A Christian university in Sapporo decided last week to retain former Asahi Shimun reporter Takashi Uemura as a part-time instructor in the face of an onslaught of threats made against him and the university. The threats were part of a larger attack on the Asahi Shimbun over its reporting on the issue of "comfort women." While the university deserves praise for its courage, it must not be forgotten that the pressure was so great that the university almost caved in and terminated its ties with Uemura. The lesson is that all citizens concerned with upholding fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and the autonomy of universities must strengthen their cooperation to repel threats by social elements that detest any attempt to closely examine Japan's wartime behavior.

Uemura, who started teaching at Hokusei Gakuen University in April 2012, wrote an Asahi Shimbun article in 1991 reporting on the testimony by a former Korean comfort woman, the first newspaper article of its kind to be published in Japan. From March this year, the university began being deluged with faxes and email protesting the articles he wrote on the issue. In May and July, the university received threats demanding Uemura's dismissal and threatening to harm students at the school by setting off a nail bomb. In a related development, a Christian university in Kobe that was to employ Uemura as a professor from April rescinded its offer.

Threats targeting the Sapporo university grew fiercer in August after the Asahi retracted 16 articles from 1982 to 1997 by other writers about the rounding up of Korean women on Jeju Island to force them to serve as comfort women because testimony by the late Seiji Yoshida, who claimed to have worked for a recruitment organization in Yamaguchi Prefecture during the war, turned out to be false. On Tuesday the Asahi said Uemura's article erred in stating that the woman was taken to the front as a member of a wartime mobilization corps.

In late September, the university issued a written statement saying that it would resolutely stand up against acts that infringe on its autonomy. But apparently the increasingly violent nature of the threats forced the university to beef up security measures to protect students, and in late October university President Shinichi Tamura hinted at not renewing the contract with Uemura, saying that it was "physically difficult" for the university to maintain the costly tight security.

It was against this chilling backdrop that the university made its eventual decision to retain Uemura, displaying its resolve to protect its autonomy and freedom of speech — a very commendable act. But many citizens — including journalists, lawyers and scholars — played a key role in helping Hokusei Gakuen University regain its resolve by forming a group in early October to support Uemura and the university. Tamura at a news conference last week indicated the critical role the supporters played when he explained the university's decision by saying, "The movement that does not condone violence and threats has widened, serving to a certain degree as deterrence against ferocious acts."

It should be remembered that if the university had caved in to the threats and decided to not renew its contract with Uemura, the forces that do not mind trampling on constitutionally guaranteed rights such as freedom of expression would have gained the upper hand and no doubt have been further emboldened to disrupt democratic gatherings and try to force the media and educators to conform to their views.

Educators, journalists and citizens in general have a responsibility to fight back whenever anyone uses threats and other forms of violence to attempt to undermine freedom of expression and the autonomy of universities — especially those eager to whitewash Japan's wartime history.