JAPAN RELEASES CONTROVERSIAL TEXTBOOKS

[Anchor Lead]

The Japanese government on Tuesday approved high school textbooks to be used from next year. Not only do they contain territorial claims to Korea’s Dokdo islets but have also deleted expressions indicating the coercive nature of colonial-era wartime forced labor and sex slavery.

[Pkg]

These are history textbooks to be used at Japanese high schools next year. Terms, such as “forced recruitment,” have all disappeared in describing the forced labor of Koreans during the colonial period. Expressions alluding to coerciveness are dropped from the textbooks. Japan has also tried to dilute the military comfort women issue. The words “wartime” and “system” have been deleted from the previous explanation of “Korean women who fell victim to the wartime comfort women system.” The change is in line with decisions made by the Japanese Cabinet last year.

[Soundbite] Hagiuda Koichi(Then Education Minister(May 2021)) : "Those publishing school texts containing terms such as ‘wartime comfort women’ or ‘forced recruitment’ will be asked to make revisions."

The textbooks also state that strained relations with Korea in recent years is due to the 2018 Supreme Court ruling on compensating forced labor victims. The texts wholly reflect Tokyo’s stance that colonial matters were resolved through the 1965 bilateral treaty. During the textbook screening process, the government asked publishers to revise or delete expressions that counter Tokyo’s diplomatic position or existing teaching guidelines.

[Soundbite] Kim Seon-hwa(Asia Peace & History Education Network) : "The textbooks clearly demonstrate Japan’s intent to teach students the legitimacy of colonial occupation as well as the continuation of its self-righteous, imperialistic world view."

Meanwhile the textbooks continue to include unjustified claims to Korea’s Dokdo islets describing them as “Japanese territory illegally occupied by Korea.” The Fumio Kishida government, just like the Abe and Suga administrations, also said that it inherits the Kono Statement which symbolizes Japan’s formal apology for its wartime atrocities. However, the country’s distortion of history sees no end and is getting increasingly blatant.