University Extension College's online course "Understanding the World from the Battlefield - What Non-Fiction Covered" released in February 2023.