  Textbook distorting history will deprive children of future -- Akahata editorial, August 25The Tokyo Metropolitican Board of Education is bent on adopting the controversial "New History Textbook" published by Fusosha Publishers for a new junior high school which will open next April as a new type of school attached to Metropolitan Hakuo Senior High School in Tokyo's Taito Ward. The main characteristic of the "New History Textbook" edited by the "Japanese Society for Textbook Reform" is that it glosses over and justifies the former Japanese imperial government's war of aggression and colonization policy. Bringing in such a textbook to school will misguide students into a wrong direction and may deprive children of a peaceful future. Contrary to the truth and peace The "New History Textbook" is now only used in a few schools because it blatantly distorts history. For example, in the textbook's opening section entitled "What is learning history?" it states, "Learning history is to learn what people in the past thought about the past facts." It also states, "Let's stop applying the standards of good and evil to history and stop judging the past facts with the present day's morality!" In other words, the people of yesterday acted according to their beliefs. Therefore, "history" is "learning" what it was, not criticizing it with the present day's standards. Thus, the textbook tries to guide children into glorifying Japan's war of aggression. In fact, the textbook describes the Pacific War as the "Greater East-Asian War" and provides the same argument that the Imperial government argued at that time, which is, "Its war objectives were for self-existence and self-defense, to liberate Asian nationals from Western control, and to construct the 'Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere." However, different from the Imperial government's official propaganda, its true "war objectives" were to control other Asian countries and their resources. These are indisputable facts of history. It also states, "The Japanese government in 1910 thought that annexation of Korea was a necessary step to defend Japan and the interests of Manchuria," thus justifying Japan's colonization of Korea as something inevitable in the international circumstances at the time. If children are forced to learn history by such a textbook, they will get the notion that the Japanese war of aggression and the colonization of other countries were just and unavoidable. The Fundamental Law of Education in its beginning states that the aim of education is an "endeavor to bring up the people who love truth and peace". The Law begins as follows: "Having established the Constitution of Japan, we have shown our resolution to contribute to the world and welfare of humanity by building a democratic and cultural state. The realization of this idea shall depend fundamentally on the power of education." The kind of education which ignores the achievements of academic research of history and teach children that the war of aggression was justifiable is opposite to "bringing up the people who love truth and peace." 'Give your life' The forces demanding the adoption of the textbook containing the falsified history also show hostility to the Constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education, and are maneuvering so that these laws will be adversely revised. A group of Liberal Democratic Party and Democratic Party members calling for revision of the Fundamental Law of Education insist that education must produce the willingness to die for the country. Eulogy of the war of aggression and coercion to die for the country are two sides of the same coin. Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro holds Chinese and Korean people in contempt, tried to justify the annexation of Korea, and recently even called for war against North Korea. It is reasonable that criticism in Japan and from abroad is mounting at the metropolitan board of education's move to adopt the Association's textbook. We must not allow the sham history textbook to appear in classrooms. (end) |