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Falsification of History Textbook

The recent very strong reactions, i.e. large scale of protests against Japan and millions signed the online petition to U.N., from the people of Asia, especially from China and S.Korea, have shown that even though the war ended in Asia 60 years ago, the bitter issue of Japanese War Crimes committed before and during that war has clearly not been resolved.

But, vandalism is never an appropriate way to express one's anger. The violence against Japanese people and property is absolutely wrong because the Japanese Government does NOT equal to the Japanese People. One can despise a Government, but never dis-respect their people.

In fact, in the past years, it is the conscientious and courageous Japanese individuals, historians, lawyers, human rights activists, pacifists, teachers, doctors and former Japanese soldiers who brought forward many of the War Crime Cases against their own government. Some are even risking their own lives. They have contributed the most and donated much time and money to help the Chinese and Korean victims.

The Textbook was first approved by Japanese Government screening panel 4 years ago and had already caused extensive outcry in 2001 from neighbouring WWII vicitimized countries. China condemned Japan 'absurd' rewrite of WWII in 2001. Japanese education ministry said 137 changes had been made after widespread protests from Korea and China in 2001.

Dec. 2000 Appeal by Japanese Historians and History Educators - We cannot entrust History Education to a Textbook that distorts History.

Though given away for free, the Government approved nationalist New History Textbook is used only by 18 junior high schools. But it has caused outrages and been denounced by many Japanese conscientious educators and liberals in Japan.

It also underscores a disturbing broader trend in recent years. Japan's largest national newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun has called on its readers to celebrate the new Textbooks of cutting out all mentions about the Sex Slaves.

" All history textbooks are shifting their focus away from Japan's wartime atrocities," said Mikio Someya, spokesman for Japan Teachers' Association, the leading teachers' union in Japan.

"They are approved because their contents reflect the views of the government and conservative ruling party members." said Yoshifumi Tawara, who heads Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21.

The 2005 revised edition of Japanese History textbook distorts even more than the 2001 Edition: excises all mention of Sex Slaves, portraying Japan as more victim than aggressor; claims Japan had "no choice" but to occupy the Korea;

The new textbook questions Nanjing Massacre and says China provoked war : downplaying "21 Humiliating Demands".

Although still suffering as a Western colonial victim, during W.W.I, China nearly 100,000 laborers to help the allies in France; about 2,500 died. At end of W.W.I at the peace conference in Paris, China requested: do away with the privileges of imperialist foreign countries in China, cancel the Japanese "21 Humiliating Demands", take back the privileges in Shandong that Japan had taken from Germany.

However, not willing to give up their forced colonial privileges, U.S., Britain and France rejected China's demands. Instead, Article 156 of Treaty of Versailles transferred German concessions in Shandong, China to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China.

China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles, compounded with the Japanese 21 Humiliating Demands led directly to the first mass movement in modern Chinese history, i.e. the famous First Chinese university student movement : May 4th Movement in Beijing in 1919 and triggered a nationwide Boycott of Japanese Goods. The movement also ignited a wave of searching efforts by the intellectuals for a solution to save China from foreign colonial powers. Some advocated gradual cultural reform, while others introduced Marxism and led to the birth of the Communist Party.

15 Japanese civic groups issued a statement, " The 'dangerous' contents filling the Textbook as a whole have not changed in any essential way. There are even parts that have been revised for the worse.", down playing Nanjing Massacre, ignoring Sex Slaves, depicting Japan as aimed at liberating other Asian countries.

The Textbook has been a big problem in Japan since end of war, 32 Years History Textbook Legal Battle for details.

Recently, Japanese civic groups ran an advertisement in the Yomiuri Shimbun calling on people to reject the new textbooks

The Root cause of the bitterness is NOT the History Textbook or the bidding of U.N. Security Council which are only the triggering factors. The Real Root Cause is the Cover-Up of State-Terrorism by U.S. again Humanity. It is also the Real Solution for the people in Asia because Without the Cover-up, Japan will have to Naturally and Willingly follow the great example set by the courageous Germany.

WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab warned Asia of the Risk of Un-Digested History, " Coming from Europe where a reconciliation process has taken place, we have today a clear "European Identity", parallel to our National Identity. This has not happened here in this region. We speak a lot about Asia, but where is the "Asian Identity" ?

The "Asian Identity" could only be achieved through the only path available, i.e. through truly sincere apology, compensation, and forgiveness.

Only then, the people of Asia can truly live peacefully and harmoniously together, and only then their Asian dream of an Union similar to the European Union (EU) could be realized in the future.

Here are some specific examples in the Japanese New Junior High School History Textbooks in 2002. and Tortuous tangles over Japanese textbooks

For details, refer to Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21

1. References to "Comfort Women" have disappeared from 4 out of 7 companies' product (if we include The Society's textbooks, it would bring it to 5 out of 8 companies). Furthermore, even in those companies who have retained references to "Comfort Women", only 2 of them place those references in the "15 Year Japan-China War, Asia-Pacific War" section; the remaining company only refers to "Comfort Women" in the "Postwar Compensation" section. In addition, only 1 company actually uses the term "Comfort Women" (ianfu), while the other 2 refer to "comfort stations" (ian shisetsu). Incidentally, the 4 companies that removed "Comfort Women" references currently dominate 80% of the market.

2. References to the Nanjing Massacre (Nanjing Incident) have also been considerably rolled back. Firstly, out of 4 companies that used the term "Nanjing Massacre", 2 have switched to the term "Nanjing Incident", Three of those companies formerly used the term "massacre" in the text, but all of them now refer to "murder" (satsugai) or "killing" (koroshita). Furthermore, while at present 6 companies refer to the numbers killed, only 2 will continue to do so, while the others will replace numbers with phrases such as "large numbers (were killed"), "many (were killed"), "a lot (were killed") (one even obligingly provides a qualifying footnote explaining that there is no agreement on the number of casualties).

3. On the Three-All Policy (Kill All, Loot All, Burn All), although 5 companies used to refer to it, only 1 will continue to do so in future, moreover the one company that referred to "Unit 731" will no longer do so.

4. References to the Battle of Okinawa have also regressed. From two pages to one, from ten lines to two and a half without its own sub-heading, from seven lines to five, from seven lines to four etc, with altogether 4 companies reducing the space allocated to this topic. In addition, 2 companies have omitted references to the number of civilians killed by the Japanese army and to "Group Suicides".

Okinawa Battle had killed approx. 100,000 Japanese soldiers (including local Okinawa conscripts), 12,000 US soldiers, and 100,000 - 150,000 Okinawans civilians. About 1/3 of the population of island were killed. Total death in the Battle of Okinawa is more than the Atomic Bombs of Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined.

An military order was also issued by the Japanese commander of the 32nd Army Headquarters: "Only standard Japanese is to be spoken. Anyone speaking the Okinawan dialect is to be executed as a spy." The Okinawan culture were oppressed and people were forced into the war by Japan.

Japanese historian Ishihara Masaie has pointed out the following factors contributing to the unusual high Okinawa civilian deaths by Japanese Army :
* Okinawa civilians were tortured and killed as spies by Japanese.

* Okinawa civilians were forced or made believed into "Group Suicides" (shûdan jiketsu). They were brain-washed and believed they would be tortured, raped and killed if fall into the hands of enemy. They either took their own lives directly with the distributed hand grenades, cyanide, jumped off the Suicide Cliff, or were killed by family member, close relative or friend as part of "Group Suicides".

It was for this reason that Japanese historian Ienaga Saburo argued that the large number of "Group Suicides" should also be included in the number of Okinawa civilians killed by the Japanese Army.

Kinjo Shigeaki, an Okinawa boy who had just turned 16 at war time, describes a typical scene in the book "Japan at War: An Oral History". He described a man "had that stick in his hands, he turned into a madman. Striking his wife and children over and over again, bludgeoning them to death. That was the beginning of the tragedy I saw. As if by a chain reaction, it spread from one family to the next. We all must die that way. Everyone seemed to think so. People began to raise their hands against their loved ones......."

"My memory tells me the first one we laid hands on was Mother. Those who had blades, or scythes, cut their wrists or severed arteries in their necks. Be we didn't do it that way. We might have used a string. When we raised our hands against the mother who bore us, we wailed in our grief. I remember that. In the end we must have used stones. To the head. We took care of mother that way. Then my brother and I turned on our younger sister. Hell engulfed us there........"

When the Battle of Okinawa was ending, no wonder the surrender of large numbers of Japanese soldiers was so shocking to the Okinawa civilians in disbelief.

* Okinawa civilians were driven out of their shelters by Japanese army.

* Okinawa civilians were robbed of their food by Japanese army.

* Japanese soldiers poisoned, stabbed, or strangled many small Okinawa children to death to prevent their noise of alerting US forces to their locations. Japanese soldier often pointed rifle at Okinawan mother and ordered her to kill her baby.

* Okinawa civilians were forced evacuations to malaria-infested areas by Japanese.

* Japanese moved their military command posts to areas occupied by the Okinawa civilian evacuees.

5. There are deliberate revisions of terminology, such as "advance" (shinshitsu) instead of "invasion".

6. The reality of colonial domination is treated in vague terms, and references to aggression in Asia are greatly reduced.

After watching an unedited footage of the Battle of Okinawa from the National Archives in Washington in Hawaii, one elderly woman told Fumiko Nakamura, a 91-year-old former public school teacher that she had been reluctant to see a "Jap movie" about the war. But after Seeing the suffering of Okinawans, however, she had changed her mind. " You should show this all over the world," she said.