The revision of a Japanese history textbook has met strong protests from the Chinese. The Japanese military forces mass murdered more than 300,000 Chinese people in Nanjing City, east China's Jiangsu Province, during World War II. But the incident, known as the Nanjing Massacre, is being brushed over in the new editions of the history books.
Recent reports say the Japanese Education Ministry has approved the omission of a sentence in a Japanese history textbook for senior high school students. It details exactly how many people were put to death in the massacre. The sentence in the new edition, which will be used from April, says there were "many" victims instead of the originally estimated figure between tens of thousands and 400,000.
The move has been criticized by the Chinese. The curator of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial said the Japanese were simply trying to obliterate the truth about the atrocities committed by their own military.
(CCTV February 9, 2003)
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