Newspapers were reborn after the war, just as the country’s systems were. They made a grave mistake of driving the people into war. The Yomiuri Shimbun, along with other newspapers, didn’t look away from the bitter past and started out again from scratch. It is the true nature of a journalist to pursue democracy and have the awareness that a newspaper is an instrument that serves for freedom of expression and for people's peaceful lives.

When thinking about the world today, it is impossible to avoid mentioning the turbulence of the 20th century. The century of war, the century of science, the century of ideology—the last century could go by all these names. What has changed in the 21st century? The clash of ideologies has disappeared, but what has emerged was the "century of division." Democratic countries being opposed to autocratic ones crosses the mind. This emerged in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The world is fracturing into two extremes and glaring at one another. We saw missiles being shot into homes and train stations. We didn’t see the result of this division and opposition before facing the worsening of the situation surrounding Palestines. Hospitals and schools were targeted as hideouts of terrorists and it is reported that half of the victims of the bombing were children.

Democracy is not omnipotent. Dangerous populism is on the rise. I remember the meaninglessness of the United States’ temporary withdrawal from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Disasters are occurring frequently. “For us humans, the land has more to tell us than a thousand page book” (Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars. Translated by Daigaku Horiguchi). If democracy cannot protect the Earth and human beings, what system could take its place?

Provoked by divisions and confrontations, the “century of turbulence" still conitnues. Changes and events that make us realize our responsibility as a media organization are likely to continue unabated. Our paper celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. 1874 was the year Taisuke Itagaki and his cohorts submitted a paper asking for a democratic parliament so that citizens could participate in politics. How can we give back to the society what we've learned through our experiences of publishing newspaper for three centuries? We can do it only through accurate reporting and speech.

In “Children Who Don’t Know War,” the third verse has lyrics that are relieving. “I like blue skies, I like flower petals, if you’re always someone with a smile on your face, let’s walk together whoever you are, on a path glowing in the beautiful sunset. (lyrics by Osamu Kitayama, music by Jiro Sugita ).” In the blue sky and in the sunset let there come a day when no missiles are seen.

※This is the 150th anniversary special edition of Henshu Techo, The Yomiuri Shimbun’s first-page column.