All the history that fits

Press, 20 July 1988, Page 16

All the history that fits

JAPAN’S great schoolbook row has resumed. Every three years the Education Ministry puts out a list of books judged fit for use in the country’s schools. If a book has not been approved, it may not be used in public elementary or high schools. When an earlier list was put out, in 1982, China complained that some of the approved books glossed over or even denied what Japan did in the Second World War. This time there have been no foreign complaints; but the Ministry is as reluctant as ever to countenance embarrassing passages. Only three out of the more than 180 books submitted by educational publishers were rejected outright this time. But none passed unchanged: the Ministry ordered an average of 63 changes to each book and requested 72 others. Most of the changes are trivial; some have prompted charges of censorship. One publisher, fed up with the whole business, did not submit any books this

year. Some of the changes will be familiar to anyone acquainted with textbook fights in American states. Others suggest how hard the Japanese are finding it to come to terms with their place in the world.

A photograph was ordered deleted from one book: it showed hostile American press reaction to Mr Yasuhiro Nakasone’s careless remark (expressing a view most of his countrymen share) that America’s power was being sapped by its racial diversity. Out went another book’s reference to the compulsory fingerprinting of foreign residents in Japan. The Ministry ordered the word “fascism” stricken from a passage on the Manchurian occupation: there was, it said, no consensus that Japanese militarism was fascist. Yet, say the Ministry’s critics, the books praise the occupation for developing Manchuria’s economy. The loudest critic of the text-

book policy is the Japan Teachers’ Union (Nikkyoso), which represents about half of all teachers and wants them left free to choose the books they use. Nikkyoso also dislikes what it sees as the Ministry’s growing support for nationalism in the classroom. Students are now required to have an hour of “moral education” a week. Beginning in 1992, they will also get three hours a week of “life” classes, intended to teach discipline. Such classes were taught before the war but discontinued after it. Nikkyoso claims that other changes to take effect in 1992 will require Japan’s schools to fly the flag and sing the national anthem on important occasions. This happens in many other countries, including America. In Japan, however, the flag and anthem still stir memories of the 19305. They will have to be laid to rest before Japan can feel comfortable about becoming more like other countries. Copyright — The Economist