The Japanese association, Fushun Miracle Successor, issued a
statement in Beijing on Wednesday condemning Japanese leaders'
annual Yasukuni Shrine visits and Japan's "distorted history
textbooks" and called for increased communication between China and
Japan.
"The relationship between China and Japan now faces its hardest
challenge since official diplomatic relations were established in
1972," the statement said.
"Japanese leaders should acknowledge the country's aggressive
military history not just on paper, but should seek to correct its
wartime crimes to improve the credibility of the Japanese
government," it said.
It also denounced the Japanese right wing's distortion of the
country's history textbooks and appealed to Japanese schools not to
use the "twisted" book.
"We are here to let Chinese people know that not all Japanese
agree with what the politicians say and do," said Kumagai
Shinitirou, secretary general of the association. "Those people who
deny the truth represent only a small number of Japanese
people."
Japan's attitude towards its past "is directly related to its
future and the image that remains in the hearts of the people of
its Asian neighbors. Japan cannot survive without sincere
introspection," he said.
The 500-member association was established in 2002 to replace
the association of the Japanese returned from China, which was
setup in 1957 by prisoners of war once detained in China, at Fushun
and Taiyuan, to safeguard peace and promote Sino-Japanese
relations.
(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2005)
