Mangeon, or "foolish remarks" from high-ranking Japanese officials continue. The level of the provocations are becoming more serious. Japanese education minister Nariaki Nakayama, speaking to the education and science committee at the upper house of that country's parliament, said that mention of Dokdo as Japanese territory should be part of the standard for elementary, middle, and high school textbooks. In other words, all Japanese students should be taught that Dokdo is Japanese. His comments come just a weak after even Korea's president personally called for reflection on the side of the Japanese.
It was Nakayama who last January and earlier in November of last year said that Japanese textbooks contain a "self-torturing" view of Japanese history and that it is a good thing textbooks as of late have less mention of the comfort women and forced mobilization. Such is the case with the man responsible for the ministry that reviews textbooks, so you can predict well enough what the results will be when they announced next month. Nakayama was once the head the "Group of Diet Members Thinking of Japan's Future and its History Education," and he has actively supported the selection of the history textbooks compiled by the ultra-right organization the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform. Those textbooks, naturally, claim that Dokdo is Japanese territory.
His comments reconfirm the fact that the Japanese government's assertion that the establishment of a "Takeshima Day" by Shimane's prefectural legislature was the action of one individual provincial government is a lie. And given that the "hit and run" provocations continue even after strong protest and warning from Korea, one has a hard time not believing that a considerable number of people in Japan's ruling camp are deliberately aggravating the situation.
As the Korean government has stated, Japan incorporated Dokdo illegally in the process of colonizing the Korean peninsula and calling it Japanese territory is anachronistic, imperialist thinking. Maybe the provocations continue despite talk of a future-oriented Korea-Japan relationship because Prime Minster Junichiro Koizumi is himself encouraging them behind the scenes. If that is not the case he should remove Nakayama from his cabinet.
The Hankyoreh, 30 March 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Japan's Education Minister Should Resign |
