Posted on 04/24/2005 1:55:24 AM PDT by snowsislander
Chinese textbooks are “extreme” in their interpretation of history, Japan’s foreign minister said today.
It came a day after China’s president demanded Tokyo do more to improve relations damaged by new Japanese school textbooks that allegedly whitewash wartime atrocities.
However, despite the criticism, Nobutaka Machimura hailed a meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Indonesia, saying it has paved the way for the two Asian powers to start repairing battered ties that have led to violent anti-Japanese protests across China.
“From the perspective of a Japanese person, Chinese textbooks appear to teach that everything the Chinese government has done has been correct,” Machimura said on a TV Asahi talk show.
“There is a tendency toward this in any country, but the Chinese textbooks are extreme in they way they uniformly convey the ’our country is correct’ perspective.”
The foreign minister also defended Japan’s textbooks, saying they don’t gloss over Japan’s invasion of other Asian countries as alleged, and expressed dismay with the lopsided view of history taught in Chinese schools.
Tokyo’s approval of new school textbooks that China claims play down wartime atrocities sparked weeks of anti-Japanese protests by tens of thousands of people across China. Chinese also are upset over Japan’s campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Hoping to mend the rift, Koizumi on Friday at the start of the Asian-African Summit in Jakarta, gave a ”heartfelt apology” for Japan’s wartime aggression – the most public penitence in a decade. But Hu on Saturday told the Japanese prime minister that Tokyo had to back up its apologies with actions.
There was also criticism of Chinese textbooks in Japan’s media. The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s biggest newspaper, said in an editorial Sunday that China should also change the way it teaches history.
“China should halt its nationalistic and anti-Japanese education with action,” the conservative daily said. “It is also starting to be pointed out in the US and Europe that history instruction in China is distorted to suit the convenience of the Communist Party.”
Machimura said Tokyo would officially inform Beijing what it thought of China’s textbooks after it fully reviews them. Machimura said Tang Jiaxuan, China’s state councillor and a former foreign minister, had invited him to do so during a recent discussion about teaching history.
But the Japanese foreign minister said he was confident the neighbours’ disputes could be resolved.
“They’re next door. We can’t move. They’re important and we’re important to each other,” Machimura said of China. ”If we make this clear, we can handle the individual issues.”
The foreign minister said Hu and Koizumi confirmed they intend to “rebuild” bilateral ties. But he didn’t indicate how Japan would answer Hu’s publicly made demand that Japan “translate into action” its remorse for wartime militarist aggression.
Hu didn’t go into detail about what action he meant in a news conference in Jakarta, but Machimura said he believed the president was referring to two main issues: the textbooks and visits by Koizumi to Yasukuni, a Tokyo shrine that honours Japanese war criminals along with some 2.5 million other soldiers who died fighting between the mid-19th century through 1945.
Beijing has repeatedly demanded that Koizumi refrain from visiting the shrine, but he has paid his respects at it annually since becoming prime minister in 2001.
China has also demanded that Japan teach students in greater detail the suffering it inflicted on China and other Asian nations through such acts as germ warfare and forcing hundreds of thousands of women into sexual slavery.
Koizumi is due to arrive back in Japan late Sunday evening. Hu will stay in Jakarta for two days on a state visit.
ping
He should have brought a little help don't you think?
I thought Japan brutally attacked mainland China in the 1930's prior to pulling their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor
I find this fun to watch. On one hand the arrogant Japanese wont fess up and other the other, the one doing the howling is the worst ever.
Hopefully what will come out of this is that Japan decides to have another go at China. This time we will let them have the place.
Translated Japan tells China to "Bite Me"!
The Japanese 'fess up every year when they reflect on why Hiroshima was obliterated in August, 1945. The current China excess is all about Taiwan. (Ignore the little man behind the curtain).
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