A few days ago, a Japanese chain of tutoring institutions deleted the history textbook related to the Nanjing Massacre, which attracted strong criticism on social media. Japanese media reported that under the pressure of public opinion, the agency recently stated that it had withdrawn its previous decision.
Screenshot of the Asahi Shimbun report
Japan's "Asahi Shimbun" reported on October 14 that the Japanese chain tutoring agency "Suruga Preparatory School" had earlier deleted the nanjing massacre in its history textbooks, but after being opposed by the textbook writers and institutional lecturers, the school said it would withdraw the decision to delete.
The agency indicated that in the future, it would not adapt and delete the textbook without the consent of the textbook authors and the institutional lecturers, and that the school would further consult with the textbook authors on further processing after the withdrawal.
"Suruga Preparatory School" History Textbook Source: Asahi Shimbun
According to reports, in August this year, the "Suruga Preparatory School" deleted the history textbook related to the Nanjing Massacre and the disputed island of Dokdo (known to the Japanese side as "Takeshima"). Among them, the Nanjing Massacre deleted the content of "the number of Chinese people, surrendered soldiers, and prisoners who were tortured and killed more than 100,000 people".
On August 29, the images were posted on social media platforms, prompting strong criticism.
On September 27, about 60 lecturers from multiple disciplines such as history, physics and English jointly asked the school to withdraw the decision, believing that the school deleted the content of the textbook without the consent of the writers, and said that the lecturers should decide the content of the textbook themselves to ensure the freedom of teaching and research activities.
According to the school's staff, on September 17, the lecturer of the school said: "The incident has fermented on Twitter fever and has become a social problem." We are fully aware that textbooks cannot be modified without the author's permission. ”
After entering October, the school and the lecturers reached an agreement that they would not change or delete the content of the textbook without the consent of the textbook writers and lecturers, and withdrew the content deleted without the permission of the textbook writers, and the measures would be negotiated between the school and the textbook writers.
On Twitter, some Japanese netizens commented under relevant reports: "I hope to receive correct history education in schools, and I must let the correct history take root in Japan." ”
Nanjing Massacre Infographic
It is no accident that the "Suruga Preparatory School," a private institution, has "manipulated" history textbooks, not long ago, with the intention of distorting historical facts and downplaying Japan's crime of aggression. It can be said that Japanese officials have established "negative teaching materials" for such practices.
On September 8 this year, Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced that five textbook publishers had submitted "revised" applications to delete or change the expressions "comfort women with the army" and "captivity", and the Ministry of Culture, Sports, Science and Technology had approved it on the same day.
According to Kyodo News Agency, the textbooks published by these publishing houses, "comfort women accompanying the army", will be directly expressed as "comfort women", and "forced" laborers will use the words "requisitioned" labor to make textbook expressions. These include textbooks currently used in Japan and textbooks that will be used from next spring. This move has aroused strong condemnation from all parties.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry expressed "deep regret," saying that the coercion of the Japanese military to mobilize, recruit, and transfer comfort women was an undeniable historical fact.
The Japanese citizens' group "Children and Textbooks National Network" also protested against the Japanese government's practices, pointing out that "the Japanese government is using power to interfere in historical terms and expressions" and that "this incident has created a precedent that according to the Japanese government's ideas, the expressions in textbooks can be changed at any time."