Conference Held in Tokyo to Protest Contentious History Textbook

Some 280 people from Japan and its Asian neighbors gathered in Tokyo Sunday to protest a controversial Japanese history textbook and explore ways to jointly compile a regional history overcoming differences in interpretations, Kyodo News reported.

Participants in the two-day Asian Solidarity Conference on Textbook Issues in Japan, including some 30 representatives from four Asian countries and Taiwan, said the recently approved textbook, authored by some Japanese nationalist historians, is intended to make Japan once more a militarist state, the report said.

The Tokyo conference, subtitled "No! to the Distorted History Textbook," was organized by Japanese civic groups in a bid to dissuade Japan's local education boards from adopting the textbook, which glosses over Japan's military aggression before and during World War II, for use in junior high schools.

In April, the Japanese government approved the textbook for classroom use from April next year after a number of revisions were made to it. Local education boards across Japan are to decide by August 15 whether to choose it from among several government-authorized books for use in local public schools.

"Where will Japan go with such a textbook to educate children? Half a century has passed since the end of World War II, but various problems remain unsolved. I want Japanese to sincerely regret the past and turn their eyes to the future," the report quoted Su Zhiliang, a professor at Shanghai Teachers University, as saying.

Susan Macabuag from the Philippines said the textbook tries to conceal historical facts and represents Japan's attempt to evade its wartime responsibilities, describing the situation as " alarming."

Kim Yun Ok, a member of a South Korean group supporting women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military, criticized Japan's approach to history education in comparison with Germany, noting that German children are taught about the Holocaust and other atrocities committed by the Nazis.

Yayori Matsui, leader of Violence Against Women in War Network Japan, an organizer of the meeting, said she hopes the conference will be a starting point for Asian countries to collaborate on history issues in the way Germany has engaged in dialogue with Poland and Israel.






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