Anti-Japanese sentiment sweeps through S. Korea<\/p>\n
SEOUL (Agencies): Anti-Japanese sentiment swept South Korea on
\nTuesday after the government withdraw its ambassador to Tokyo
\namid a mounting dispute over controversial history textbooks.<\/p>\n
Amid calls for a boycott of Japanese goods, school teachers
\norganized special classes on Japan's wartime past which they have
\naccused Tokyo of erasing from the textbooks.<\/p>\n
Analysts have warned the dispute could damage the cooperation
\nneeded to stage the football World Cup 2002 finals which are
\nbeing jointly hosted by Seoul and Tokyo. World Cup organizers
\nhave refused to comment on the most serious row between the rival
\nneighbors in several years.<\/p>\n
Some 2,500 students from a Seoul elementary school staged a
\nmarch on Tuesday denouncing Japan, and effigies of a Japanese man
\nand the Rising Sun flag were burned in Seoul and other cities
\nduring street protests.<\/p>\n
The school children chanted "Don't tell lies!" and held
\nplacards calling for a boycott on Japanese products.<\/p>\n
"I'm proud of my students and their decision," said
\nschoolmaster Shin Won-Yong, standing near the parade of teenagers
\nwaving South Korean flags and shouting condemnation of the
\nJapanese books.<\/p>\n
Seoul also raised the textbook issue at the United Nations
\ncouncil on human rights in Geneva on Monday.<\/p>\n
Decades of strained relations between Japan and South Korea
\nbegan to improve in 1998, when Japan's late prime minister Keizo
\nObuchi extended a written apology to President Kim Dae-jung.
\nSeoul responded by easing restrictions on importing Japanese
\nbooks, music and other cultural products.<\/p>\n
The original draft of the book said Japan's occupation of
\nKorea from 1910 until the end of World War II was in line with
\ninternational law and described the Nanjing Massacre as being
\n"nothing on the scale of the Holocaust".<\/p>\n
Following the panel's recommendation, the publishers revised
\nthe section to make it clear that the annexation of Korea was
\ncarried out by force.<\/p>\n
It also took out the reference to the Nanjing Massacre, in
\nwhich China says an estimated 300,000 people died as Japanese
\nforces over ran the city in 1937.<\/p>\n
South Korea's ambassador to Tokyo, Choi Sang-Ryong, was due
\nback in Seoul on Tuesday after the government recalled him to
\nshow its anger over the books.<\/p>\n
And a four-member parliamentary team led by Park Sang-Cheon of
\nthe ruling Millennium Democratic Party was to fly to Japan
\nTuesday afternoon to protest Tokyo's approval of the textbooks.<\/p>\n
Tension<\/p>\n
Amid the rising tensions, Park on Monday announced the
\ncancellation of an annual conference of the Korea-Japan
\nParliamentarians' Union, which had been set for May 4-6 in Seoul.<\/p>\n
China, North Korea and Taiwan have also angrily condemned the
\nschool books that opponents say whitewash Japan's wartime record.<\/p>\n
The Japanese government decided last week to approve the books
\nwhich avoid mention of Japan's pre-World War II invasion of its
\nAsian neighbors and the forced prostitution of tens of thousands
\nof women from Korea and other Asian nations for Japanese troops.<\/p>\n
Recalling its envoy is the toughest action taken by the South
\nKorean government against Japan since President Kim came to
\noffice in 1998 promising to seek "forward looking ties" with the
\nrival country.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, South Korean teachers hit back organizing special
\nclasses on the books to be held at all South Korean schools this
\nweek.<\/p>\n
The classes would inform students of Japan's "distortions" of
\nhistory, said the Korean Federation of Teachers' Association, the
\nlargest teachers' group.<\/p>\n
Seoul newspapers predicted a cooling of Seoul-Tokyo ties
\nbecause of the dispute.<\/p>\n
"We regret the Seoul-Tokyo relationship had to deteriorate to
\nthis point," JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial.
\nIt defended the diplomatic move as "unavoidable action" but
\nwarned: "It is possible that recalling ambassador Choi may spark
\ndiplomatic discord."<\/p>\n
But Yun Duck-Min, a professor at the Institute of Foreign
\nAffairs and National Security, said it would be "undesirable" for
\nrelations to suffer so badly before the World Cup.<\/p>\n
"The successful co-hosting of the World Cup is a promise to
\nthe whole world," he said. "The textbook issue is not something
\nto be settled soon."<\/p>\n
South Korea and Japan were jointly awarded the 2002 finals by
\nfootball's international governing body FIFA in a bid to end
\ntheir fierce rivalry to become the first Asian nation to stage
\nthe world's biggest sporting event.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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