From what I can gather these are photos of the uyoku trucks that travel around Japan broadcasting right-wing nationalist propaganda (or, “inspirational thoughts,” depending on what side of the dialectic you are on).
Some could also be bus ads for books, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
If you can read Japanese, please confirm, correct or expand on my assumptions.
(Those characters beside Mishima are fairly clear. I would love to know what they say.)
This Flickr user posted a set of the right-wing trucks (some with Mishima, some without) and gave a first-hand account of the experience.
Tags: bus, flickr, mishima, nationalist, right-wing, uyoku
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Mr. Donovan,
The characters on the top van are hard to make out. They appear to be part of a speech, but they’re too fuzzy for me to make much of them.
The second van, which apparently belongs to a group called the Shinnokai (something like “Resolve For the Emperor Society” if my Japanese hasn’t gotten too rusty) is a bit easier. The top to bottom text right next to Mishima is something along the lines of “Among all you oppressed/enslaved people, is there not one of you who will _____ with me?” I can’t make out the verb in the sentence. It’s too fuzzy, but the intent of the phrase is clear.
As for the last one, with the very proud trucker, the big two characters say “Kekki,” or “Rise up!” The smaller characters are Mishima’s name.
Hope that is helpful.
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I neglected to point out the following:
The top van (black, with underpants-and-katana Mishima) apparently belongs to the “International Anti-Communist League” and is affiliated with someplace called the Shinbu-kan. I’m not really sure what that name means or what kind of organization Shinbu-kan is. Literally the characters read “swinging [a stick or weapon] warrior hall.”
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Sir,
Sorry to abuse your comments box. I feel obligated to point out my own error, though. In the translation of the second van’s text, it should be what follows. I was able to get a clear transcript of Mishima’s last speech at the SDF HQ, which is where the line comes from.
The Japanese is
「諸君の中に一人でも俺と一緒に立つ奴はいないのか。」
The English for that is
“Among you gentlemen is there not one single person who will stand with me?”
Due to the fuzzy picture I misread the term “gentlemen” and wasn’t able to see the main verb (to stand) initially. I made the post at work and didn’t have as much access as I would have liked to other sources.
Once again, I apologize for the overuse of the comments.
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No problem. Thank you very much for the translations!
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