Chinese-Japanese History Textbook Dispute Yan Kaidi 4S1 Yan Tianqi 4S1

Content  Background  Dispute  Case Study  Reasons

Background  controversial content in government- approved history textbooks used in the secondary education

Background  School textbooks in Japan are not written by the Ministry of Education.  Instead, the textbooks are written and published by several major private companies.

Background  However, each local education board has the final authority to select which textbooks can be used in their jurisdiction from the approved list.

Dispute  Critics claim that the government textbook authorization system has rejected textbooks that depict Imperial Japan in a negative light.

Dispute  Countries like China criticized Japan for whitewashing the nature of military aggression in WWII.  Downplays events like Nanjing Massacre, ‘Comfort Women’  Ask Japan to modify certain contents

Dispute  Although Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform published New History Textbook intending to promote a comprehensive view of Japan in WWII  This textbook was still criticized by China and other Asian countries for downplaying the Japan invasion

Dispute  On the other hand, the new textbook was also opposed by many Japanese historians  They feel that the new textbook should not emphasize so much on Japanese wartime activities  Hence, this textbook was used by only 0.039% of junior high schools in Japan

Dispute  Relationship between Japan and other Asian counties becomes tense due to history textbook issue  In 2005, with the approval of new Japanese history textbooks, people in neighboring countries broke out anti-Japanese demonstrations

Dispute  The Anti-Japanese demonstrations of 2005 were a series of demonstrations which were held across most of East Asia in the spring of  Mainly in China, South & North Korea

Dispute  Across China, businesses with connections to Japan were vandalized by protesters

Dispute

 The official PRC attitude towards the demonstrations is considered to be enigmatic.  On the one hand, the government allowed the demonstrations to occur in the first place.  While the PRC policed the protests, some observers believe that measures to rein in the violence and property damage were deliberately ineffective.

Dispute  In Japan, no large-scale anti-PRC rallies or demonstrations took place  Nevertheless, more and more people canceled their travel plans to China, and some doubt was raised about the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing

Dispute  Besides, The Japanese government demanded an apology from the PRC government  Japanese government asks compensations for the damage made to the properties of their diplomatic missions

Dispute  The Japanese foreign minister once visited Beijing to meet his counterpart.  the Japanese negotiators demanded an apology and compensation for damage against Japanese property and people.  That demand was rejected by Li Zhaoxing, the Chinese foreign minister.

Case study  Nanjing Massacre in China’s textbooks  In China’s textbook, there are descriptions on the fall of the Capital, Nanjing and the massacre in the city.  The knowledge of the massacre is an important part of history study of Chinese students.

 Nanjing Massacre in Japan’s textbooks  Before 1982, the textbooks were quite biased, and even tried to fade the meaning of invasion.  After 1982, the content on the massacre increased relatively, but still very ambiguous. Case study

 Also, the estimates of death tolls varies dramatically  China claims that at least 340 thousand people were killed during the massacre  On the other hand, Japan only admits about to death tolls.

Reasons  Nationalism is the main reason for the history textbook dispute between China and Japan  China, once being invaded by Japan, will not tolerate any whitewashing of Japanese military invasion  Consider this as an insult to its national dignity

Reasons  Some Japanese, especially those right- leaning extremists, still consider Japan as one of the most powerful nations in the world  Will never apologize for any mistake it has made before

Reasons  Also, some people believe that CCP used anti- Japanese sentiments to promote nationalism, hence consolidating its political power in China  anti-Japanese sentiment in China is higher among the current generation than among the Chinese who actually lived through the occupation of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Reference en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japanese_sentiment_in_China

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