Japan rejects call for history book revisions
( 2001-07-09 15:25) (7)
In a move that has angered South Korea and its Asian neighbors, Japan on Monday rejected calls for major revisions to a history textbook that whitewashes Tokyo's wartime atrocities.
South Korea warned of tougher action to protest against the Japanese government's approval of the junior high school text, which Seoul says justifies Japan's invasion of much of Asia in the early 20th century and glosses over war crimes.
"We cannot accept the results of the Japanese government's review of the textbooks," Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Han Seung-soo was quoted as telling Japan's ambassador to South Korea.
"We would take tougher measures to deal with the issue, while continuing to push Japan to make changes to the books," a ministry official quoted Han as telling the Japanese ambassador. The official gave no further details.
A ministry spokesman said it had not yet worked out concrete steps to take.
But Japanese and South Korean media said South Korean President Kim Dae-jung was expected to refuse to meet senior officials from Japan's three ruling coalition parties who arrived in Seoul on Sunday.
The history book approved by Tokyo in April has strained Japanese diplomatic ties, especially with South Korea, who has demanded extensive revisions.
"We greatly regret the result, which reflects a clear disregard for the concerns and interests of the Korean people," South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.
'NO CLEAR MISTAKES'
Japan told South Korea and China on Monday that the textbook contained no "clear mistakes" in its descriptions of modern and contemporary history, Japanese Education Ministry officials said.
Seoul says the book fails to explain the plight of 100,000 "comfort women", most from the Korean Peninsula, forced to provide sex to Japanese troops during World War Two.
It objects to Japan's justification of its 1910-1945 occupation of the peninsula as necessary for stability.
Seoul had urged Japan to act to resolve the thorny issue ahead of the two countries' staging of next year's World Cup soccer finals.
The decision was likely to enrage China, with whom relations are already strained by trade spats and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's controversial pledge to visit the Yasukuni Shrine for Japan's war dead.
If local education authorities in Japan choose the book from among eight newly approved junior high school history books, it would be used from April 2002, the start of the Japanese school year.
Tokyo has said the textbook, which was written for school-children aged 13 to 15, does not represent the government's official view of history.
Education Minister Atsuko Toyama said Tokyo had taken seriously the South Korean and Chinese requests for revisions and examined them "fully and sincerely within the framework of Japan's textbook screening system".
OUTRAGE ANTICIPATED
An earlier revision of the book excised a reference playing down the scale of the Nanjing Massacre, in which as many as 300,000 Chinese civilians died when Japanese troops overran the eastern Chinese city in December 1937.
But a screening panel left in other controversial sections, including parts that describe Japanese troops as braving "death with honour".
On Saturday, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the government would continue to push Japan to make changes to the book, adding that two-way ties would be seriously hurt if Tokyo refused to cooperate.
South Korean television said that Seoul would take various measures, including delaying the opening of its market to previously banned Japanese products.
Japanese history textbooks, periodically updated under a screening system by the Education Ministry, have aroused fierce debate at home and in Asian countries invaded by Japan in the first half of the 20th century.
"Starting with the World Cup to be co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, we would like to make further efforts to realise relations with our neighbours appropriate for the 21st century, by further deepening exchanges in education, academic, sports and cultural fields," Education Minister Toyama said.
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