Tokyo adopts contested textbook
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Tokyo's public school board has adopted a new edition of a Japanese history textbook that has provoked protests in China and South Korea.
The book, criticised for distorting Japan's militarist past, will be used at 26 schools in the capital.
The city's education board said the texts would be used to teach children for four years, starting next year.
The move could re-ignite a diplomatic dispute which first flared when the government approved the book in April.
'Outrage'
This textbook is a new edition of a work that been used for the last four years in a handful of schools around the country.
It has been criticised for making just a passing mention of atrocities by Japanese troops in Asia, and leaving out the stories of the women sexually enslaved by members of the imperial army.
The book's supporters said they hoped Tokyo's decision, which follows that of a school board in the central town of Otawara, would be repeated elsewhere.
But a group opposed to the text has called for the board to reverse its decision.
"We strongly and angrily protest against this outrage," said the Tokyo Network to Prevent the Adoption of the Tsukurukai Textbooks.
"The Tokyo education board will likely taste disgrace internationally as a local municipality that [...] adopted a textbook that distorts the facts of history," it said.
Controversial
When the government approved the text in April, there were diplomatic protests by China and South Korea. These were followed by anti-Japanese street demonstrations.
Japan responded that the text did not represent the government's official view.
The scholars who wrote the book say Japan is too masochistic in its teaching of history. The decision by the Tokyo school board is a victory for them.
The earlier edition of their work was only used on the margins of the school system.
Almost 600 other communities across Japan will decide whether to use the controversial text over the next few weeks.
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Discuss!D
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Anonymous2005-07-31 10:45
2GET
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Anonymous2005-08-03 19:45
Every fucking country on the face of the Earth does this, and usually much more blatantly, why is Japan getting the shitty end of the dick just because they lost WW2? The only way Germany has faced its past is by disowning it.
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Anonymous2005-08-04 0:24
<Inst>
Japan, like Germany, is getting the shitty end of the stick because they failed. If you want to commit atrocities, make sure your victims will never manage to get back at you.
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Anonymous2005-08-04 0:26
<Inst>
Japan, like Germany, is getting the shitty end of the stick because they failed. If you want to commit atrocities, make sure your victims will never manage to get back at you.
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Anonymous2005-08-04 1:06
Germany faced its past by accepting it, unlike some prudes on an island.
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Anonymous2005-08-04 4:16
>>6
And they have to wear their guilt hat for the rest of their lives. I don't think Japan wants that.
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Anonymous2005-08-04 5:05
sieg heil, mein fuehrer!
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Anonymous2005-08-04 9:08
pupupu.korean or chinese, shut up!
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Anonymous2005-08-04 11:06
liek, korean or chinese are lesser lifeforms.
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Anonymous2005-08-04 14:03
Japan is just a sore loser because they didnt get their glory battle when the US was invading Japan.
Here were the people of Japan at the end of WW2 all ready to fight to the very last man defending against the Americans. But what happens? The US gets too chicken and drops a big bomb on them instead. Japan is still crying h4x for that.
>>7
Of course they don't want it, but it's not a matter of wanting that guilt or not, it's fucking theirs when they committed the crime. Their immaturity shows when they can't accept this. The guilt is supposed to serve as an educational tool to keep them in line, so they don't do stupid shit again. If your complaining that those that had nothing to do with the war get the blame for the war, that is wrong. The guilt is the guilt of the nation, not the guilt of the individual. If they can't recognized that without feeling demoralized and suicidal, that's their own problem. The individual is only responsible for today. Be good for today to make amends for the past. Ignore the past and you set yourself up for a repeat.
My only observation is that the past is over with. There's no reason for anybody to be guilty about it, nations or individuals. I think that in general, the Holocaust, so-called "crimes against humanity" and other supposed "autrocities" get way too much press, and way too much attention. Shit happens, and maybe it happened to these people or those people, but that's life! Accept it, move on, stop feeling guilty that your grandfather shot Jews, or raped Chinese, or bombed Dresden. Whether it's right or wrong is subjective, the only thing you can say for sure is that you didn't do it, and therefore, it's not anything for *you* to worry about. My 2 cents.
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Anonymous2005-08-13 18:14
>>17
But then what's the basis for what you should worry about?
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Reverend Death2005-08-14 2:12
In my opinion, worry about the things you personally had a hand in. if you shot somebody, that's your problem. If your grandfather or your uncle's neighbor, or the old guy down the block disemboweled teenage boys for fun in World War II, that isn't your problem. It's not something you had control over ot any hand in, it's nothing you should feel guilty about. That isn't to say you can't think it's wrong, or immoral, or whateverl. Then again that's not to say you can't think it would be great fun were it not for those pesky laws that make murder a crime. My point is, it's not on your head and it shouldn't be on your conscience. Some Germans and some Japanese did things that some people find distasteful. That doesn't mean one damned thing in the greater scheme of things once those people are dead. I don't think we should harp on the past and make trouble for governments over what prior administrations or governments of the same country did.
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Anonymous2005-08-15 1:03
<Inst>
Yeah, Chinks are being excessive with this "If you meet the Jap on the road, kill him and eat his liver".
It's legitimate to be pissed off over Yasukuni and revisionist nationalist Japanese, but then it becomes extended to "SEE JAP. KILL JAP. EAT JAP.", which is insane.
Here, Japanese should not be nationalistic in such a manner. When you want to piss someone off, piss someone off who's far away and can't hurt you. Endangering Japanese trade and political relations with neighboring states is not wise, Japan must remember that it, while highly developed and the richest state in the region, is still a small country, and in the long run, allowing it to be used by the US to contain China is going to hurt Japan while yielding no benefit.
It is too much to be asked for any country to behave with altruism and/or with virtue. However, it is not too much for it to be asked for a country to behave rationally. Japanese nationalism in its current form is dangerous to Japan, it makes Japan an American lapdog and threatens quite necessary immigration from neighboring countries to offset the low Japanese birthrate.
Personally I don't know about the details of American manipulation /control of Japan, but I do feel that history should be the truth. The US has done plenty of shit thats just as bad as these other atrocities, and its annoying to me that most of it isn't put into a textbook because of pansy-ass revisionists.
Japan needs to own up to the shit their country has did and begin to work towards preventing a repetition, no matter how futile it may be. Put the truth in textbooks, because we can't count on people to actually learn the truth unless you put it in front of them and have a test on monday.
First step: Remove Japan's racial superiority complex. Believing that the people of a country neighboring you that you migrated from only a few thousand years ago are fundamentally genetically inferior is bullshit.
you really lacks of Social skill...
If I killed your spouse/son..etc...is that not your problem?
quit sitting in front of your monitor and get outside.
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Tenchi2005-10-18 16:03
The problem is that many of the Japanese people who COMMITTED the atrocities are STILL ALIVE. One of them was even the Prime Minister!
Watch the History Channel!
>>25126
The Japanese is Crazyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! ROFLMAO
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Anonymous2005-11-07 1:29
No offense, but most of you guys really don't japan... In my 2 years in japan i've met like 3 right wing nationalists, and most of them were whackos that the normal population don't listen to. Seriously you guys talk like half of japan are crazed elitists. Japan is fucking liberal as hell, people don't care about that kind of shit anymore, seriously i've never met any of these so called "racially superior, xenophobic" japs, and im half-chinese
obviously american nor chinese media dared to say that there's only small groups of conservative right wingers, or that VERY popular public opinion is quite frankly "we don't give a shit"
and please, as much as i dont like to say it, the mainlanders are obviously using this as a political tool, and like someone said every fucking nation does this. (even most chinese have figured it out) US, canada, hell if you REALLY had to you could probably pick out things in german textbooks
not to mention those books arent/werent even used in 5% of schools. ever read a chinese textbook? where's tiananmen? where's the millions that died under the red guard/long march? why are half the discoveries attributed to outsiders supposedly "first conceived" by some random chinese guy? Thank god i live in canada now or the chinese kgb would be at my door.
whats worse is stupid foreigners who don't know shit about dirty asians sucking up everything cnn says and pretending to be experts
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Anonymous2005-11-07 17:08
Japan has already compensated and apologized several times to China and the other countries it invaded in the past. How many more times does Japan need to apologize?
Why is the present government in Japan even responsible, the Japanese government during WW2 is completely different from the one that is in place now.
>>29
I agree with this post, Japanese do not see them selves as racially superior at all. This kind of attitude is actually seen as embarassing in Japan. Nobody acts this way it is looked down on in their society.
Most people in Japan are anti-nationalist, many are not even proud or are negative towards their own country. This is the case for many of the Japanese people ive met. Most of them see other countries as much better place to live in their already wealthy nation.
here are the survey results for people who are not proud of their nationality:
1. Japan 36%
2. Germany 34%
3. Netherlands 23%
4. Switzerland 20%
5. Belgium 18%
6. Norway 14%
7. Denmark 13%
8. Sweden 13%
9. France 13%
10. Finland 13%
11. Italy 12%
12. United Kingdom 11%
13. Austria 7%
14. Canada 6%
15. Australia 3%
16. Ireland 2%
17. United States 2%
Weighted Average 14.2%
AND WHO CARES Japan made Playstation2, robots and have so many hot girls, They even have more things that you will shit yourself with if you ever decide to visit japan. I think the country has done alot of compensation already. But Japan is a completely different nation now compared to how it was before world war 2. i say people should travel there and see for yourself instead of copying the opinions of what others say, and what the media presents.
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Anonymous2005-11-07 17:32
Agreed, look at japanese blogs and shit, they love foreign culture more than their own
and ya, no apology's gonna bring back the chinese dead, but i don't think its possible for any dignified nation to apologize any more than japan already has. but it doesn't really matter, most chinks know by now the government is just trying to stir up emotions