This is another placeholder of sorts, as I am busy with documents for the Court... I will have to explain the significance of this CIA disinformation officer to the Court, as defendant Roughan had mentioned him to me in an email after a conversation about modern Japanese history in which I'd introduced Marius Jansen on the topic of the Meiji Restoration, etc. (I know, that's a spoiler...) At any rate, Jansen is a historian that one of a very few American historians to have been honored with recognition for their contributions to the study of Japanese history. Meanwhile, this sociopath calling himself "Romulus Hillsborough" (suspect device of a name if I ever heard one) claims on his Amazon intro to his book on Sakamoto Ryoma that,
"I published "Ryoma" in 1999, after moving back to California. It is the only biographical novel in English about Sakamoto Ryoma, the most charismatic leader of the samurai revolution." [emphasis added]That statement indicates that the clandestine CIA propagandist chose to write a "novel", as opposed to a biographical work of nonfiction, otherwise it would have been to obvious that he could not have spent 10 or 20 years researching the subject without being familiar with the ground breaking monograph by Jansen, a professor at Princeton, published in 1961:
https://www.amazon.com/Sakamoto-Ryoma-Restoration-Marius-Jansen/dp/0231101732/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467584648&sr=8-1&keywords=Sakamoto+Ryoma+and+the+Meiji+RestorationRomulus Hillsborough is the Nome de guerre of a CIA historical disinformation propagandist publishing book extolling militarism and valor of a concocted version of the “Samurai” so as to influence popular opinion in a manner such as to support the LDP push to revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan.
The CIA et al. have attempted to
misappropriate to their nefarious cause is Sakamoto Ryoma. Hillsborough’s
books are published by a local vanity press that is, in all likelihood, a CIA
front. He has had a two series book on Sakamoto Ryoma published in the form of
a language teaching text for use by Japanese studying English. That was
published by none other than the Japan Times, advertising the books here: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2009/12/25/general/legendary-dirty-samurai-gets-makeover/
. The Japan Times reviews Hillsborough’s vanity press published books, too: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/1999/06/08/books/book-reviews/the-nobody-who-changed-japan/.
It bears noting that one of the vanity press books has been picked up by Tuttle
publishing, bringing that company under scrutiny. In fact, they published
another disinformational book by him in 2014, newly, before re-releasing an
early book under a different title:
He is the
president of the Ryoma Society of America, which was launched in 2015! Interesting
timing, as in seriously dubious….http://www.ryomasociety.com/And one of the
memes he harps on is that of a “Samurai revolution”. Not only does the guy not
even understand who the samurai were, in no way, shape, or form, can the Meiji
Restoration be described as a “Revolution” in the American sense of
establishing a democratic republic by overthrowing arbitrary rule.He has a number
of overproduced websites, courtesy of the CIA, like our friend John Dougill—another
aficionado of Sakamoto Ryoma’s—who has since changed his name to Dougill John,
on Facebook, at any rate. It’s always rewarding to see the fruits of your
labors…http://www.samurai-revolution.com/etc. He claims to
have lived and worked for a Japanese magazine in Tokyo for 20 years, as follows:
I worked as a writer for a popular weekly magazine in Tokyo and later as a contributing journalist to a number of other Japanese publications.
but there
is absolutely not record on the Internet as to any such work history in Japanese.
Only 2 pages are returned in the Google search, and they are all about his
vanity press publications.https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E3%83%AD%E3%83%9F%E3%83%A5%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%83%92%E3%83%AB%E3%82%BA%E3%83%9C%E3%83%AD%E3%82%A6&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&ei=34d5V4XBFdOB2QT9uZaIBQ#q=%22%E3%83%AD%E3%83%9F%E3%83%A5%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%83%92%E3%83%AB%E3%82%BA%E3%83%9C%E3%83%AD%E3%82%A6%22+%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E3%80%80%E5%B1%A5%E6%AD%B4&start=10
Meanwhile, on
his Amazon author pagehttp://www.amazon.com/Romulus-Hillsborough/e/B001K8XJY0/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1he has the
following to say about himself:
My books tell the story of the
samurai revolution that spanned the third quarter of the 19th century (aka
Meiji Restoration). The samurai revolution transformed Japan from a country of
hundreds of feudal domains under the control of the Tokugawa Shogun, into a
modern industrialized world power under the unifying rule of the Emperor. It is
the historical era that Japanese writers generally refer to as the
"Bakumatsu."
I grew up in Los Angeles but came of age in Tokyo where I lived for sixteen years after graduating from a California State University with a degree in English. Soon after arriving in Japan I immersed myself in the study of the Japanese language, and later, Japanese history and culture. Most of my reading focused on the Bakumatsu.
To get a closer feel for the Bakumatsu, I traveled to historical cities and towns around Japan where my samurai subjects lived and died and where the revolution unfolded. While writing my first book, "Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai," I worked as a writer for a popular weekly magazine in Tokyo and later as a contributing journalist to a number of other Japanese publications.
I published "Ryoma" in 1999, after moving back to California. It is the only biographical novel in English about Sakamoto Ryoma, the most charismatic leader of the samurai revolution. Since then I've written a series of books on the subject. "Samurai Revolution: The Dawn of Modern Japan Seen Through the Eyes of the Shogun's Last Samurai" is my most recent one. It is a comprehensive history of the Meiji Restoration from the perspective of one of its most important men, Katsu Kaishu. It is based largely on Kaishu's journals, memoirs, histories, and letters. "Samurai Revolution" is the result of 25 years of research into this most important era in modern Japanese history.
So why do I write about a culture and history completely foreign to my own? Because it is spellbinding. And though it's a lot of hard work, hearing from my readers that they have become engrossed in my writing makes my work worthwhile.
I grew up in Los Angeles but came of age in Tokyo where I lived for sixteen years after graduating from a California State University with a degree in English. Soon after arriving in Japan I immersed myself in the study of the Japanese language, and later, Japanese history and culture. Most of my reading focused on the Bakumatsu.
To get a closer feel for the Bakumatsu, I traveled to historical cities and towns around Japan where my samurai subjects lived and died and where the revolution unfolded. While writing my first book, "Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai," I worked as a writer for a popular weekly magazine in Tokyo and later as a contributing journalist to a number of other Japanese publications.
I published "Ryoma" in 1999, after moving back to California. It is the only biographical novel in English about Sakamoto Ryoma, the most charismatic leader of the samurai revolution. Since then I've written a series of books on the subject. "Samurai Revolution: The Dawn of Modern Japan Seen Through the Eyes of the Shogun's Last Samurai" is my most recent one. It is a comprehensive history of the Meiji Restoration from the perspective of one of its most important men, Katsu Kaishu. It is based largely on Kaishu's journals, memoirs, histories, and letters. "Samurai Revolution" is the result of 25 years of research into this most important era in modern Japanese history.
So why do I write about a culture and history completely foreign to my own? Because it is spellbinding. And though it's a lot of hard work, hearing from my readers that they have become engrossed in my writing makes my work worthwhile.
