School Districts in Japan Reject Controversial History Textbook

Local school districts across Japan voted with their order books Wednesday when they rejected by an overwhelming majority the use of a controversial middle school textbook that has inflamed passions across Asia.

The book, “The New History Textbook,” by the conservative Fusosha Publishing Co., was turned down by at least 532 of the 542 municipal school districts in Japan, according to unofficial results released by national broadcaster NHK. Wednesday was the deadline for selecting study materials for the next school year.

“This is a victory for civic rationality,” said Yoshifume Tawara, secretary-general of Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21, a civic group. The remaining 10 districts reportedly have not made their selection public. Six state-run schools for the disabled in Tokyo and the Ehime prefecture have said they will use the book.

China, South and North Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and other East Asian governments have sharply criticized what they consider Japan’s whitewashing of 20th century history. The Fusosha textbook, which its publishers said was designed to “correct” what they see as Japan’s overly apologetic historical outlook, has become a touchstone in the debate.

In particular, Japanese citizen groups and Asian neighbors have slammed the textbook’s vague or nonexistent treatment of such issues as Japan’s germ warfare experiments in China and the estimated 200,000 women forced into prostitution by the Japanese military.

A final tally of the text selection by Japan’s 76 state-run, 686 private school and 542 municipal districts will be released at the end of the month, the deadline for informing the Education Ministry on curriculum decisions.

According to Fusosha’s survey, not a single public school and only two private schools have selected the book for the 2002-03 academic year. The publisher told Associated Press that the media are responsible for the weak sales.

But Fukuo Matsuda, a history teacher at Sayama Junior High School, said educators rejected it largely on principle, although concern for domestic and East Asian reactions was also a factor.

“This textbook is so different from others,” he said. “It’s difficult to read, difficult to use and extremely vague about Japan’s war responsibility.”

Matsuda said the book glorifies the emperor and suggests that the war was necessary to liberate Asia from colonialism.

Kimiko Nakatani, a 45-year-old mother of two, said she was happy to learn of the widespread rejection but wondered about the acceptance by the schools for the disabled. “Do they think disabled kids don’t understand the contents?” she said.

Nakatani said she hasn’t read the book but thinks it sounds too conservative. But some other textbooks lean too far to the left, she said.

“I’m a bit confused about the whole textbook issue,” she said. “I just want my children to know what really happened.”

The selection of textbooks in Japan is up to local authorities, who are presented each year with a choice of books approved by the Education Ministry. Wednesday’s protest vote by grass-roots educators is part of a pattern often seen here: National bureaucrats and politicians are sometimes far more conservative on key issues than their local counterparts.

The textbook deadline came against the backdrop of contentious worship services at Yasukuni shrine marking the 56th anniversary of the end of World War II.

In a largely unsuccessful bid to dodge criticism by Asian neighbors, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni two days before Wednesday’s formal anniversary.

On Wednesday, more than 100,000 ordinary citizens and veterans, along with five Cabinet ministers and dozens of conservative politicians, reportedly passed through the shrine, which commemorates Japan’s war dead. Fourteen Class A war criminals are enshrined at the site, along with tens of thousands of veterans.

Across Asia, meanwhile, small groups of protesters in Beijing, Taipei and Seoul burned Japanese flags and effigies in protest.

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Makiko Inoue in The Times’ Tokyo Bureau contributed to this report.