Japan Approves Textbook Defending Role in WWII

The Japanese government has approved a controversial middle school history textbook written by nationalist scholars who defend Japan’s role in World War II.

“New History and Civics Textbook,” which has triggered protests in Asia, was approved for use beginning next year, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said Tuesday.

Officials ordered changes that were made before Tuesday’s announcement, but the approval nonetheless drew sharp criticism from China and South Korea.

“The distorted view of history that such textbooks are likely to instill in Japan’s growing generations is not only undesirable for Japan’s future . . . but also highly detrimental to Korea-Japan relations,” South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Nam Soo said. In Seoul, another ministry spokesman, Kim Euy Taek, said South Korea may recall its ambassador to Tokyo to protest the decision.

South Koreans believe the book is a whitewash of atrocities committed by Japan during its 1910-45 rule of the Korean peninsula. Civic groups said they will stage protests near Japan’s embassy in Seoul.

Meanwhile, Chen Jian, China’s ambassador to Japan, said in Tokyo that the changes to the book failed to remove “its essence of denial and beautification of Japan’s past aggression,” China’s state-run New China News Agency reported. Chinese say the book minimizes atrocities such as the 1937 massacre at Nanking, now known as Nanjing.

Japanese officials defended the ministry’s decision, saying the book was approved because no obvious mistake or bias was found after authors agreed to revise it.