Posted on 08/27/2004 4:05:18 PM PDT by Fishing-guy
On August 26, the Tokyo Education Board adopted a new public school history textbook filled with nationalistic bias involving distortions of historical facts and exoneration of the Japanese invasion of Asian countries and the rounding-up of women in occupied areas for use as sex slaves for its military personnel.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.donga.com ...
I'm not feeling any better...
There's this nagging feeling that our enemies are conspiring against us.
Chapter 3: "Rape of Nanking: They had it coming".
That's what nations do. End of story
I read my daughter's JHS textbook a couple of years ago , and it isn't a whole lot different than this new one . Of course I gave her the TRUE story .
I am more worried about people who don't learn from history and go to great extend to rationalize their atrocities.
Pretty soon, they are going to blame US for starting WWII, although some of them are already doing it.
Including Pat Buchanan.
I'm OK with that, as long as they remember who ended it and how.
That's the problem. They blame US for committing atrocity by dropping the atomic bombs. Of course, their textbooks never forget to mention that.
I've also had lefty teachers back in college, who would quote both him and people like Chomsky and others to blame the U.S.
I'd wait another couple generations before I'd expect japan to teach a "fair" account of WW2. They're no better than us.
Glossing over negative aspects of Japanese past actions gives reason to suspect that they still haven't learned. As I recall, Shinto holds that the Japanese people are the Divinely Chosen People of the Pacific -- demi-gods among ordinary men. I wondered how much of it is still believed by the Japanese.
I have long advocated that they Japanese pay for, and man thier own self-defense, including building a small navy [so that we can be spared the cost]. From what I understand, there is still a great deal of suspicion of the Japanese by her neighbors. Any potential Japanese offensive military capability -- especially a navy -- is still greatly opposed in the Pacific Rim.
A few years back, my mother worked for a Japanese telecommunication company here in Metro DC. She remarked to me how very few Occidentals held senior positions within the company. There was a palpable condecension toward non-Japanese as well, she added.
BTW, anyone know how German textbooks compare when covering WWII?
" I'd wait another couple generations before I'd expect japan to teach a "fair" account of WW2. They're no better than us. "
Never happen - trust me .
Plenty of blame to go around for this particular war. The Mexicans thought they would roll over the infidel gringos and large numbers of mostly southern Americans were ridiculously jingoistic.
Representative Lincoln voted against the Declaration of War, but then in a reverse of John Kerry, voted for supplies for the troops.
Why worry? Anything that gets China more concerned about defending itself and less concerned about acquiring new territories (like Taiwan) is a good thing. If the Japs want to believe that China and Korea "deserved it", so be it, that's their right.
The only useful blame for a war belongs on those who let themselves get too weak to deter it.
BTW, I think most of the Japanese interred in camps during the War were employed in the West Coast air defense industry and were removed until the dust settled.
Japan has been a very isolated and and nationalistic nation. It is common for them to look down on other nationalities as being inferior.
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