The Japanese town of Otawara has became the first to adopt
textbooks that have triggered strong protests by China and South
Korea, which accuse Tokyo of denying its militarist
past.??
The education board of Otawara, an industrial and agricultural
town 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Tokyo, voted Wednesday
unanimously to use the controversial history and civics books at 12
junior high schools from April.
The books make only passing mention of atrocities committed by
Japanese troops in Asia in the first half of the 20th century and
were written by scholars who say Japan is too "masochistic" about
its history.
"We understand that there are various opinions about the book,
but we adopted it from the standpoint of education," said Ryu
Onuma, the head of the education board in Otawara.
"We expect children to be brought up with a correct
understanding of our nation's traditions and history and that they
will have pride and affection toward Japan," he told reporters.
The education ministry approved the history text in April as one
of eight that can be used to instruct students aged 13 to 15 in the
next school year.
The decision led both Beijing and Seoul to summon Japanese
ambassadors and triggered successive weekends of anti-Japanese
protests in China.
Beijing also declared its strong opposition to giving Japan a
permanent seat on the UN Security Council, a top goal of Japan's
foreign policy.
The textbook is an update of a previous edition that was
approved in 2001 and used by only 0.1 percent of Japan's junior
high schools, all of them for mentally challenged students.
The book's authors, the Japanese Society for History Textbook
Reform, expressed hope that Otawara would set a new trend of
schools adopting the book.
"We respect the decision by Otawara city," the Society said in a
statement. "It reflects the deepening understanding of the textbook
problem by Japanese citizens, and we expect this will spread to
other regions in the country."
Opponents of the textbook were on Wednesday lobbying the Tokyo
board of education to ensure Japan's biggest school system does not
follow suit. School districts across Japan are due to decide on
textbooks before August 31.
"The decision by the Otawara education board to adopt the
problematic textbook will generate serious problems for the future
of Japan and Japanese children," said Children and Textbook Japan
Network 21, a group opposed to the textbook.
The book makes no mention of the women sexually enslaved by
Japanese troops during their invasions of Asia and refers to the
Nanjing massacre as an "incident" in which "many" Chinese died.
China says 300,000 people perished in the 1937 massacre of the
occupied city; Allied trials of Japanese war criminals documented
140,000 deaths.
The book says Indonesians and Malaysians celebrated when Japan
took over from Western colonialists, seeing the Asian nation as a
liberator, although it briefly mentions that Japanese police could
be "cruel" at the end of the war.
(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies, July 14, 2005)