Confucius says the truth lies somewhere in between. Somewhere between China's strident calls for correction and Japan's soft-spoken diplomacy is the truth. In recent weeks, China has vigorously complained about how a textbook glosses over Japanese history, particularly the Rape of Nanking. Political analysts have suggested that the real reason behind Beijing's stance isn't really about 20-pages in a little used history book.
Rather, Mainland China wants to remain the power in Asia and by using Western media on such easy issues such as the human rights violations by Japan during World War II, it can gain political oneupsmanship.
The Journal Editorial Report interviewed the editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal editorial page in Hong Kong, Michael Gonzalez, who said:
The people I talk to at Peking University, one of the universities where many of the demonstrators in Beijing came from, tell me that the demonstrations were definitely tolerated and even encouraged. There's circumstantial evidence which suggests that the level of involvement was beyond just encouragement.
For example, the demonstrators were bused in often and sometimes even in advance of the work units that are so important in the Chinese companies. There is also the very damning evidence of the police standing by and allowing the demonstrators to run riot, pelting the Japanese embassy and the ambassador's residence with paint and with rocks, shattering windows. I need not add that this is happening in China, where a political demonstration would be quashed within 10 seconds and where a pretty defenseless sect, the Falun Gong, were swept off the street.
This suggests that the Chinese, even if they did not orchestrate it — and they may have — at least encouraged things.
Like Gonzalez, the editorial in The Monitor declared that Taiwan was part of the real reason. Chinese crowds are talking about textbooks, but that may be a surrogate for concerns over the future of Taiwan in the medium term, and anxiety over which country will be the dominant economic power in the region over the longer run.
Western accounts also quickly report another hot topic: reparations for the Korean comfort women. Yet what do most Americans really know about this topic?
The Texts in Question
The 14 April Associated Press report on the Japanese textbooks written by Mari Yamaguchi states that the textbook in question is given away free.
Though given away for free, the book titled "New History Textbook" is used by only 18 of 11,102 junior high schools in Japan, reflecting many teachers' concerns over its content. It has been denounced by the leading teachers' union, and is well to the right wing of mainstream public opinion.
Article comments
1 - SFC SKI
I am not surprised by anything China does to gain an advantage. No matter what, they are a totalitarian state, and will act accordingly, especially in manipulating their own people and trying to court world opinion.
2 - Nancy
But the US government does the same thing, as much as they can - they were just caught at it and repremanded by their own agency for using tax funds for political propaganda. If you think the US is purer than the driven snow as far as misrepresentation et al goes, you haven't been paying attention, as the bumper stickers say. No government is clean on this issue. As someone recently said, the winners/those in power get to re-write the rules and history. This is also nothing new: I've read translations of 6500 year old clay tablets demonstrating the same ol' thing. Most humans - and especially those who become leaders - seem to have an aversion to the truth, especially when it applies to historic records that will represent their doings to future generations. Even very little kids will lie gratuitously, when they have never been trained or needed to do so; and primate studies seem to indicate that this may be a deeper instinct in hominids, not just humans.
3 - sydney
"No matter what, they are a totalitarian state, and will act accordingly, especially in manipulating their own people and trying to court world opinion."
-- "Mo matter what?" this comment hints as a sort of personal prejudice and anger. It's as though you don't want China to improve upon it's political past. China is moving towards deomcratization, and will continue to do so if it wants to maximise it's economic potential.
In any case, I'm not defending the Chineese government. Just thought your comments seemed a little bitter, and that they ignored the shady tactics that the American government uses daily.
4 - godoggo
My understanding is that riots had begun because of government policies that had led to poisoned crops. I think that there is a great deal of anger in China, which has about the most unequal distribution of wealth of any country in the world, also (in what I would guess to be descending order of importance to the citizenry) rampant corruption (like everywhere in the far east), massively destructive public projects, and a brutally authoritarian (no longer totalitarian) government.
My take is that the government is looking for an external scapegoat for this anger.
Incidentally, I noticed a picture in the LA Times of Taiwanese protesters marching in Japan, carrying signs with the following written in Chinese: "It is China that fabricates history" and (under a picture of Lee Teng Hui) "Hurray for Japan" (or maybe "Japan, cheer up"; it can be translated either way).
5 - godoggo
I forgot that I should have added something about the protesters being inspired by the elections in Iraq, in order to stay consistent with the political discourse typical of this site -- not in this particular post though - a lapse which I'm sure the poster will correct next time around ;>)
6 - godoggo
I realize this in an old post, but I was just discussing this topic today with a man from Taiwan, after which I went home, googled this up, and emailed it to him. I also reread it, and, I must say, I think it's a very good post. However, I was wondering it there is a link, or at least a more specific cite, available for the "editorial in The Monitor" or "The 14 April Associated Press report on the Japanese textbooks written by Mari Yamaguchi" (googling the latter brought up this earlier post by the Purple Tigress.
By the way, being very interested in this issue (in case it isn't obvious), I was curious about the take on this issue by the Epoch Times, a fiercely anti-communist newspaper (sponsored, I'm told by the Falun Gong) which in my neighborhood is available in English at Borders and in Chinese (with more China-centered content) at the HK Supermarket. So I googled it, too, and here it is.
7 - godoggo
And from the other post, I noticed Aaman's link to a NY Times article and graphic showing that the textbook is "now used by 52 percent of all junior high schools."
Belated thanks to Aaman for that.
8 - godoggo
Make that a textbook. It seems to be a different one.
Sorry about all the comments on this old post. As I said, this still interests me, plus I had emailed this to somebody.
9 - Purple Tigress
The article that I quoted is available at AP's Web site. It will cost you money to view. With a little thought, you could have found it yourself.
You might note that the articles (the AP story I quoted and most of the other articles as well as the article you reference at NYTimes) were written about the same time for about the same reason.
The NYTimes article brings up many of the points that I have sought to show: Japan isn't different from Communist China or South Korea in how they write or re-write and/or gloss over history to please the people in power. Obviously this isn't about a Japan problem or a problem with democracy (since it occurs also in a communist country). Nor is it, as I have indicated, a problem that is intrinsic to Asia.
Knowing this, puts the problem into perspective.