make a hash of sth

橋下徹氏の例の発言の話題です。記事の冒頭は、失言から始まった論争について、「維新の会」の維新という言葉にある「武士」「侍」「刀」（殺傷の道具で血を連想させる」と揶揄しながら始まっています。またa series of controversial bon motsとあるように書かれていることも手厳しい内容であることがわかります。

そのような批判的なニュアンスは、見出しからもわかります。見出しのmake a hash ofは、「台無しにする、めちゃくちゃ」にするという意味です。歴史を台無しにするということが見出しになっているのですから、それなりの評価が海外の報道機関から下されたことがわかります。(Othello)

Japan's right-wing politicians: Making a hash of history

THE scent of blood was in the air at the Tokyo Foreign Correspondents’ Club last week. A rising political star tipped as a candidate for prime minister was facing a hostile crowd of reporters after having uttered a series of controversial bon mots. Most strikingly, Toru Hashimoto (pictured above), the mayor of Osaka and a leader of the right-wing Japan Restoration Party (JRP), said Japan’s organised rape of wartime sex slaves was a necessary evil. Turning to the present day, he also said that “hot-blooded” American soldiers should themselves be using prostitutes more often in Okinawa, which is today home to 75% of the American bases in Japan. In the great tradition of Japanese politics, Mr Hashimoto was expected to bow before his media inquisitors, apologise and move on. He did no such thing.

In that marathon presser, Mr Hashimoto repeated his claim that there is no evidence of the wartime Japanese state’s involvement in herding what some scholars estimate to have been 200,000 Asian women into military brothels. He was aware of the pain suffered by the so-called comfort women, he assured, but said other countries should look squarely at their past too. “Sexual violation in wartime was not unique to the Japanese army,” he said, citing Britain, America, France and Russia for indulging in what he called, rather jarringly, “sex on the battlefield”. His remarks on Okinawa were merely intended to draw attention to the misdeeds of a “heartless minority” of American soldiers, he insisted. And to strengthen Japan’s military alliance with America, naturally.
(後略)
Making a hash of history - Japan's right-wing politicians
PS どうやら慰安婦を英語で言うと直訳風のcomfort womanになるようです。comfortはOEDにもあるように、精神的な「慰め」以外にも"physical refreshment"の意味合いがあります。