S.Korean Parties Unite Against Japanese Distortion of HistorySouth Korean political parties Tuesday expressed indignation and concerns over the Japanese government's approval of middle school history textbooks that beautify Japan's wartime atrocities.The ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and its ruling coalition partner the United Liberal Democrats (ULD) decided to join hands with the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) to pass a unified resolution condemning approval of the distorted history textbooks and calling for rectification. The MDP and ULD also decided to take up the issue at the next south Korea-Japan Parliamentarians Union meeting early next month. Lee Nak-yon, chairman of the MDP's policy coordination committee, said even if the Japanese government tried to rectify the distortions, the books still contain lots of fallacies, a self-centered way of thinking, a sense of national superiority and bias against Asian neighbors. ULD Honorary President Kim Jong-pil called the passage of the controversial books "greatly disappointing." GNP spokesman Kwon Chul-hyun called on the South Korean government to take all possible steps to press Japan to revise the textbooks. Early Tuesday, the Japanese Education Ministry announced that eight history textbooks offered by eight publishers have passed official review. However, the revised textbooks carry lots of distortion of history or whitewash of Japanese wartime atrocities. |
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