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 History Textbooks Issue in Japan Japan's role in World War II, especially its invasion of its Asian neighbors and the suffering this caused, was not correctly described in Japanese history textbooks. This is because the Ministry of Science and Education's (formerly the Ministry of Education) textbook screening system forced textbook authors to delete or modify these descriptions. During the mid-80s, however, history textbooks in Japan began to improve and included more accurate accounts of the war with reference to the suffering its aggression had caused, due to increasing international criticism and other factors. References to the Japanese military's "comfort women" first appeared in the majority of high school history textbooks in 1994, three years after Ms KIM Hak-soon, a Korean, broke the fifty years of silence and came forward as a survivor in 1991. Then in 1997, all the junior high school history textbooks included accounts of military "comfort women". On the other hand, the mid-90s saw a growing conservative backlash against these improvements in the treatment of Japanese wartime aggression, particularly the appearance in textbooks of the "comfort women" issue. Members of LDP the ruling party, scholars and who that the war was not a war of aggression but for "the liberation of Asia", and that the Nanjing Massacre and "comfort women" are false allegation, began their systematic campaigns. Much pressure was put on textbook publishers and authors. Now as previously, four of the seven junior high textbooks that used to contain references to 'comfort women' have no reference altogether. Some of high school textbooks which used to have reference on the issue now have no reference either. For more detail: Overview of the text book and "comfort women" issue, written for shadow report for CEDAW in May 2003 by TAWARA Yoshifumi, secretary general of "Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21" Useful Links Children and Text books Japan Network 21 http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kyokasho/net21/english_contents.htm Truth in Textbooks, Freedom in Education and Peace for Children http://www.ne.jp/asahi/law/y.fujita/ts/p95_0.html The History and Function of the Strong Regulation of Textbooks Yutaka Saito, Attorney at Law http://www.ne.jp/asahi/law/y.fujita/ts/saito.html WWW Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/NanjingMassacre/NM.html#dir |
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