[Shinji] speaking Japanese
I don't know if "violent" cuts it.
In Japan, this disturbing
and potentially dangerous manga is protected by law
as freedom of expression.
Is there a link between this material
and instances of real abuse?
speaking Japanese
[Hanako] Do you think this type of media
should be banned in Japan?
speaking Japanese
dramatic electronic music
[Suroosh] Africa has become a strategic focal point
for the world's major powers.
Exercises like this are becoming
a bigger priority for America.
In recent years,
ten governments have been overthrown.
Is it a dangerous game to be training officers
from unstable nations?
No, I don't--I think it's actually the opposite.
Did the U.S. military play a role in the coup?
driving electronic music
warbling synth music
[traffic director] speaking Japanese
[Hanako] speaking Japanese
We're heading to Anime Japan right now,
and it's the largest anime convention in the world.
Anime and manga are one of Japan's
most popular and lucrative cultural exports.
In 2020, anime alone raked in almost $18 billion
in domestic and international sales,
with its appeal to people of all ages.
speaking Japanese
[Hanako] Whether it's stories about martial arts
or magical girls saving the world,
the focus is often on cute and innocent characters.
But sometimes the line between cute and concerning
can get pretty blurry.
There are a few really, really young-looking girls
in basically little to no clothing.
They are very clearly children,
and people are just walking around
as though nothing is wrong,
nothing is different.
These images are tame compared
to what's out there.
Online and in bookshops,
there's an entire subgenre
of animated child pornography.
The comics are so graphic that in the U.S.,
you could get up to 15 years in jail just for owning one...
but not here.
When child pornography was finally banned
in Japan in 2014,
publishers lobbied to keep animated child porn legal,
arguing that artists' freedom of speech
is protected by the constitution.
They even pressured the government
not to study the effects of this material on consumers,
because they said no real children
were being harmed to make it.
They got what they wanted.
Today, all manga, no matter how sexually explicit,
is protected by law.
[Shinji] speaking Japanese
[Hanako] Shinji is a manga super fan,
and also one of the artists creating comics
that show child pornography.
He's 49 years old, but much of his work
focuses on elementary school students.
He says it's harmless because it doesn't involve real kids.
speaking Japanese
[Shinji] speaking Japanese
[Hanako] So this story is about a young high schooler,
and she is getting gang raped
by a bunch of high school boys.
So what they're doing is ejaculating in condoms,
and then they're putting the condoms inside the girl.
And she is apparently
sexually enjoying this process as well.
This is quite...
I don't know if "violent" cuts it, to be honest.
[Shinji] speaking Japanese
[Hanako] But it's not just about art.
Shinji admits he's attracted to children.
He agreed to talk to us because he believes
his work prevents pedophiles from abusing kids
by allowing them to live out their dark fantasies alone.
[Shinji] speaking Japanese
gentle music
[Hanako] There are no studies that prove
animated child porn leads to actual assault.
What we do know from police data
is that Japan is facing a child abuse crisis.
More and more people are being arrested
for sexually abusing minors,
and more children are becoming
victims of pornography on social media.
But most lawmakers don't think
that animated child pornography is the problem.
Even as the country prepares to establish
its first-ever Children's Ministry next year,
a government office dedicated
to protecting the rights of minors,
there are no plans to reexamine
this disturbing manga.
[Minoru] speaking Japanese
[Hanako] Minoru Ogino is a manga artist
and an elected Tokyo official.
He strongly opposes any ban on this material.
[Hanako] We showed Ogino one of Shinji's comic books.
[Hanako] Japan isn't the only democratic country
where children are sexualized,
but it is among the slowest to change its laws.
The age of consent here is only 13,
the lowest among developed nations.
Online, consumers can and do buy
childlike sex dolls,
something that's also legal in most
of the United States.
Other businesses here offer
"high school girl walking dates,"
where older men pay to spend time with minors.
This fetishization of youth can be traced
back through history.
Art from the 1600s to 1800s
show adolescent boys called wakashu
dressing as women and having sex with older men,
while girls as young as 12 were considered
sexually mature enough to be courtesans.
Today, comics showing the violent objectification
of children can be picked up at adult bookshops,
often for less than 10 bucks.
We asked a bunch of these stores
whether we can film inside, but none of them said yes,
so we actually have to go inside with a hidden camera
and see just kind of how on display these books are.
The stores don't want to risk bad publicity,
and we can see why.
We visited a few of them,
but we can't show you what's on the shelves
because it's too sexually graphic.
This whole aisle here is just sexual abuse,
child pornography.
The genres that sexualize children
and sometimes depicts abuse are called
"Shotacon" and "Lolicon,"
after the classic Western novel Lolita.
Some of these stories get pretty brutal,
involving violence, incest, and humiliation.
You see, this girl is a sixth grader,
and just a lot of repeated scenes
of her getting raped.
uneasy music
[Kazuna] speaking Japanese
[Hanako] Kazuna Kanajiri runs an organization
that helps victims of sexual violence,
including kids who have been abused or forced
into child pornography.
We showed her one of the comics depicting children.
[Kazuna] speaking Japanese
Is there a link between this material
and instances of real abuse against children?
[Hanako] Takashi Kato was once a massive consumer
of this pornographic manga.
He was also a serial child sex abuser.
[Takashi] speaking Japanese
[Hanako] Kato agreed to speak to us
because he says he wants to stop others
from preying on children.
He says he's assaulted at least 11 kids,
including abusing girls in public,
teaching boys to masturbate,
and paying children for sex abroad.
When and how did you realize that you had
a sexual desire for children?
[Takashi] speaking Japanese
How did reading this manga change your understanding
of sex and children?
Do you think this type of media should be banned in Japan?
[Hanako] Kato eventually turned himself in.
But instead of prison, he got four years of probation
and community service
because he had no criminal record
and his victims never complained.
He doesn't know what happened to the children.
[Takashi] speaking Japanese
[Hanako] Despite the new Children's Ministry
opening next year, there's no plan
to ban this abusive manga.
Freedom of expression is enshrined in the constitution.
But child's rights advocates warn that this isn't
just a problem for Japan.
Material that's legal here can and will be viewed everywhere.
[Kazuna] speaking Japanese
driving electronic music
[assorted gunfire]
tense music
We're in Fort Benning, Georgia,
at the massive Army base that's here,
and we're at the African Land Forces Summit.
There are generals and military officials
from over 40 African nations here,
and it's something that the Army
organizes every year.
And it's their way of kind of strengthening
their relationships with their friends and allies
and partners in Africa.
This is how America can compete
in the great power competition
and not lose out to the likes of Russia and China.
With the youngest population on Earth,
vast tracts of undeveloped space,
and trillions in untapped resources,
Africa is the final frontier in the global economy.
All that unrealized potential
has made the continent a new strategic focus
for the world's major powers,
nowhere more so than West Africa,
where the U.S., China, and Russia, among others,
are competing for political influence
and natural resources like timber, oil, and minerals,
including bauxite,
a raw material for making aluminum.
But the scramble for West Africa
is getting more complex by the day.
[explosion]
Violence is spiking, extremism is on the rise,
and political instability is spiraling out of control.
In recent years, military-backed coups
have overthrown ten West African governments.
Major General Andrew Rohling runs
American military partnerships in Africa.
The two years he's held that post have been
the most chaotic in recent history.
Should the U.S. be training leaders
from unstable African nations?
Yes, I think we should.
Because if they're unstable,
they're gonna fall off to one side or the other.
I would rather have them fall onto the side
of the United States and our allies and partners
than to just ignore them.
That gives them an easy path into a direction
we wish them not to go.
[Suroosh] The U.S., Russia, and China
are working every angle to maintain
their access and influence.
For America, those angles include
displays of military might and Southern hospitality.
The pastries are good, right?
They're very fresh.
-Yes. -Yeah.
[Suroosh] ...and an American take
on a true African staple.
I think my wife might like this.
Tyler Perry, Good Deeds.
[Suroosh] For all the goodwill on safari,
the Fort Benning Summit was overshadowed
by a shocking statistic.
Of the ten recent coups in West Africa,
eight were carried out by soldiers trained by America
at events like this.
The apparent link between U.S. training and coups
poses an important question: does American involvement
in Africa promote peace and prosperity, as it claims,
or might it do more harm than good?
quiet synth music
We're in a small West African country called Guinea,
where a guy named Colonel Doumbouya
left training with the U.S. Special Forces
in the middle of the night, while everyone was sleeping,
stormed the presidential palace,
and orchestrated a coup d'état.
The coup last year overthrew Alpha Condé,
Guinea's first democratically elected leader.
The U.S. condemned it and no longer invites
Guinea to events like the summit at Fort Benning.
But when it comes to Guinean politics,
nothing is simple.
Before the coup, Condé, with backing from Russia,
had rewritten the constitution
to stay in office for an extra term.
Guineans took to the streets,
protesting the move as undemocratic.
Colonel Doumbouya, who was Condé's own
right-hand man at the time,
saw an opportunity to seize power.
speaking French
[Suroosh] To some observers,
it looked like Doumbouya's American trainers
had been involved in the overthrow
of his Russia-backed boss.
There's no evidence of a link between the coup
and the U.S. training,
but I asked Doumbouya's spokesman
for the official line.
Did the U.S. military offer any assistance
or play a role in the coup?
speaking native language
[Suroosh] Guinea has the world's largest deposits
of bauxite.
Under President Condé, Russia got
the biggest share and the best deals.
Its state-backed aluminum company, Rusal,
has a vast footprint in the country.
Now Condé is gone, and Colonel Doumbouya's junta
is engaged in a standoff with Rusal over ownership
and contracts for its mines.
Much of its stock is now in limbo.
For Russia, the coup was a major blow.
So we just drove about 15 kilometers
from Conakry
to the site of the Rusal mines.
And as soon as we got to the area--
this is the area-- it got nicer all of a sudden.
There's no open sewers. The roads are paved.
Let's keep moving. A guy just clocked us,
and he's on the phone.
He definitely saw us come in.
Is the guy still following us?
So that- that's all bauxite there.
That big, long, reddish-brown mound
is bauxite,
the Russian stockpile.
We can't actually get close to it,
so we're going to go on a boat and see how close we can get.
Bonjour. Suroosh.
Mamadou Bah monitors
Guinea's mining industry
for a local non-governmental organization.
[Mamadou] speaking French
How does it feel to have your country be a...
a battleground for these big powers?
[Mamadou] speaking French
[Suroosh] Despite all its mineral wealth,
Guinea is one of the poorest countries
on Earth.
So far, Colonel Doumbouya and his military junta
have done nothing to change that.
[gunshot]
Instead, they have been accused of eroding
the democratic ideals they promised to uphold.
In May, the junta announced a three-year transition period
to civilian rule, cementing
Doumbouya's grip on power.
[gunshots]
Pro-democracy protests, led by the National Front
for the Defense of the Constitution,
or FNDC, had been banned...
speaking native language
[Suroosh] ...and its members are the target
of a crackdown by the junta.
speaking native language
[Suroosh] We're following these guys on the motorcycles.
They're from the FNDC.
We're kind of in hostile territory,
so they're taking us to a secret location
so they can talk to us.
What's been happening with the protests
with your friends who are in jail?
speaking French
When you say children are being taken away
from their homes, how old are they?
[translator] From seven years.
[Suroosh] Are these tactics in Doumbouya's regime
worse than what Alpha Condé was doing?
[Sadio] speaking French
[Suroosh] That night,
the roundups started again.
Go, go, go, go, go.
upbeat drum music
Despite the criticism and complexity,
the U.S. is doubling down on its engagement in Africa.
This summer, the U.S. led the biggest-ever show
of force on the continent:
African Lion 2022.
[officer calling]
Thousands of African soldiers trained
alongside Americans over an area
twice the size of California.
Until recently, General Stephen Townsend
was the head of U.S. Africa command.
This year, he put Russia front and center
as America's main adversary in Africa
during his testimony to the U.S. Senate.
Our competitors clearly see Africa's rich potential.
Russia stokes conflict,
pursuing a faded aspiration
to imperial power.
dramatic music
[jets roaring overhead]
Fire.
This is some of America's most powerful
military hardware on display
basically to impress, you know, eight generals upstairs.
And as the threats from Russia and China increase,
exercises like this are becoming
a bigger and bigger priority for America
to seek access and influence in Africa.
[officer] Target group number three,
special instructions at my command.
Over.
[officer] Expend all.
[gunfire]
quiet synth music
Okay, we're going to try and find General Townsend now.
He's the four-star general overseeing all of this,
and he's about to retire.
Let's see if we can catch up with him.
In your statement, you talked about the growing threat
of Russia, and I was wondering
if you could speak a little bit about how
what we saw today relates to this threat.
[Townsend] I would say look at Ukraine today,
and what you see on one side is,
you see an aggressive Russia,
without cause, unlawfully attacking
an adjacent sovereign nation.
And you see on the other side, the broader alliance
from the world trying to help defend
and protect that country.
So I would say that this exercise here,
although not focused on any country,
is about building a partnership.
And that will come in handy against some threat, some day.
There have been U.S.-trained officers
that orchestrated coups in their-their countries
in Africa in recent years.
Isn't it a dangerous game to be creating officers
from unstable nations?
No, I don't--
I think it's actually the opposite.
Every time U.S. forces train,
we also train things like the law of armed conflict,
humanitarian values,
and the importance of civilian control
of the military.
So I think the more training we do, the less likely
we'll have outcomes like that.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
Sir, General...
[Suroosh] Enjoy your retirement, sir.
Thank you.
[Suroosh] Shortly after this exercise,
Townsend retired as head of U.S. Africa Command.
His successor will face a continent
strained and divided by rival great powers
like at no time since the Cold War.
The U.S. has a checkered history in Africa,
but with Russia and China aggressively pursuing inroads
on the continent, America's battle
for hearts and minds in Africa is only just getting started.