FALSE HISTORIC CLAIM IN JAPANESE TEXT BOOKS

[Anchor Lead]

The Japanese government has approved middle school textbooks claiming Dokdo to be part of Japan. Last year, Tokyo gave the greenlight to elementary school textbooks making the same claim. Some of the textbooks say Dokdo never stopped being part of Japanese territory. The Korean government has summoned the Japanese ambassador to strongly protest the move and urged Tokyo to withdraw its distorted claim.

[Pkg]

These textbooks have been recently approved by the Japanese government. They will be used in middle schools in Japan starting next year. One of the textbooks claims that Dokdo, or Takeshima in Japanese, has never stopped being part of Japan. Fourteen out of 17 textbooks - more than 80 percent - say Korea illegally occupied Dokdo. Regarding the issue of wartime forced labor, the textbooks reiterate Tokyo's stance that individual claims had been resolved under the Korea-Japan Settlement Agreement signed in 1965. Only two of the approved textbooks mention the issue of wartime sexual slavery by the Japanese army. But all they say is that women from Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries were called "comfort women." Only textbooks that have been officially approved by authorities can be used in Japanese schools. Tokyo uses them as a means to control public education. The Korean government has summoned Japanese ambassador Koji Tomita to lodge a protest. Seoul's foreign ministry has urged Tokyo to take corrective measures regarding the distorted historic claims in Japanese textbooks.