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Taiwan lodges complaint about Japanese history book

Taiwan officials said yesterday that they have lodged a formal complaint with Tokyo over a controversial history textbook that critics say glosses over Japan's wartime aggression.

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement that the "inappropriate content" in the new high-school textbook, which will go into use in April next year, should be revised.

"It will not only give an incorrect account of history to Japan's next generation, but also seriously affect the friendly ties between the people of the two countries," the statement said. "We urge Japan to recognize historical facts and not to hurt the feelings of its neighboring countries again," it said.

The statement specifically listed the following historical inaccuracies in the textbook. First, it glorifies warfare, promoting the idea that Japan's role as the aggressor in World War II had the beneficial effect of hastening the end of European colonialism throughout Southeast Asia and making Asian nations independent. Second, it downplays the Nanking Massacre of 1937, in which at least 300,000 Chinese lost their lives, by calling the massacre an "incident" and avoiding the question of how many were killed. Third, it glosses over the issue of the comfort women by avoiding mention of the fact that women were forcibly conscripted as prostitutes for the military in violation of their basic human rights.

The Great Chinese Battle Line (大中華統一陣線), a pro-unification organization in Taiwan, issued its own, less restrained reaction to the textbook. Decrying the long history of invasion, plunder, rape, massacre, and poisoning by Japanese imperialists in China, they described the tendency of extreme right-wing politicians in Japan to distort history using an old Chinese expression: "Dogs can't kick the habit of eating shit."

China and South Korea both lambasted the Japanese government's decision to approve the textbook, but Japan said on Wednesday it would not bow to foreign pressure to bar schools from using the new textbook.

Meanwhile, Akinori Takamori, one of the textbook's 10 co-authors defended the book, saying it reflects a view of history shared by many Japanese. "Past textbooks have placated China and South Korea's historical views," said Takamori, who teaches Japanese literature at Tokyo's Kokugakuin University. "It's childish for China and South Korea to get upset over a textbook which does not agree 100 percent with their historical viewpoint."
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