Over the weekend Japanese civic groups ran an advertisement in the Yomiuri Shimbun calling on people to reject the new textbooks with distorted history published by Fusosha Publishing House, saying that Japan cannot enjoy amicable relations with Asian nations with that textbook, and that is a demonstration of the latent strength of conscientious elements in Japan. The group "Alliance for Asian Peace and History Education," which played a leading role in the joint Korea-China-Japan history textbook History that Opens the Future, is collecting funds in Korea so that it, too, can publish an advertisement in Japanese newspapers.
It is welcome to have Korean and Japanese civic groups working in solidarity, but it speaks of what a difficult time the campaign against the textbooks is having when a Korean civic group takes the extraordinary step of placing an advertisement in the Japanese media. With national and regional organizations belonging to Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (DLP) actively supporting the use of Fusosha's textbook, the general view is that it will be impossible to keep it from being chosen at the same ratio of schools as 4 years ago, when only 0.039 percent of classrooms decided to use it. Japan's right-wing camp publicly declares that the textbook will be chosen at 10 percent of schools.
One of the big factors working against an improvement in friendly Korea-Japan relations is the continued inflammatory comments from Nariaki Nakayama, Japan's Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Technology. This is the same man who caused a stir when, as the minister responsible for the textbook review and approval process, he said it was a good thing that there are less references to "military comfort women" and "forced mobilization." On Monday he publicly read from an email he had received, saying that the comfort women had a job that "one should be able to take pride in if it eased the unsettled minds of men at war and provided them with rest and order." A minister in the government of an advanced nation, and in particular a minister responsible for the education of the younger generation, should not be making such reckless remarks. You are left feeling enraged and even sad as you wonder if Japan cannot do better.
The Hankyoreh, 12 July 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Japan\'s Education Minister Does it Again |
