In our previous story of "Japan’s Right Turn" series, we mentioned Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka. In this story, we will introduce Japanese history textbooks and the fight to whitewash the actions of Japan during World War II.
A letter from a senior Japanese person.
In June 6th’s Asahi Shimbun Newpaper, there was a letter from an 80 year-old woman who lives in Fukoshima Prefecture.
She said she was worried about the non-objective descriptions in Japan’s history textbooks.
Let’s take a look at a Japanese textbook’s depiction of the Nanking Massacre. It was published by the right-wing Fusosha Publishers.
In it, it says that "Many Chinese soldiers were killed and injured by the Japanese army. But there are still many doubts about the number killed."
But, some leaders think even this should be "toned down".
"The review standard for textbooks failed in implementing the spirit of the amendment of the Fundamental Law of Education," Shinzo Abe said.
The current review standard for history textbooks requires consideration of neighbouring nations’ feelings about certain historical events.
Japan’s conservative politicians have argued about changing the standard for a long time.
If the standard were changed, a sentence like "Japanese aggression towards China" in the textbook could be changed simply to "Japan entered China".
This is not the first time that Abe has tried to meddle with Japan’s textbook review process.
In 2006, Abe was sued by 193 citizens from Japan and South Korea. He was accused of intervening in the the review process of Japan’s new history textbook.
Abe’s behaviour has been criticized by both Japanese and Chinese scholars.
Professor Amako Satoshi from Waseda University says history text books should be loyal to historical facts. It can not say Japan’s intention in the Pacific Ocean War was to liberate Asia, and hide its real purpose of seeking hegemony."
Yang Bojiang, a research fellow from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says "Many wrong viewpoints have long affected Japanese society’s understanding of history. Now there are history textbook and education problems. If this situation continues to develop it will distort Japanese understanding of history and make it isolated from the world community.