In March 2007, the education ministry ordered publishers to remove references to the Imperial Japanese Army's role in forcing civilians to commit mass suicide and mass murder-suicide, during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

Okinawans protested, prompting the ministry to drop the March instruction and allow the deleted references to be reinstated. Tens of thousands of people staged a rally in Okinawa on 29 September 2007 and some 160 prefecture assembly members and activists visited Tokyo in mid-October to lobby for keeping the original references intact.

Following requests submitted to the ministry on 1 November 2007 by 2 textbook publishers who want to restore the description stating involvement by the Imperial Army, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Mr. Kisaburo Tokai said on 2 November that he had convened the ministry’s Textbook Review Council to examine the issue.

Hotline Asia issued UA010515(7) & UA050812(5) in 2001 & 2005 respectively to stop attempts by the Japan's Ministry of Education to white wash its history in history textbook for secondary schools.

Sources:
The Japan Times Online
Stars and Stripes

The controversy over the history textbook issue in Japan continues. In 2001, Hotline Asia issued a UA urging the Japanese authorities to stop concealing and distorting historical truths in its officially-accepted history textbooks.

Four local assemblies have protested an order by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Education Ministry to remove from school textbooks all references to military involvement in mass suicides during World War II. Local governments of Naha (Okinawa's capital), Itoman, Tomigusuku and Haebaru have passed a resolution demanding the central government to reverse its decision, and several other communities are considering the same measure.

Due to the controversy, the relation between Japan and other Asian countries has become tenser. Mr. Kim Shin-il, South Korea¡¦s Education Minister who is also the country¡¦s Deputy Prime Minister, sent a letter of protest to the Japanese Education Minister, Mr. Bunmei Ibuki, on 9 May 2007. Mr Kim has expressed his concern about the approved textbook's content regarding Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and the denial of sexual slavery.

Source:
Australian Broadcasting Company
Bloomberg News
Khaleej Times Online

In July, the education board of Otawara, an industrial and agricultural town 300 kilometers north of Tokyo voted unanimously to use the controversial textbook, New History Textbook 2005 at 12 junior high schools.

In a statement issued by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan for the 60th Anniversary of the dropping of two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, bishops of Japan urge all the faithful to "start over from peace" and "to accept and reflect upon our history, a history which includes the violent invasion and colonization of other countries".

The Japan Catholic Council for Justice and Peace also announced a peace message "The Road to Peace Based on Nonviolence", in which the Commission expressed a strong stand against the adoption of the textbook since they believe it is necessary in order to "regain the trust of the people of East Asia and together with them work for peace".

In 2001 Hotline Asia called on the Japanese authorities to ensure honest interpretation of its history textbook. For more information, please refer to UA010515(7).

Source:
Christian Today
Asia News
South China Morning Post
Japan Catholic Council for Justice and Peace

On 5 April 2005, Japan's Education Ministry approved the new edition of New History Textbook (NHT), a controversial textbook that critics say whitewashes its militaristic past.

Domestic opponents in Japan are determined to block its adoption when school boards meet this summer. A coalition of 15 Japanese civic groups said the book's content was essentially unchanged and some parts had been revised for the worst. Children and Textbook Japan Network 21, a group opposed to the controversial book, deplored a growing politicization in the selection of textbooks in Japan. "The voices of teachers are no longer reflected in choosing textbooks as they were in the past," Mr. Hisao Ishiyama, a permanent committee member of the group, told a news conference in May.

According to Mr. Ishiyama, other textbooks were becoming more nationalist in tone. Although the rate of uptake of NHT 2001 edition was only 0.004, Mr. Ishiyama noted that, of the 8 approved textbooks in April 2005, only 2 clearly stated that Japan forced some Koreans to come to Japan as labourers. Other sources also indicated that only 5 of 8 history textbooks approved mentioned the "Nanking incident," and only 1 mentioned "there are allegedly over 200,000 victims." Prior to the previous screening in 2001, 6 out of 7 history textbooks gave specific figures.

The incident has tensed up Japan's relations with its Asian neighbours. Thousands of protesters demonstrated across China, as well as Hong Kong in April and early May. Confronted with criticism from China and South Korea, the Japanese government defended its right to decide what the country's students should learn by ordering 124 revisions for NHT 2005 edition.

Hotline Asia issued UA010515(7) in 2001 requesting the Japanese authorities to ensure honest historical interpretation in the officially-accepted 2001 edition of NHT compiled by the Japanese society for Textbook Reform (a group of nationalistic scholars intending to give the younger generation 'renewed pride' of their national history.)

Source:
South China Morning Post
Yahoo News

Hotline Asia issued UA010515(7) in 2001 requesting the Japanese authorities to ensure honest historical interpretation in the officially-accepted junior high school history textbooks compiled by the Japanese society for Textbook Reform. Since then, 10 schools, including seven for disabled children got approval for using the controversial textbooks.

In August 2004, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education has decided to adopt these revised history textbook. They will be used by students in Hakuo High School, a six-year secondary school run by the metropolitan government at Tokyo's Taito Ward, in the next spring.

The adoption has prompted the opposition from neighboring states as well as local people. China and South Korea criticized the textbook glosses over Japan's wartime atrocities. Ayako Okino, deputy director of Children and Textbook Japan Network 21 (a group of local public), fears that the latest decision will encourage other right-wing education board to call for the textbook's adoption and said, "We will do our utmost to prevent the pro-war thinking in the textbook from being forced on children." The group's on-line statement is available at
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kyokasho/net21/statement040826.htm

Source:
South China Morning Post, USA Today