Japan rewriting history books

[Martinus]

Hearts and minds

Japan reviews history textbooks for its schoolchildren, and riles its neighbours
Apr 10th 2015 | SEOUL AND TOKYO | Asia
Timekeeper

LAST year, Japan's education minister, Hakubun Shimomura, told The Economist that he wanted the nation's children to be taught what he saw as "correct" views of history and territory. He has in the past questioned Japan's commitment to the Murayama statement of 1995, which expresses remorse to Asia for the country's wartime evils. And he argues there is no legitimate dispute over the Senkaku islands (which China calls the Diaoyu islands) in the East China Sea, as they belong to Japan.

The minister is making good on his pledge to reinterpret the past. This week, after a regular screening of textbooks for secondary-school use, it emerged that every one of the geography, history and civics books approved by Mr Shimomura's ministry stresses the government's position on Japan's territorial disputes with its neighbours. Japanese schoolchildren will now learn that the Senkakus, as well as the Takeshima islands (occupied by South Korea, which calls them Dokdo), are Japan's "inherent" territory. The publishers of some of the approved textbooks have doubled the number of references to territorial spats; 13 of them state that South Korea is "illegally occupying" Dokdo, up from four in 2011.

Some history textbooks also dilute or expunge references to Japanese war crimes, for instance by swapping out the word "massacre" in reference to the atrocities committed in Nanjing in 1937, in favour of "incident". One of the publishers was persuaded to delete photographs and testimony of Asian women who were corralled into brothels run by the Japanese army. The revised textbook says the government found no evidence to prove that the so-called "comfort women" had been taken there by force.

The textbook changes reflect new teaching guidelines set by the education ministry last year: these allow for books to be disqualified if they deviate too far from the government's official position, or from the goals outlined in basic education-policy. That policy was revised for the first time in 2007 to make nurturing "love of country" an educational objective, under then-prime minister Shinzo Abe, during his brief first term.

Mr Abe, who entered office for a second term in 2012, speaks of overturning Japan's "post-war regime", to relieve the country of the guilt of its imperialist past and make it proud again. He has long been unhappy about what he and other conservatives call Japan's "self-deprecating" education system, a product of reforms carried out during America's occupation from 1945 to 1952. A key objective of his Liberal Democratic Party, since its foundation 60 years ago, has been to reverse these reforms, says Yoshifumi Tawara, head of a civic group that monitors textbooks; now, he says, the LDP has the political power to do so.

The prospect of an international tit-for-tat war over young minds looms. In South Korea, the ministries of gender equality and education responded by announcing that they would distribute supplementary textbooks on the comfort women for use in primary and secondary schools. All history teachers will also be given dedicated training on the history of the wartime brothels (though it remains the prerogative of schools whether to beef up their teaching on it). The ruling party has called for pupils to spend yet more hours studying Dokdo. In China, primary and secondary schools already study the Japanese invasions of the 1930s and 1940s extensively; this year a compulsory text on the Nanjing massacre was adopted for use in all its classrooms.

This latest round in the region's textbook tussle also threatens to wreck a tentative rapprochement between its three leading powers, whose foreign ministers met in March for the first time since 2012. It does not help that last month Japan's foreign ministry removed from its website a reference to South Korea which had described it as sharing Japan's "basic values of liberty, democracy and market economy".

Asked about his neighbours' angry response to the Japanese revisions, Mr Shimomura said that his government was merely trying to strike a "balance" between its views and those of others. Mr Abe will visit Washington later this month to address a joint session of Congress. Some think he could face questions on his definition of balance. But many Americans have not yet realised that Mr Abe is a "true believer" in these matters, says Daniel Sneider of Stanford University, who studies Asia's textbook battles. The prime minister makes compromises as a politician, says Mr Sneider, but he will not waver from his long-term goal of bringing the post-war era to a close.

Disgusting nation.

[Monoriu]

This isn't exactly news.  Has been happening since WWII. 

[jimmy olsen]

This isn't exactly news.  Has been happening since WWII.

There's been major backsliding since the 90's.

[Jaron]

We must not allow this! We should provide free copies of EU2 to all Japanese students.

[Siege]

Worthy adversary.

[The Brain]

History is an ugly mistress. Should we ban makeup? Yes the Japanese did some questionable things during that era, but who here has never been involved in an incident?

To the Oriental it's all about face, and what an inscrutable face it is. Not for him Occidental self-emasculation. The Yamato race is guilty of being proud. Should we really pass sentence?

[Josquius]

Japanese schoolchildren will now learn that the Senkakus, as well as the Takeshima islands (occupied by South Korea, which calls them Dokdo), are Japan's "inherent" territory. The publishers of some of the approved textbooks have doubled the number of references to territorial spats; 13 of them state that South Korea is "illegally occupying" Dokdo, up from four in 2011.

The Senkakus are without a doubt Japanese. They however behave in a pretty grown up and civil way about it. They've already reached an agreement with Taiwan about the islands. China of course isn't interested.
And South Korea's occupation of the Liancourts is illegal and quite thoroughly what the international community would brand today as a grade A dick move.
Korea make a far bigger nationalist stink about the Liancourts than Japan does. You see mention of them everywhere in Seoul; models in subway stations, restaurants named after them, adverts for tours to visit them in the name of nationalist awesomeness, etc...
In Japan it took until I went to the prefecture which Japan claims includes them that I finally saw them mentioned...and there only as part of a map quite neutrally marking them as an insignificant part of some town.

That's a big part of what gives such views the pitiful amount of ammunition they do have in Japan; there's this big idea in Japan that Korea and China are out there fighting on the world stage to advertise their views and trick people into accepting them as fact, whilst Japan just sits by and does nothing.
If Japan were to give up its right to the Liancourts then whilst the Japanese public would shrug their shoulders and go 'meh' the Koreans would be dancing on the streets and pushing for some other old wound to be opened up.

Some history textbooks also dilute or expunge references to Japanese war crimes, for instance by swapping out the word "massacre" in reference to the atrocities committed in Nanjing in 1937, in favour of "incident". One of the publishers was persuaded to delete photographs and testimony of Asian women who were corralled into brothels run by the Japanese army. The revised textbook says the government found no evidence to prove that the so-called "comfort women" had been taken there by force.

China hasn't helped itself on this one.
Nanjing was horrific, nobody but a select group of idiots, even in Japan, doubts that. But China does lie. It doesn't really need to considering how bad it actually was but it does feel the need to exaggerate and fabricate evidence. Rather than seeking to use their shared horrible history to try and build peaceful relations with Japan it uses it as an excuse to whip up the population into nationalist fervour.
This really makes the Japanese right rather paranoid about accepting anything they say.

The prospect of an international tit-for-tat war over young minds looms. In South Korea, the ministries of gender equality and education responded by announcing that they would distribute supplementary textbooks on the comfort women for use in primary and secondary schools. All history teachers will also be given dedicated training on the history of the wartime brothels (though it remains the prerogative of schools whether to beef up their teaching on it). The ruling party has called for pupils to spend yet more hours studying Dokdo.

Yeah, fuck you Korea. Why don't you compensate the comfort women you used yourself before trying to shake down the Japanese government for more money.
And nobody gives a crap about your rocks. They should have been blasted to dust when the US navy had the chance.

[Valmy]

Wait entire textbooks just about the comfort women? That might be a bit of an overkill.

[grumbler]

Tyr as a Japanese Chauvin is hilarious.

The Japanese dance to avoid the shame of their own history is a hoot.  True, the exaggerations of the Chinese and lorean politicians trying to capitalize on the fact that the Japanese are unrepentant about their country's horrific racism and resulting genocides are also hilarious, but they, at least, have some excuse.  Two fucking bombs didn't bring Japan to its senses and make it pretend to be a nation of adults, so I doubt that anything short of two or three more will, but I salute Tyr's efforts to shove his head up his ass over Japan.

I admire many things about Japan and the Japanese, but their attitude towards"history" isn't one of them.

[Lettow77]

 The Japanese are mostly adorable in their interpretations of history. War is a terrible, naughty thing that happened to us! It must never happen again! Peace is the only way!


Edit: a subcomponent of this endearing outlook is of course appalling ignorance. For all the hub-bub about the Nanjing massacre, neither my wife, her mother, or brother had ever heard of it- although her father had, and held such pedantic knowledge proudly above his family. It's stuff like that by which you get to be the paterfamilias.

[Martinus]

Why is it always the biggest losers who are so fascinated by the Japanese culture?

[The Brain]

Why is it always the biggest losers who are so fascinated by the Japanese culture?

We admire its purity.

[Eddie Teach]

Why is it always the biggest losers who are so fascinated by the Japanese culture?

Sumo?

[Admiral Yi]

China hasn't helped itself on this one.
Nanjing was horrific, nobody but a select group of idiots, even in Japan, doubts that. But China does lie.

What are you talking about?

Yeah, fuck you Korea. Why don't you compensate the comfort women you used yourself before trying to shake down the Japanese government for more money.

What are you talking about?

[Sheilbh]

Why is it always the biggest losers who are so fascinated by the Japanese culture?

Anime? Myth of submissive women? Geek machismo?