Okinawans protest textbook change

Okinawans gather at Kaihin Park in Ginowan City on Saturday to protest against the Japanese government's order to modify school textbooks which say the military forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II. PHOTO: AP//RYUKYU SHIMPO VIA KYODO NEWS

More than 110,000 people protested in Okinawa on Saturday against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II.

Publishers of history textbooks were ordered last December to modify sections that said the Japanese army -- faced with an impending US invasion in 1945 -- handed out grenades to residents on Okinawa and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to the Americans.

The amendment order came amid moves by Tokyo to soften brutal accounts of Japanese wartime conduct, but triggered immediate condemnation.

"We cannot bury the fact that the Japanese military was involved in the mass suicide, taking into account of the general background and testimonies that hand grenades were delivered,'' Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima told a crowd gathered at a park in Ginowan City.

About 110,000 people -- residents and politicians -- attended the rally, and a total of 5,000 others took part in two other meetings on the nearby islands of Miyako and Ishigaki on Saturday, said Yoshino Uetsu, one of the organizers.

Saturday's rally was the largest in Okinawa since the island was returned to Japan by the US in 1972, Kyodo News agency said.

Textbooks for use in Japanese schools must be screened and approved by a government-appointed panel, which can order corrections of perceived inaccuracies.

The publishers of seven textbooks, slated for use in high schools next year, had been asked to make relevant changes and submit them for approval.

An official of the Education Ministry said on Saturday that the ministry has no immediate plans concerning the amendment. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

Accounts of forced group suicides on Okinawa are backed by historical research, as well as testimonies from victims' relatives. Historians also say civilians were induced by propaganda to believe US soldiers would commit atrocities and therefore killed themselves and their families to avoid capture.