From: aoki@physics.ucla.edu (ken aoki)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: A ? about textbooks -- was (Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa)
Summary: ???, you tell me.
Keywords: textbook, truth, source?
Date: 25 Aug 92 22:47:19 GMT
Organization: UCLA Department of Physics

In article <1992Aug25.204110.10744@ichips.intel.com> pchang@pdxgp2 (Paul Chang) writes:
[stuff not related to textbooks deleted]
>
>Japanese politicians are too ashamed to admit the war crimes by their predecessors. They
>only rewrote their history textbook that Japan "entered and exited" China. A few years
>later they will probably say "China started the war then Japan fought back by entering
>and exiting China".
>

This is not a flame and you can flame my ignorance
if you want. I have heard this statement soooo many times
and I don't know what the source is. Could you or 
someone please tell me?

The only non-incident I can remember is around 12 years or so ago
where there was a big news that got into the major Japaneese papers
that out of the 7 textbooks or so they had inspected
one of them had changed 'invasion (shin-ryaku) into China' 
to 'intrusion (shin-nyu)' under govt pressure. 
(Other books, if my memory is OK, used 'invasion')
A little while later, the newspaper I saw stated that 
the particular textbook had always used 'intrusion' so there
was no change. The story was that the press club had alotted
various textbooks to various reporters and one of them had goofed.

Is this the story people are referring to or something else?
Or am I taking the word 'rewrote' too literally?
Don't get me wrong; the Japanese textbooks sure do have problems
and government censoring is a biiiiiig problem (at least in history
texts).  However, I am curious and more importantly,
I would like the discussions, arguments and flames to be based on truths.

Also Mr. Chang, for instance, seems to suggest that it is an ongoing
thing. I have never heard about things like that since then. 
It would have gotten major press, I think.
Has anything happened recently?

So many things have been said about Japanese textbooks
that I find hard to believe. I wish I had a textbook with me
but I don't.

Since there are so many people who say this, there are probably
some people who have a concrete source. 

                        ___Kenichiro Aoki. (aoki@physics.ucla.edu)

>>
>>4) There was no jointed academical research to prove the claim about the 
>>numbers of victims in Nanjing  or Chinese and the other government
>>has never claimed Japanese government to correct the what they believ the false
>> in the Japanese TEXT book showing the undenialble description with vivid
>> evidence.  Nishimura-san mentioned that he has seen several
>>books which gave different numers of victims in Nanjing.
>>
>
>No matter how disgusting the photos are, some people can always claim that the photos
>are faked. Why don't you try to get some documentaries produced by the Japanese Army.
>I have seen documentary films shot by the Japanese during the Nanjing massacre. They were
>captured by the Allied Forces after Japan surrendered. I don't think a joint research
>is needed to prove the authenticity of such bloody evidence. Or you still can argue that
>those films were made by some Chinese Nationalists by using a camcorder.


-- 
                        Kenichiro Aoki. aoki@physics.ucla.edu