Japan's history textbooks contain questionable information
日本教科書涉及有爭議內容

Textbooks can be an important indicator of Japan's domestic political climate, reflecting the country's political changes and social beliefs. This April, Japan approved high schools textbooks that will be used next spring. But some of the content has been drawn into question.

As the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two approaches, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his party appear to be extending their right-leaning political views into the field of education.

In some history textbooks, the Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese forces killed more than 300-thousand Chinese civilians during World War Two, previously had a brief description

"After the Japanese military occupied Nanjing, many deaths and casualties among civilians and military forces were caused"

But after the April revision, the description is changed to only "Japan occupied Nanjing in December of 1937"

COMFORT WOMEN

On the issue of so-called "Comfort women" for Japanese troops, some textbooks have deleted all reference to them. A note has been added that says (GRAPH 2) the Japanese government thinks existing documents do not directly prove Japanese military officials forcefully employed "sex slaves".

But in fact, during World War Two, the Japanese military forcefully collected more than 200-thousand women from Asia, most of them from China and South Korea.

SOVEREIGNTY

A new chapter is added in an textbook, explaining that the East China Sea Diaoyu Islands, which China claims as their own, are part of Japanese territory. A photo in the history texbook shows a China's patrol ship at Diaoyu Islands and describes it as an "intruding" vessel.

SECURITY LAWS

Some textbooks delete a phase mentioning that some Japanese domestic opinion believes allowing the country's Self-Defence forces to fight abroad may violate the constitution. Instead, they now read that Self-defence rights are protected by the UN charter.

A history teacher who has over 20 years teaching experience says the tampering with history textbook content by the Abe administration is related to their refusal to apologise for Japan's past crimes.

"They don't want to let children know that Japan conducted brutal war policies during World War Two. They want to hide all of that. Their denial is part of the post-war international order. Meanwhile, in the view of some Japanese, there was nothing wrong with World War Two militarism," said Kumagai Kenji, a retired history teacher.

Some Japanese media are criticizing the Abe administration, saying they're trying to strenthen government control over education.

And that's something that not just Japanese are worried about, but also the country's neighbors.