tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8605176.post111364506812913894..comments2023-08-21T18:00:34.044+09:00Comments on Asian Gazette Blog ✍ Joël Legendre-Koizumi: Rarely-Read Book Inspires Japan-China RiftAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17323738274259327790noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8605176.post-1113706717890178932005-04-17T11:58:00.000+09:002005-04-17T11:58:00.000+09:00Japanese textbook rarely usedJapan's nationalist ...Japanese textbook rarely used<BR/><BR/>Japan's nationalist "New History<BR/>Textbook" is fueling the deepest<BR/>ebb in Japan-China relations in<BR/>decades, but few Japanese students<BR/>have ever read it.<BR/><BR/>Though given away for free, the<BR/>text is used by only 18 junior<BR/>high schools -- out of 11,102<BR/>junior highs in all of Japan. It<BR/>has been denounced by the nation's<BR/>leading teacher's union, and is<BR/>well right of mainstream public<BR/>opinion.<BR/><BR/>Outside of Japan's classrooms,<BR/>however, the textbook is anything<BR/>but obscure.<BR/><BR/>Since it was first approved by a<BR/>government screening panel four<BR/>years ago, the text has been<BR/>singled out by Japan's neighbors<BR/>as evidence that the country is<BR/>trying to whitewash its militarist<BR/>past.<BR/><BR/>And its unrepentant tone and<BR/>omission of Japan's wartime<BR/>atrocities -- including germ<BR/>warfare and the forcing of tens if<BR/>not hundreds of thousands of women<BR/>into prostitution -- have outraged<BR/>many Japanese educators and<BR/>liberals.<BR/><BR/>It is now at the center of yet<BR/>another regional rift.<BR/><BR/>The approval of its newest edition<BR/>earlier this month fueled street<BR/>protests in several Chinese<BR/>cities, threats of a boycott of<BR/>Japanese products and violence<BR/>against at least two Japanese<BR/>students, plunging relations<BR/>between the two Asian giants to<BR/>their lowest level in years.<BR/><BR/>Even North Korea has piped up,<BR/>saying the Education Ministry's<BR/>approval of the text and Japan's<BR/>recent push to get a permanent<BR/>seat on the United Nations<BR/>Security Council demonstrate how<BR/>this nation's leaders are<BR/>"political dwarfs."<BR/><BR/>The text's publishers claim<BR/>surprise at the outcry.<BR/><BR/>"We only hope more schools choose<BR/>our book," said Fusosha<BR/>spokeswoman Yoko Ishimaru,<BR/>acknowledging that the textbook<BR/>could have been more popular.<BR/><BR/>Only 10 public and eight private<BR/>junior high schools use the<BR/>textbook, meaning it reaches only<BR/>0.1 percent of the 1.2 million<BR/>seventh graders in Japan.<BR/><BR/>The text's limited usage reflects<BR/>many teachers' concerns over its<BR/>content.<BR/><BR/>The book covers all of Japan's<BR/>history, from ancient times to<BR/>modern. The current edition has<BR/>236 pages, of which only about 20<BR/>cover the 1920-1945 period, the<BR/>height of Japanese expansionism.<BR/><BR/>But those 20 pages are highly<BR/>inflammatory, with passages<BR/>defending Japan's militarism as an<BR/>attempt to liberate Asia from<BR/>western colonialism and claiming<BR/>that resource-poor Japan was<BR/>pushed into a corner and used<BR/>aggression as a last resort.<BR/>Similar logic was used by Japan's<BR/>wartime leaders.<BR/><BR/>Critics of the text acknowledge<BR/>that it is farther right than<BR/>most, but say it underscores a<BR/>disturbing, broader trend.<BR/><BR/>"All history textbooks are<BR/>shifting their focus away from<BR/>Japan's wartime atrocities," said<BR/>Mikio Someya, a spokesman for the<BR/>leftist Japan Teachers'<BR/>Association, the leading teachers'<BR/>union in Japan.<BR/><BR/>For example, he said, none of the<BR/>textbooks approved this month make<BR/>any mention of Japan's official<BR/>role in establishing front-line<BR/>brothels during the war.<BR/>Historians say as many as 200,000<BR/>women from Korea, China, the<BR/>Philippines, Taiwan and the<BR/>Netherlands were forced into<BR/>sexual slavery for Japanese<BR/>soldiers.<BR/><BR/>Japan's military also seized up to<BR/>800,000 men from China, Korea and<BR/>other Asian countries in the early<BR/>1900s and shipped them to Japan to<BR/>work in coal mines and ports under<BR/>brutal conditions.<BR/><BR/>Tokyo has acknowledged its wartime<BR/>offenses, but refuses to<BR/>compensate victims directly or<BR/>apologize, saying all<BR/>government-level compensation was<BR/>settled by postwar treaties.<BR/><BR/>Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro<BR/>Koizumi has also angered many<BR/>Chinese and Koreans by repeatedly<BR/>paying his respects at a Shinto<BR/>shrine honoring Japan's war dead,<BR/>including several war criminals.<BR/><BR/>Officials say the criticism of its<BR/>textbook screening process -- and<BR/>decision to approve the book in<BR/>question -- is unfair.<BR/><BR/>They claim screening is intended<BR/>only to ensure that textbooks do<BR/>not contain factual errors or<BR/>express interpretations of history<BR/>that go beyond what most scholars<BR/>would consider defensible. It is<BR/>not, they say, intended to mean<BR/>the government agrees with<BR/>everything on every page.<BR/><BR/>Critics, however, argue that the<BR/>process bolsters the government's<BR/>own right-leaning bias.<BR/><BR/>"They are approved because their<BR/>contents reflect the views of the<BR/>government and conservative ruling<BR/>party members," said Yoshifumi<BR/>Tawara, who heads Children and<BR/>Textbooks Japan Network 21, a<BR/>liberal activist group. "I think<BR/>textbook authors are avoiding<BR/>controversial topics."<BR/><BR/>Many Japanese sympathize with<BR/>concerns over the way their<BR/>history is taught, but believe the<BR/>reaction in China has been<BR/>excessive.<BR/><BR/>"I don't remember studying the war<BR/>much in school," said Akiko<BR/>Okumura, a 24-year-old company<BR/>employee in Tokyo.<BR/><BR/>"I understand the Chinese<BR/>position, but I don't think it is<BR/>right for them to direct their<BR/>anger at Japanese people in China<BR/>or to boycott Japanese goods."<BR/><BR/>Copyright 2005 The Associated<BR/>Press. All rights reserved.This<BR/>material may not be published,<BR/>broadcast, rewritten, or<BR/>redistributed.<BR/><BR/>What Chinese textbooks don't say<BR/><BR/>Some things you won't find in<BR/>Chinese history<BR/>textbooks: the 1989 democracy<BR/>movement, the millions who died in<BR/>a famine caused by misguided<BR/>communist policies or China's<BR/>military attacks on India and<BR/>Vietnam.<BR/><BR/>As China criticizes Japan for new<BR/>textbooks that critics say<BR/>minimize wartime abuses like the<BR/>Japanese military forcing Asian<BR/>women into sexual slavery,<BR/>Beijing's own schoolbooks have<BR/>significant omissions about the<BR/>communist system's own history and<BR/>relations with its neighbors.<BR/><BR/>"With rising Chinese nationalism,<BR/>the efforts to rewrite history, to<BR/>reinterpret history according to<BR/>the demands of nationalism have<BR/>become a major national pastime,"<BR/>said Maochun Yu, a history<BR/>professor at the U.S. Naval<BR/>Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.<BR/><BR/>Experts say China's textbooks are<BR/>written to heighten a sense of<BR/>national victimhood and glorify<BR/>the Communist Party that seized<BR/>power in a 1949 revolution and<BR/>lashes out at any threat to its<BR/>rule.<BR/><BR/>The books describe those who died<BR/>fighting Japan and other outsiders<BR/>as having "gloriously sacrificed"<BR/>themselves for China.<BR/><BR/>Propaganda paintings reproduced in<BR/>schoolbooks show Chinese<BR/>struggling against foreign<BR/>invaders -- poses imitated by<BR/>protesters who threw rocks at the<BR/>Japanese Embassy in Beijing over<BR/>the weekend during violent<BR/>anti-Japanese demonstrations in<BR/>several Chinese cities.<BR/><BR/>An eighth-grade history book used<BR/>in Shanghai, China's most<BR/>cosmopolitan city, repeatedly<BR/>refers to Japanese by an insulting<BR/>phrase that roughly translates as<BR/>"Jap bandits."<BR/><BR/>The book focuses on Japanese<BR/>atrocities and repeats China's<BR/>claim that 35 million Chinese died<BR/>or were injured during their<BR/>1937-45 war.<BR/><BR/>"Wherever the Japanese army went,<BR/>they burned, killed, stole and<BR/>plundered," the book says. "There<BR/>was no wickedness they didn't<BR/>commit."<BR/><BR/>Omissions of major events appear<BR/>aimed at shoring up China's image<BR/>of itself as a non-aggressor,<BR/>especially since the 1949<BR/>revolution.<BR/><BR/>The books don't mention the brief<BR/>but bloody 1962 border war with<BR/>India that broke out when Chinese<BR/>troops attacked Indian positions<BR/>to enforce territorial claims.<BR/><BR/>There is nothing on the 1979 war<BR/>when Chinese troops attacked<BR/>Vietnam. The assault was ordered<BR/>to punish Hanoi for ousting the<BR/>murderous Khmer Rouge regime in<BR/>Cambodia, which was an ally of<BR/>Beijing.<BR/><BR/>Also missing:<BR/><BR/>• The 1989 crackdown on democracy<BR/>demonstrations, when Chinese<BR/>troops killed hundreds and<BR/>possibly thousands of unarmed<BR/>protesters.<BR/><BR/>• The estimated 30 million Chinese<BR/>who starved to death during the<BR/>1958-61 "Great Leap Forward,"<BR/>revolutionary leader Mao Zedong's<BR/>attempt to speed up China's farm<BR/>and factory output through mass<BR/>collectivization.<BR/><BR/>Textbooks gloss over ally North<BR/>Korea's invasion of South Korea at<BR/>the start of the 1950-53 Korean<BR/>War, a conflict that drew in<BR/>troops from the United States and<BR/>other countries on the side of the<BR/>South and China's army in support<BR/>of the North.<BR/><BR/>The texts say only that "civil war<BR/>broke out," without mentioning how<BR/>it started. America is portrayed<BR/>as an invader that forced Beijing<BR/>to intervene by threatening<BR/>Chinese territory.<BR/><BR/>A seventh-grade text also accuses<BR/>the U.S. military of using<BR/>biological weapons during the<BR/>Korean War, repeating a claim made<BR/>by China, North Korea and the<BR/>former Soviet Union during the<BR/>Cold War but never proven.<BR/><BR/>While Japan's distortions of its<BR/>history appear driven by a<BR/>reluctance to accept shame,<BR/>China's are aimed at preserving<BR/>communist rule, said Sin-ming<BR/>Shaw, a China scholar at Oxford<BR/>University in England.<BR/><BR/>"Not owning up is a calculated<BR/>political policy," Shaw said.<BR/><BR/>end of quotesAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17323738274259327790noreply@blogger.com