Motohiko Kimura's "The Bad Guy Visits Yugoslavia Soccer War" Summary and Impressions - A shocking work that questions the pros and cons of NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.
I would like to introduce you to "New Edition: Bad Man Visited Yugoslavia Soccer War" by Motohiko Kimura, published by Shueisha in 2018.
This work is the second in Motohiko Kimura's Yugoslav soccer trilogy ("Pride," "The Bad Guy Visits," and "Osim's Words").
Let's take a quick look at the book.
───New edition in 2018───Hideyuki Takano's acclaim!
Motohiko Kimura's Yugoslavian soccer trilogy is a shock. Among them, I marveled at 'The Bad Guy Comes to Town.
Croatia's runner-up finish surprised the world at the 2018 World Cup Soccer Tournament in Russia. Two Kosovo immigrants struck an "eagle pose" during the match between Switzerland and Serbia. The origin of this pose can be traced back 20 years to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. This is a valuable record of the author's firsthand experience of walking through the former Yugoslavia, which at the time was regarded as the "world's worst enemy," without regard for his own safety. This is a new edition with additional chapters that connect the gaps from the time of writing to the present.
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I will say this first. This book is terrific. I just want you to read it. And do it now! As soon as possible!
This is an important book at a time when we are being rocked by the Russia-Ukraine war.
In his afterword, the author describes the book as follows
I always wanted to write about Serbs. Hence, I went to Yugoslavia for three years.
The injustice of the international community's treatment of this people since the beginning of the breakup of the Yugoslav Federation is truly beyond description. In international courts and in the media. The more one examines the facts, the more one discovers the distortions of the deliberate Serbia-bashing that have been hidden from the public. Public opinion has been focused on Serbs as if they were demons or devils, not to mention various international organizations, and even within the peace movement in Japan, discriminatory remarks against this conflict-torn nation have been common. One unforgettable interview. The day of the first bombing crisis (Chapter 2). Amid the government's dark control of information, members of the independent media created ANEM (Alliance for a Free Media). They were holding meetings with humor, saying that even though they were isolated from the rest of the world, the people themselves should seek peaceful solutions. Everyone was crying and laughing.
As noted in the text, absolute bad guys are not created. Absolute bad guys are created. Every time I went to Belgrade, I felt deeply the horror of the economic sanctions. How many innocent babies and children lost their lives that could have been saved because of the lack of access to medicines? As Petrovic of the Urawa Reds lamented in Switzerland, for them the UN is nothing more than a hideout where lives are indirectly taken. And this time, the U.S.-led NATO air strikes bypassed even the UN.
A huge U.S. military base is currently under construction in Kosovo, comparable to the base in Danang during the Vietnam War, and Mr. Tokiro Mizuno, a U.N. official dispatched to Kosovo by UNMIK (United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo), said in an interview with the Tokyo Shimbun dated January 15, 2000, "I had trouble understanding why the United States was so attached to Kosovo. I had a hard time understanding why the U.S. was so obsessed with Kosovo, but when I learned that the U.S. military base was being built, I felt I could read the scenario. I think the aim of the Kosovo air strikes was to build a strategy for world domination through its own military power" (I should add that the day after this incident, a U.S. soldier raped and killed a 12-year-old Albanian girl).
Shueisha, Motohiko Kimura, "Shinpan Akusha Miso Yugoslavia Soccer Senki" p428-429
It is well known that media propaganda by American advertising agencies had a very strong impact on the Bosnian conflict, and Serbia would drag it on for years to come. The following is a piece written about the process by which the Serbian side was decried as the bad guy in the Bosnian conflict.War Advertising Agency."It is.
The work presented here, "Seeing the Bad Guys," was written after the Bosnian conflict, about Serbia in the Kosovo conflict of the late 1990s and 2000s.
According to the author, in this conflict, as in the Bosnian conflict, one-sided reporting led directly to inhumane air strikes.
What is said in this book is so shocking. There are many places I would like to cite, but since there is a limit to the amount of space available, this article will focus on some of the most memorable parts of the book.
Soccer culture" is also a projection of a way of life.
There is a term for this: "soccer culture."
If the J-League was entangled in business before it took root as a culture, then the Balkans' is a much deeper business. This was my conviction that I had gained during my trip in June to follow Pulavi (Yugoslavia's representative) and his background.
Former Yugoslavia. In those countries that were already divided into pieces, people used to choose a club to support as a way of confirming or revealing their ethnicity.
We support Dinamo not because we live in Zagreb, but because we are Croatian, and Zvezda (Red Star) not because we live in Beo, but because we are Serbian.
Furthermore, not only ethnicity but also principles are strongly reflected there.
For example, Partizan Belgrade was a club of the Yugoslav People's Army and is therefore supported by many people with multi-ethnic socialist views. The name of the support group, Globari (global = holistic), comes from there. Many of the players are also Albanians and Montenegrins. It is hard to believe nowadays, but President Tudjman (Croatia) is the permanent honorary president of this club in Serbia because of his duties when he was a general in the People's Army. In contrast, those who support Zvezda prefer a more liberal, ethnically respectful climate, as evidenced by the fact that they are proud to inscribe the name Delije (Brave) and its designation in Cyrillic letters on the stadium.
It is not just a soccer club.
It is not just a way of life.
In other words, it is a projection of a way of life. That is why I decided to feel the changes and activities in the various regions of Yugoslavia, which are already smoldering with some kind of ugly smell, by pulling on the thin threads connected to the soccer ball.
Shueisha, Motohiko Kimura, "Shinpan Akusha Miso Yugoslavia Soccer Senki" p. 91-92
Soccer is connected to the history and culture of the region and its people.
You can clearly see from the above quote that this is especially true in Europe. I could clearly see that this is why it is so important in Europe.
Soccer as a proxy war
In Japan, soccer critics with a full-blown European complex often say.
The J-League is not strict enough. In Europe, when a team loses a game, even the star players are too scared to walk on the pitch. The attitude of supporters to warmly welcome a loss or a drop to the second division is slowing down the strengthening of Japanese soccer.
What a poverty of ideas to lift up the excesses of European supporters without any scepticism.
Football certainly exists as an outlet for young people who have been socially oppressed. But is this really a happy thing?
If the term "soccer culture" is to be used in this context, then it would not be surprising if there is a way of cheering for the Japanese that is in keeping with their unique mentality of respecting the losers. What's the point of having a naughty niiiichan who gets on the players' nerves?
In the former Yugoslavia, football was a proxy war to raise the consciousness of its own people.
It is more like karma closely intertwined with ethnic issues than 'culture. Thanks to the "whole people's defense system," all young men and boys know how to handle weapons. So it is a no-brainer for a supporter to become a militia member. To become a militia member without any care is to die without any care. Behind the violence of the "Vice" (*supporter, blog author's note), there is a sense of sadness that only they can understand.
Shueisha, Motohiko Kimura, "Shinpan Akusha Miso Yugoslavia Soccer Senki" p. 143-144
I think this part is an important point because the author covered the area. When I read this part, I also groaned involuntarily, "Oh...! I couldn't help but groan when I read this part.
Beginning of air strikes on Serbia - overheated "Serbia bad guy" coverage in the West
March 2, 1999.
That night I was in Shinjuku 2-chome.
NATO forces had already decided to bomb all of Yugoslavia.
I was in utter disbelief.
It has been a little more than two months since the alleged "massacre" incident we witnessed in the village of Rachak. It was not long before the peace talks between the Yugoslav government and the Albanian population in Paris-Rambouillet over the peace in Kosovo broke down. I still couldn't believe that absolute armed sanctions could be imposed so easily. I still could not believe it.
In launching the airstrikes, President Clinton said, "We cannot allow ourselves to hesitate to protect the innocent people of Kosovo from the hands of the murderous Milosevic. （We have a moral obligation to end this tragedy. [omitted)
I was stopped by Snežana, Mrs. Stojkovic's wife, in the mix room at the Mizuho Stadium after the opening game of the 1999 J-League season.
Why do you only report on the Albanian side?
He was referring to the NHK Kosovo program I did a video report on. Naturally, I used footage from the village of Rachak. Her anger at my comments on the incident, which had not completely erased her suspicions, was understandable. I was more angry with her words than anything else, as she had been a great help to me in my coverage of Pulavi (the representative of Yugoslavia, blog author's note).
However, he was unwilling to report pro-Serbian news out of love for Stojkovic. For the Serbian government, even a policy to protect its own people, a minority group, is undeniably "oppression" for those who are subjected to it. There were people who were actually suffering. As far as the "individual" is concerned, it is not something that can be compared to Chechnya or East Timor. A person's life should be everything to that person.
Another thing was his conviction as a lover of Yugoslavian soccer. In other words, it was the will of a person who believes that politics and sports are separate.
Pixie was prepared to refuse to be interviewed, but she signed her name and talked about the facts of what was going on in Kosovo as she had reported them.
That is why I was even nauseated by Clinton's bluster as if genocide was rampant in Kosovo on a daily basis. Aside from the war zones, I could see towns and cities where Serbs and Albanians were living in a calm, if hectic and unsettled atmosphere, but both Serbs and Albanians were living in separate areas.
In Kosovo, I was shown pictures of massacred bodies of unknown origin by both ethnic groups until I vomited, but I had never seen or heard of a unilateral "massacre" in an urban area, except in the alleged village of Racak. I am reminded of the words of the Albanian, Sokoli, the Kosovo national team coach, who said, "I have never seen or heard of such a one-sided "massacre" in a city, except in the alleged village of Racak.
The Balkans are in a bad shape. People who don't live there don't understand the problems in the Balkans.
It was obvious that even a single bomb would ignite anti-Albanian sentiment among the Serbs.
Shueisha, Motohiko Kimura, "Shinpan Akusha Miso Yugoslavia Soccer Senki", p. 196-198.
The U.S. president called the head of the other country a "murderer" and began this air strike by asserting that "we are just and we have a moral obligation to attack.
The author's reporting stance can also be seen in the above passage. This book was not written from a position of favoritism toward Serbia. I would like to emphasize this point in particular.
In fact, after the air strikes began, Western media reports were riddled with "Serbia's bad guy theory" to justify the strikes, and there was some mind-boggling propaganda. Although the airstrikes were carried out "because Yugoslavia refused to sign the Kosovo Peace Accord," they were skillfully led to make public opinion as if they were carried out "to protect the Albanian population from the massacre that is taking place right now. The information manipulation seemed to have succeeded brilliantly.
The distorted reports were quite numerous, even as far as my direct experience confirms.
Typical is the report that "Albanian leaders who participated in peace negotiations in Rambouillet were all gunned down by Serb soldiers.
As far as I know, Serbian officials in Kosovo, while ostensibly arrogant, were cautious as if they were touching something "swollen," and even gave the impression of cowardice once their pretensions were removed. I was suspicious that he would not be able to execute them immediately. Sure enough, the leaders appeared a few days later in Kosovo, Macedonia, and Albania, respectively.
And the following report was the one that most dismayed me after following Yugoslav soccer for the past year. "A concentration camp has been built at the Pristina soccer stadium to lock up and rape 100,000 Albanians". How in the world can they remake the stadium of FK Prishtina, which can only hold 8,000 people? First of all, the stadium is staffed by Albanians (and not a small number of Albanians who do not want an independent Kosovo).
It is said that some correspondents rushed to cover the event, but the only people there were security guards with surprised faces. At the same time, a BBC female newscaster was murdered in London. Immediately afterward, news reports speculating that it was the work of a Serbian living in the U.K. were spread one-sidedly. I couldn't help but feel that this was intentional (although in fact it was not).
Japanese media coverage was by no means an exception.
The Yugoslavian military critic who published an opinion piece on the Yugoslavian civilian tragedy, "The bombing of Yugoslavia is a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia," transformed it into an East-West problem. Another broadcaster had a reporter from the International Affairs Department who proudly announced from the studio, "Currently, Albanians are being used as human shields by Serbian soldiers in Kosovo," and then proceeded to spout NATO's announcement verbatim. As it was an announcement by the military, the reporter did not even consider that there was conscious manipulation at work.
These headlines and statements were published on a daily basis without being corroborated. The image of the "bad guys" to justify the air strikes was gradually and surely imprinted on the recipients of the information, even if only from an observer's perspective. It was a frustrating experience.
Absolute bad guys are not born. Absolute bad guys are created.
Shueisha, Motohiko Kimura, "Shinpan Akusha Miso Yugoslavia Soccer Senki" p215-217
No one is born an absolute villain. Absolute bad guys are made."
This phrase is one of the most important in this book.
Japanese media coverage was by no means an exception.
The Yugoslavian military critic who published an opinion piece on the Yugoslavian civilian tragedy, "The bombing of Yugoslavia is a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia," transformed it into an East-West problem. Another broadcaster had a reporter from the International Affairs Department who proudly announced from the studio, "Currently, Albanians are being used as human shields by Serbian soldiers in Kosovo," and then proceeded to spout NATO's announcement verbatim. As it was an announcement by the military, the reporter did not even consider that there was conscious manipulation at work.
These headlines and statements were published on a daily basis without being corroborated. The image of the "bad guys" to justify the air strikes was gradually and surely imprinted on the recipients of the information, even if only from the outside. It was frustrating."
In the current situation in Ukraine, TV commentators are making various statements. Of course, I do not mean to say that all TV actors are bad. However, I felt that we, as recipients of information, should not pay attention to the deceptions of these TV commentators. I feel strongly that we, as the recipients of information, must be careful about these things.
Depleted uranium shells fired into Serbia
DU ammunition. NATO is said to have used about one million of these inhumane weapons in Yugoslavia.
I would like to take a few excerpts from my diary, which I kept during the filming period, to give you an idea of the situation in Yugoslavia and Kosovo in August 1999. (omitted).
On August 25, we met with a spokesman for the Kosovo Peacekeeping Force (KFOR), who told us that he was aware of NATO's use of depleted uranium munitions, but that "we are not particularly concerned about them. DU is extremely dangerous to the human body if it dissolves into the soil and enters Kosovo via crops. If the protection of the human rights of Albanians is the main cause of the bombings, why are the bombs not being removed from the area? Herein lies another contradiction in the airstrikes. The Albanians, however, simply shut their ears and said, "Don't say anything bad about the U.S. military. (omitted).
August 28. At the Binche Radioactivity Institute in the suburbs of Beo, we took photos of actual depleted uranium shells recovered by the Yugoslav army from Bujanovac in southern Serbia. Although only one of these shells was found, it registered a radiation level of 7 microsieverts per year, 100 times the level found in nature. This is 100 times the amount found in nature. A large amount of these bullets have been scattered in Kosovo. It would have been dangerous to collect them immediately, but KFOR was indifferent to the situation. The only Yugoslavian forces that had the possibility of doing so have already been forced to leave the area. The radiation is still there. We were also exposed to radiation when we went to the waste site for our interview.
In the past, radioactive nuclear waste from nuclear power plants was paid for and discarded. Now it is converted into weapons, which leads to profit opportunities for the military industry. Then, in the name of justice, they shoot it at other countries. In other words, they are thrown away for free. Following Iraq in the Gulf War, a country dumped a large number of nuclear weapons. That was Yugoslavia. On this day, the dinar dropped again at the black market rate. Hyper-inflation is hitting Yugoslavia. Everyone started buying marks like crazy. Kosovo, already enriched by the KFOR special demand, is several times richer.
August 31. We go to the destroyed chemical complex in Panchevo. The plant, once the largest of its kind in the Balkans, has been transformed into a huge source of environmental pollution, spewing out a huge amount of chemicals. Ammonia, mercury, dioxin ....... A strong, foul odor wafted up our noses. As we walked through the ruins, Dr. Sukeyuki Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University who accompanied us, pointed out that this was the world's largest-scale environmental destruction, comparable to the toxic gas accident in Bhopal, India, which caused 2,500 deaths. However, the UN environmental survey team left without conducting a thorough investigation.
Shueisha, Motohiko Kimura, "Shinpan Akusha Miso Yugoslavia Soccer Senki" p274-276
This passage was the most shocking fact in the book to me.
DU munitions are said to be made from nuclear waste. It was NATO's bombing of Serbia that shot them in large quantities...
This was the reality of the attack on NATO forces, which were advertised as a just army that would protect world peace.
I was stunned by this...
I really don't know anything, and I feel so pathetic...
The author later recounts
After the cessation of air strikes, many television programs were made about Kosovo. Most of them reported the massacres by Serbian militias. That was fine, and I had some of the facts from those involved in the field. However, what I found extremely frustrating was that they never mentioned the fact that the massacres began "after the bombing had started. As a result, I came to the conclusion that the bombing was unavoidable in order to stop the slaughter. I was disappointed that the unjustified bombing of Yugoslavia, which in my opinion could be called "the second Vietnam War," was allowed to go unchecked and unexamined. In fact, in Belgrade, a lawyer named Thomas Fira was suing NATO for war crimes before an international tribunal. A Macedonian-born Greek, he was not bringing the case from a nationalist perspective, but was motivated by righteous indignation over the use of inhumane weapons and clear violations of international law.
Shueisha, Motohiko Kimura, "Shinpan Akusha Miso Yugoslavia Soccer Senki" p312-313
As the author states here, I too think the major problem is that the bombing of Yugoslavia has been overlooked without good verification.
I too knew very little about the bombing of Yugoslavia until I read this book.
But I had a thought as I learned anew about the various conflicts in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
That is, "Why is Russia so afraid of NATO?
This airstrike was carried out by the U.S. initiative without the UN involvement. In other words, the attack was carried out without regard to Russia's wishes. Furthermore, they shot a large number of inhumane weapons called depleted uranium bombs and reduced the city to ruins. As a result, a huge number of people, both combatants and non-combatants, were killed. Moreover, reconstruction has not progressed due to the thorough destruction of the infrastructure. The damage from economic sanctions continues unabated.
The fact that this was done in the name of justice.
And yet, the label "Serbia = Evil" is still applied to the country, and the reality of the conflict is rarely acknowledged.
However, it is also true that prior to this airstrike, there was the bitter experience of the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia, the Rwandan civil war, and the Bosnian conflict, in which UN forces avoided armed intervention, resulting in greater damage from the conflict. We cannot overlook the fact that there was dissatisfaction in the international community with the UN's refusal to intervene by force.
It is not surprising that the Russians feared that NATO forces could carry out such a thorough attack without the UN's help. (But of course there is also the aspect of Russia justifying their actions on that basis.)
This book is a shocking piece of information about such a complicated situation in Yugoslavia. One can only be amazed that Mr. Stojkovic continued to fight through soccer under such tragic circumstances.
This work, told in the context of Mr. Stojkovic's soccer, is truly wonderful. It is a great book that I highly recommend! It is one of the best works in the "Yugoslav Soccer Trilogy! I hope you will pick up a copy.
The above is "Motohiko Kimura's "The Bad Guy Comes to Yugoslavia: A Story of Soccer in Yugoslavia," a shocking work that questions the pros and cons of NATO air strikes.
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