Japan city adopts contentious history textbook

[Ebusitanus]

These Japanese have some fight still in them...Bravo! This is really smashing. Check out the Red text.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/news...-TEXTBOOKS.xml

By George Nishiyama
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese city on Wednesday adopted for use in its schools a history textbook that critics say whitewashes Tokyo's militaristic past, a decision likely to further chill ties with China and South Korea.
The education board of the city of Otawara in Tochigi Prefecture, 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Tokyo, became the first municipal government to adopt "The New History Textbook," written by nationalistic scholars for junior high schools.
Japan's Education Ministry approved the textbook in April, sparking anti-Japanese protests in China and fraying ties with South Korea. Resentment of Japan's past military aggression runs deep in both countries, 60 years after the end of World War Two.
Critics say the textbook, sponsored by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform (Tsukurukai), plays down the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China, ignores the sexual enslavement of women for Japanese soldiers and depicts Japanese wartime actions as aimed at liberating other Asian countries.
"The South Korean government expresses deep regret over the Otawara city's adoption of a history textbook that glorifies Japan's past historical aggression," the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.
"We have been deeply worried that the adoption of a distorted history textbook could give Japan's young generation a wrong perception about its history and result in repeating the unfortunate history."
In addition, Otawara adopted a civics textbook, also sponsored by Tsukurukai, that has upset South Korea as it reiterates Tokyo's claim to two tiny islands disputed with Seoul.
The authors and their supporters argue that the history text's approach corrects a "masochistic" view of history which they say has deprived Japanese of pride and patriotism.
"This is a historical first step towards putting historical education back on the right path and correcting the understanding of Japan's history and culture," Hidetsugu Yagi, Tsukurukai's chairman, told a news conference.
The Japanese government has said the text does not represent its official view of history.
RISING NATIONALISM?
Japanese school textbooks are approved every four years by the Education Ministry following a screening process, and local school boards then decide during the summer which textbooks to adopt in their districts.
A previous version of the history textbook, approved in 2001, was adopted by less than 1 percent of school districts, but Tsukurukai and their supporters are hoping to increase the share to 10 percent this time.
Opponents of the textbook were worried while supporters were optimistic that given the rise of what they both see as nationalism in some quarters of Japanese society, many public schools may adopt the textbook.
"What is different from the last time is that many politicians, especially among the (ruling) Liberal Democratic Party, are actively putting pressure," Hisao Ishiyama, head of a group of academics and teachers opposed to the textbook.
While school boards pick the textbooks, board members are appointed by governors or mayors, which critics say leaves room for the views of the politicians to be reflected in the selection process.
"Yes, nationalism has risen somewhat, but compared to China and South Korea, it's nothing," Tsukurukai's Yagi said. "And it's not of the nature to be criticised by anyone."
Asian neighbours, including South Korean officials, have also expressed concern that in addition to the Tsukurukai-sponsored text, other approved history textbooks have deleted references to Japan's wartime brutalities.
The term "comfort women", a euphemism for wartime sex slaves, many of whom were brought from the Korean peninsula, disappeared from all history textbooks approved in April.