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Modern Japan’s War Crime

Japan Hushing up its Infamous Past History

Korean residents living in U.S. hold demonstration in front of Japanese Embassy in Los Angeles demanding an apology and compensation for Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Ko Dae Jun

PK staff reporter

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During two days of talks in the Chinese capital, the DPRK and Japan held this year’s third round of normalization talks. However the talks ended without producing any tangible result, with the two sides agreeing only to continue making effort to establish diplomatic ties.

In the talks between the two countries, the main focus was on whether Japan showed its sincere attitude to the DPRK’s demand for an apology and compensation for Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The Japanese negotiator declined to disclose the details of the talks in Beijing. However, judging from this year’s second round of normalization talks, Japan regards the sincere attitude demanded by the DPRK only as paying compensations such as it did to south Korea to settle the past. But things seemed not to be so simple.

Lee Joung Bin, south Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, expressed his concern that Japanese textbook publishers are now applying to the Education Ministry for the screening of their revised junior high school history textbooks, which contain passages justifying the annexation of south Korea by Japan. He expressed this concern during his talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Nov. 6. Earlier on, south Korean newspaper Choson Ilbo on Oct. 28th reported that south Korean ambassador to Japan Choi Sang Ryong also expressed his concern about the problems regarding Japanese history and civic education textbooks, saying, “I can not sleep well these days.”

It seemed that the two south Korean government official’s concern had something to do with the fact that no positive result was produced at the DPRK-Japan talks in Beijing.

At present, screening of junior high school history textbooks according to the new education curriculum that will come into effect in April 2002, is already underway.

Some south Korean historians who have been studying Japanese history textbooks and education from the 1960s said, “it is since 1968 up to now that Japanese history textbooks have been dealing with the Japanese Emperor and the war in a way contrary to historical fact,” and continued, “a strong political criticism will be expressed by Asian countries sooner or later if this erroneous attitude continues.”

In 1982, a textbook issue provoked a backlash from north and south Korea, China and other Asian countries - the Japanese text books preferred the wording of Japan’s “Advance” to its “Aggression” – and the so-called “Textbook Issue” had spread throughout Asian counties.

This criticism by Asian countries and efforts on the part of Japanese who were opposed to the wording attained some effect and content and descriptions in the textbooks were revised for the better to some extent.

In the 1990s, most Japanese history textbooks described the realities of Japanese colonial rule and facts about its aggressive war - “Comfort Women,” Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, wartime forced labor, and massacres in East Asian countries.

But the present situation regarding the text issue has changed from the time when these descriptions were improved.

There are some indications that Japanese government and the Ministry of Education are putting pressures to bear on textbook publishers, urging them to delete passages from their textbooks concerning Japan’s aggressive acts (Yoshihumi Tawara, Director General of Children and Textbooks Japan Network21) http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kyokasho/net21/english_contents.htm

In June 1998, the then Japanese Minister of Education Machimura Nobutaka, responded to questions in the Diet, stating that ‘sections in modern and contemporary history textbooks had been “changed.”

But now, many important parts of these revisions are about to be deleted from most history textbooks. The plain cover drafts (submitted for screening to the Ministry of Education by 7 companies publishing history textbooks) concerning modern Japanese history, have been changed for the worse, and it is clear that many of these draft texts resemble the textbooks of twenty years ago.

If we examine these draft textbooks, we will see that references to “Comfort Women” are not found in 4 out of 7 the draft textbooks. Furthermore, and of the drafts which retain references to “Comfort Women,” only 2 place these references in the sections about “15 Year Japan–China War, Asia–pacific War” while one of the three drafts refer only to “Comfort Women,” while the two other mention “comfort stations.” Furthermore, the reality of colonial domination is treated in vague terms, and references to aggression in Asia are greatly reduced.

Many countries, which suffered Japanese aggression in the past, are deeply concerned about the fact that the Japanese government has a hand in this move to close public eyes from history.

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