Among heated international protests, Japan's Ministry of
Education approved a new edition of a history textbook that has
been criticized as glorifying Japan's invasion of neighboring
countries and covering up wartime crimes.
The friction between Japan and its neighbors over the issue of
history textbooks goes back to the early 1980s.
"Each time Japan has given the green light to history textbooks
with distorted wartime facts, it has aroused fury and indignation
from the countries it once invaded," said Ma Junwei, a researcher
with the China Institute of Contemporary International
Relations.
Ma believes that Japan's frequent revisions of its history
textbooks are connected with its overall development strategy.
"As the world's second largest economy, Japan is not satisfied
with its current international political status and is eager to
shake off its guilt as a loser in World War II. But it has not
found a shortcut to becoming a political giant," Ma said.
Japan's right-wing groups are the primary force pushing the
controversial textbooks, Ma stated.
The textbook at the center of the storm was published by Fuso
Publishing and written by the Society for History Textbook
Reform.
Chinese historians say that although 120 revisions were made to
the book before it received official approval, "their nature of
denying historical facts and glorifying invasion has remained
unchanged."
They cited as a typical expression of the textbook's "deliberate
distortion of history" the total absence or ambiguous description
of the notorious Nanjing Massacre in December 1937, when Japanese
troops slaughtered more than 300,000 civilians and unarmed soldiers
after capturing the city, then China's capital.
"The textbook issue is only one segment of the whole Japanese
rightist movement," said Shen Jiru, a researcher with the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences.
He said that when such distorted versions of history are widely
accepted by the public, the ultrarightists will encounter few
restrictions. This would undoubtedly endanger the future of Japan
and Asia.
On Wednesday, the People's Daily published an editorial
comparing Japan with Germany. It noted that while both Japan and
Germany are economic giants, the international community views the
two quite differently, largely because of their widely divergent
attitudes toward their wartime actions.
"Such a textbook . . . will not bring Japan pride, trust and
respect. It can only bring Japan suspicion, query, and fury," the
article said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2005)