Subject: [cwj 145] Japan Says No Plans to Stop Use of New Textbook
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 12:09:41 -0700
Seq: 145
Wednesday April 4 Japan Says No Plans to Stop Use of New Textbook By Teruaki Ueno TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday it would not bow to foreign pressure to bar schools from using a controversial new textbook that critics say glosses over the country's wartime aggression. The Education Ministry endorsed the draft of the high school history textbook Tuesday following a screening by a ministry panel, which recommended that some 137 sections be revised due to their controversial content. ``The screening procedures were completed, and therefore there will be no change (to the content),'' Foreign Minister Yohei Kono told the Lower House of parliament's foreign affairs committee. ``There is no possibility whatsoever that the Foreign Ministry will intervene,'' he added. China and South Korea lambasted the Japanese government's decision to approve the textbook. Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan summoned the Japanese ambassador to Beijing Wednesday to lodge a protest. ``The approval of the textbook hurt the feelings of many people in China and hampers the development of normal Sino-Japanese relations,'' a Japanese official quoted Tang as telling the Japanese diplomat. South Korea says the textbook glosses over Japan's 35-year occupation of the Korean peninsula -- including the fact that Koreans were forced to use the Japanese language and pledge loyalty to its emperor. Japan's top government spokesman said the textbooks did not reflect Tokyo's official views. ``Historical perspectives or outlooks represented in textbooks should not be identified as those of the Japanese government,'' Yasuo Fukuda said in a statement Tuesday. Stressing that the Education Ministry's screening was conducted ``fairly,'' Kono said Japan would seek understanding from China and South Korea of its position. Flavour Of Revisionism The initial text had said Japan's 35-year occupation of the Korean peninsula was in line with international law. It had also labeled the Nanjing Massacre as being ``nothing on the scale of the Holocaust.'' Following the panel's recommendation, the publishers revised the text, making clear the annexation of Korea was carried out by force to quash opposition by the Korean people. It also took out the reference playing down the scale of the Nanjing Massacre, in which China says as many as 300,000 civilians died when Japanese troops overran the eastern city in December 1937. But the screening panel did leave other controversial sections including parts which describes Japanese troops as braving ``death with honor.'' The textbook will go into use from April 2002. Seeds Of Diplomatic Rows Japanese history textbooks, periodically updated under a system of screening by the Education Ministry, have aroused fierce debate at home and in Asian countries invaded by Japan in the first half of the 20th century. Japan's relations with Asian countries have often been damaged by textbook depictions of Tokyo's wartime role. In 1982, a row was touched off in Asia when textbooks described Japan's World War Two invasion of the region as an ''advance.'' In 1997, Japan's Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling that the government had illegally ordered historian Saburo Ienaga to delete an account of the activities of the Japanese Imperial Army's infamous Unit 731, which conducted biological warfare and experimented on live prisoners in northern China during the war. Ienaga's challenges over three decades have forced the Education Ministry to accept his views on atrocities such as the Nanjing Massacre and Japanese wartime aggression. Current textbooks give fuller accounts of Japanese actions in the war, but have been slammed by the right for going too far. Periodic remarks by Japanese politicians seen as glossing over Japan's wartime atrocities stir old hatreds in China especially and keep ties between the Asian neighbors on edge. Earlier this year, former Japanese Defense Minister Hosei Norota sparked an outcry across Asia with remarks absolving Japan of blame for entering World War Two, saying it had been forced into action by the United States. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Corporate Watch in Japanese is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. 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