Japan: History and the Textbook Controversy | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Japan: History and the Textbook Controversy

The Conflict

For around the past thirty years, people inside and outside Japan have protested the content of that country's history textbooks and their authorization. In Japan, publishers create textbooks and then present them to the government for approval. In the past, the books did not present a full picture of some of Japan's military aggressions, particularly those before and during World War II. In the mid-and late 1990s, after much protest, the most widely-used Japanese textbooks began to contain references to the Nanjing Massacre, anti-Japanese resistance movements in colonized Korea, forced suicide in Okinawa, "comfort women," and experimentation on prisoners of war. However, in April 2001, the Ministry of Education approved The New History Textbook, which had been written by a group that wanted to present Japanese history in a light that would make children feel proud of their country by omitting the "dark history." The errors and omissions in the text provoked a renewed protest when the Japanese government approved the textbook.

Political

• The controversy over textbooks may be part of a much larger issue—the question of Japanese militarism. Many fear that the promotion of ultra-nationalism will produce students who are ultra-nationalist in their beliefs.

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