Int'l teaching conference damns Japanese textbooks

Int'l teaching conference damns Japanese textbooks

JOMTIEN, Thailand (AFP): Controversial textbooks accused of
whitewashing the true history of Japanese military aggression in
Asia before and during World War II were condemned Saturday by an
international conference of teachers.

Education International (EI) members unanimously approved a
resolution condemning the secondary school textbooks for their
"glorification of Japanese colonial rule and history of
aggression".

The textbooks have caused widespread anger among Japan's
neighbors for playing down events such as the 1937 Nanjing
massacre in China and the use of hundreds of thousands of Asian
women as sex slaves for Japanese troops.

Seoul and Beijing have demanded dozens of changes to the
books, but Tokyo has said it would only carry out two small
changes as there were no "clear mistakes".

The EI, which brings together some 300 teaching unions and
organizations from 155 countries, was meeting at a conference
here which is due to end on Sunday.

The resolution was put forward by a delegation from South
Korea and seconded by fellow teachers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and
Singapore.

It said the textbooks "would damage the friendly relations
among countries of the Asia-Pacific area and, moreover, have a
negative influence on history that they promote.

"We remind the Japanese government that these days the
international trend is to reflect on one's own history of wars
and violence ... as demonstrated by Germany which has made a
grave reflection of its history and given good apologies and
compensation to war victims."

EI "urges the Japanese government to immediately correct such
textbooks that glorify its wars and colonial rule while
distorting the historical truth," the resolution added.

The Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsular from 1910 to
1945 had also been presented as an era of "civilization" in the
books, said the South Korean delegation.

"The Japanese distort historical facts like their invasions in
Asia in the 20th century and during World War II," said Lee Dong
Jin, a representative of the Korean Teachers and Educational
Workers Union.

"The Japanese invaded Korea but they are still saying that it
was a kind of gift to modernize the country, simply because they
have supplied electricity and water.

"But it was a kind of aggression and Korea has suffered from
the Japanese invasion."

The books were penned by the Society for History Textbook
Reform, a group made up of avowed nationalist historians who
assert the country has become too "masochistic" in assessing its
past.

But some teachers in Japan have voiced opposition to the
books.

Norio Fukuoka, president of the Japanese Teachers Union, gave
his backing to the motion condemning the books.

"We support the resolution and we think it is very dangerous
to use these textbooks for the learning of the children," he told
AFP.

The Japanese occupation of Korea, the imperial army's invasion
of Manchuria (north east China) in the 1930s and of Taiwan at the
end of the 19th century and Japan's conduct during World War II
were still "painful" memories in the region, said the delegates.