The Chinese side has once again demanded that the Japanese government take effective measures to correct its serious mistakes in the history textbook fabricated by rightist scholars.
An official from the Chinese Foreign Ministry called in an official of the Japanese embassy here Wednesday at the request of the Chinese government, and submitted a memorandum on the textbook issue.
The Chinese diplomat pointed out that the history textbook compiled by Japanese rightist scholars advocates imperialism, and whitewashes and denies Japan's history of aggression. And this textbook still contains serious mistakes despite 137 revisions, said the diplomat.
"Instead of reflecting on the war of aggression launched by Japanese militarists, the textbook, through history-distorting facts, tries to deny the aggressive nature of the war, mentioning only lightly and even trying to conceal the crimes committed by its militarists," the official said.
"This will seriously mislead Japanese society and the younger generation in their viewpoint on history," he added.
Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi has expressed explicitly the principled stand of the Chinese side to Japanese Ambassador Koreshige Anami, and pointed out the major mistakes in the textbook. The Chinese side has been demanding that the Japanese side correct its mistakes and translate into action its solemn statement of "facing up to history and reflecting on its aggression".
The Chinese diplomat said Chinese historians started a careful study of the textbook as soon as it was given approval by the Japanese government. They are now able to reconfirm a series of falsehoods in it, such as its attempts to shirk responsibility for launching a war of invasion against China, glorify the colonial rule of the Japanese militarists in northeast China, conceal the historical facts of the Nanjing Massacre and attack the just sentence passed on the Japanese war criminals by the Far East International Tribunal.
All these points are included in the memorandum handed in by the Chinese side Wednesday, said the official, who repeated the demand that the Japanese side should take seriously China's demand with an attitude responsible for history.
(People's Daily 05/17/2001)
