S Korea lodges protest with Japan over new textbooks' descriptions

Korea just trying to remind the rest of the world that Japanese history textbook is non-factual and keep showing alternative fact. If anyone want a proof, ask to Japanese about WW2 and anyone that non Japanese can tell how that deviate from the real history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies

The islets are disputed, so why wouldn't Japan show them as Japanese? And as for the wartime force labor, it's an elementary school textbook. Isn't that more appropriate for high school?

Yeh the japanese "History" books are a little fictional at times!

South Korea needs to man up and agree to settle the Liancourt Rocks dispute at the International Court of Justice. Japan has requested ICJ settlement THREE TIMES and South Korea has refused each time.

As long as South Korea refuses to settle the dispute by the rule of law as practiced by civilized countries, they have no right to comoplain about whatever Japan chooses to put in their textbooks. From their perspective, the Liancourt Rocks are Japanese territory. South Korea is doing nothing to change that.

This issue aside, it is South Korea that needs to change it's whitewashed history in it's textbooks and teach their students about Korea's actual role in WWII instead of pretending to be just a "victim". How many young South Koreans are aware that there were many Korean WAr Criminals convicted at the Tokyo Trials, and one Korean General was executed as a Class-A criminal? That Koreans are also honored at Yasukuni? Until South Korea comes to grips with it's own true history and textbooks, it should refrain from commenting on any other country's textbooks.

These Japanese textbooks are dead boring anyway. Might just as well hand out copies of Yoshinori Kobayashi's books to the kids. That version of the history should please most people on this thread.

OssanAmericaToday  08:26 am JST

*South Korea needs to man up and agree to settle the Liancourt Rocks dispute at the International Court of Justice. Japan has requested ICJ settlement THREE TIMES and South Korea has refused each time.*

*As long as South Korea refuses to settle the dispute by the rule of law as practiced by civilized countries, they have no right to comoplain about whatever Japan chooses to put in their textbooks. From their perspective, the Liancourt Rocks are Japanese territory. South Korea is doing nothing to change that.*

This issue aside, it is South Korea that needs to change it's whitewashed history in it's textbooks and teach their students about Korea's actual role in WWII instead of pretending to be just a "victim". How many young South Koreans are aware that there were many Korean WAr Criminals convicted at the Tokyo Trials, and one Korean General was executed as a Class-A criminal? That Koreans are also honored at Yasukuni? Until South Korea comes to grips with it's own true history and textbooks, it should refrain from commenting on any other country's textbooks.

5,700 B & C class war criminals were convicted and of those 148 were Koreans. That's 2%.

Of the 148 Koreans, 129 were forcefully abducted by Japan. After serving years of imprisonment then being relocated to Sugamo prison, many reclaimed their Korean citizenship yet the Japanese government vehemently insisted that since they were 'Japanese citizens' at the time of their crimes. they had had to serve their full sentences.

Further when released, they weren't given financial compensation and other benefits as other Japanese military veterans because they weren't considered Japanese citizens.

Focusing on a measly, insignificant 2% of which the majority were abducted by the Japanese from Korea, is just an attempt of deflecting the issue which is Japanese textbook revisions.

The constant revising of textbooks has been going on since the 1950's. That's 70 years of trying to rewrite history to not portray Japan in a negative light regardless of the evidence. This is pure example of revisionism. Most of those opposed to the revisions were Japanese such as Kasahara, Saburo, etc., and not foreigners.

Though not the only reason, Japan's continual history of changing the content in history books is one reason why other Asian nations refuse to let go of the past. If Japan refuses to let go of the past, them they certainly can't blame others for doing the same.

Somebody said “whoever wins the war, rewrites history”.

@sakurasuki

Here is an original source of your wiki reference under "Studies".

In contrast to American and Chinese textbooks Japanese history textbooks offer no strong narrative about the war. This is surprising given that many different war stories circulate in Japan’s public discourse and popular culture: as a war of aggression that did great damage to the peoples; as a war for the liberation of Asia from Western colonialism; as a war fought by heroic but doomed soldiers; as a war that the Japanese people themselves “victims”; and so forth. None of these stories find their way into the Japanese textbooks in undiluted form. Compared to the American and Chinese history textbooks their tone is muted, neutral, and almost bland. Perhaps it is this affectless neutrality that so infuriates not only the Japanese right-wing but also Chinese and Korean critics. The Japanese history textbooks do not tell the stories that they want to hear—or are used to hearing. The Japanese textbooks make no attempt to glorify or justify the war, to portray Japan as the “victim” of outside forces, or to offer an apologia for wartime atrocities. Nor do they absolve the Japanese civilian public of supporting the war effort. If there is an overarching narrative in the Japanese textbooks it is almost a Biblical tale of sin, redemption and recovery.

https://fsi9-prod.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Divided-Memory_In-house_2008.pdf

Not so much comment on Korean textbook other than this.

Coverage of the war is quite limited in Korean textbooks, which focus primarily on the anti-Japanese resistance movements. No mention is made of the war in Europe, reference to the war in China is limited, and no mention is made of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

So tell us, where did you come up with your idea "Japanese history textbook is non-factual and keep showing alternative fact."?

@tictactogo

Japan try to make certain event in history becoming softer than it should be. Which can easily help ultranationalist to get support since most people have no idea what Japan really did in the past.

https://www.dw.com/en/japans-nationalist-school-books-teach-a-different-view-of-history/a-40092325

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21226068

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/world/asia/01japan.html

Here we go again... South Korea always seems to be looking for some sort of stick to beat Japan with... it's never ending.

Using Japan’s example, is it acceptable for Russians to conclude that the Ukrainians attacked them in the current conflict. Or for the Nazi regime to claim that 6 million Jews committed suicide ? Japan will be destined to repeat its barbarian past by falsifying the true history in Japanese school textbooks

5,700 B & C class war criminals were convicted and of those 148 were Koreans. That's 2%.

Of the 148 Koreans, 129 were forcefully abducted by Japan. 

Here we go, another attempt to create their own history. Conscription started in 1944 and majority of those Koreans conscripted were still under military training when WAR was OVER!. Besides what on earth do you mean by forcibly abducted ? ABDUCTED? 　No they were conscripted from 1944, so were all young Japanese in mainland. So were all those young girls in Japan for corp labors. They were all Japanese citizen. So many Korean male willingly applied to military jobs which had 50 times competition ratio until

conscription started in 1944, and you call they were forcibly abducted..... Perhaps, you think Current SK is still forcibly abducting young males and BTS cannot be exceptional.

So is comfort women issue despite they have existed through WW2, in Korea, so is wartime labor issues despite almost all of those raised their own hands and chose to earn money in Japan, Korean fabrication would never see the end of it... Korean pride has the only footstep which is Japan and ILLEGAL ANNEXATION. It ignores everything, EVERYTHING ELSE.

The truth is far too tough to handle

OK.　Those anti-Japan posters , I suggest you all to read, once and for all, all those academic papers and books (which have been prohibited). Her country does not allow anything, anyone who describe THE TRUTHS.

Who said SK is far more advanced democracy?

@sakurasuki

Your initial comment "Japanese history textbook is non-factual and keep showing alternative fact" and later comment "Japan try to make certain event in history becoming softer than it should be" are two different things. I may agree on your later comment to some extent, but it certainly is not up to other nations to decide because that would be interference in the domestic affairs, wouldn't it? For that same reason, Japan never complained about Chinese or Korean history textbooks mainly designed to imprint grudge and hatred against Japan.

MilesTegToday  02:18 pm JST

5,700 B & C class war criminals were convicted and of those 148 were Koreans. That's 2%.

Which is not only not taught in South Korean schools but outright denied. Are they taught about General Hong Sa Ik?

Of the 148 Koreans, 129 were forcefully abducted by Japan.

LOL! Absolute nonsense. No Koreans were "abducted" to serve in the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces. Over 200,000 Korean men served, the vast majority willingly. Because conscription on the Korean Penninsula did not even start until mid 1944 when the tide of the war turned against Japan. This is another example of the Korean practice of outright lying to evade responsibility. Was Hong Sa Ik "abducted" from Korea and "forced" to become a General?

Though not the only reason, Japan's continual history of changing the content in history books is one reason why other Asian nations refuse to let go of the past.

A country like South Korea which teaches complete revisionist history to it's students is in no position to point fingers at Japan's textbooks. "Other Asian nations"?? South Korea is the only Asian nation apart from the PRC that continues to use antu-JPN sentiment and lies (yes lies) as a political and diplomatic weapon.

The Yoon administration has put the first small chink in the wall to change that. But it will take decades to eliminatie the teaching of revsionist history in South Korea.

@MilesTeg

In Korean textbooks, we may learn that all Koreans who were in Japan at the time, regardless of gender, were forcibly taken away, women were forced into prostitution, and men were forced into forced labor or military service, but the reality is completely different. increase.

Just as conscription is commonplace in Korea today, Japan at the time gradually changed from a voluntary system in 1938 to a conscription system as the war situation worsened.

Regarding war criminals, there is no evidence that Japanese superior officers forced Koreans to abuse prisoners of war. Most were found guilty. It is common for them to serve prison sentences for crimes against humanity. After that, he became a Korean citizen, so it is a problem that the Korean government should guarantee from the security deposit in 1965.

The same can be said about the current self-proclaimed forced laborers who were just migrant workers, and the comfort women who have no evidence other than testimony that they were sex slaves.

Japan's history is history, but China's is propaganda, and South Korea's is fantasy.

I don't think hiding the facts is good for Koreans, but it can't be undone.

@blue

From 1944, and when things went south as in South Pole South for the IJA were they forced to join, basically as "cannon fodder" for what had become a meat grinder

WAR(s) were already over before majority of Koreans conscripted by law had finished military training and ready to land on the battlefields. Besides, actual statistic look making your description unfit.

The ratio of death(killed in action)+unidentified(lost) Korean soldiers/civilian employees for IJA who could not return home is 9.2% whereas the one for Japanese is 29.4%

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%9D%E9%AE%AE%E4%BA%BA%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E5%85%B5

As to why Koreans would actually want to join the IJA until 1943, may the extend of land spoliation from the Koreans by the Japanese and the resulting poverty be an explanation.

So, those young Koreans had tried to join IJA struggling through high competitions presenting application form written in their own blood because their parents lost their lands?  BS.  That Land Spoliation theory is the myth created by fantasists with no evidence. Read “ Anti-Japan tribalism”

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%9D%E9%AE%AE%E4%BA%BA%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E5%85%B5

Of the 5,400,000 Koreans conscripted, about 670,000 were taken to mainland Japan

*Wait. This American geographer born in North Korea did not use the word correctly.*

*Regardless the doubtful figure of 5,400,000 ( as of 1940, Korean male populace aged 20~40 was 3.2million, and female populace aged 12~21 was 1.2million…), *it is not conscription(forcible mobilization) but just mobilization( majority was the result of job recruitments).

大韓民国国定教科書では、650万人の朝鮮人が強制的に動員され、数十万人の朝鮮女性が強制的に慰安婦にされたと記載された[113]。しかし、李栄薫ソウル大学教授は1940年当時の20歳から40歳の朝鮮人男性は321万人で、16歳から21歳の朝鮮女性は125万人であるため、この数値は虚構であり、日本帝国による被害が誇張されていると批判した

1 guy who volunteered vs 5,400,000 deported / forced individuals? Whataboutism at its best (worst).

Here we go again. You making the same kind of mistake, regardless accuracy of the total number, What do you mean by deported/forced? Most of Koreans were mobilized inside the peninsula, which counts 82% of total mobilization.

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E7%B5%B1%E6%B2%BB%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3%E3%81%AE%E6%9C%9D%E9%AE%AE%E4%BA%BA%E5%BE%B4%E7%94%A8#%E4%BA%BA%E6%95%B0%E3%83%BB%E7%B7%8F%E6%95%B0

 Of the 5,400,000 Koreans conscripted, about 670,000 were taken to mainland Japan (including Karafuto Prefecture, present-day Sakhalin, now part of Russia) for civilian labor.

So according to this McCune, Shannon, 670,000 were taken to mainland Japan.  After War was all over and both Koreas independent, the same kind of number of Koreans all forcibly conscripted/deported to THE HELL decided to stay in Japan( this excludes Sakhalin of course) as Koreans…. BS.

As of 1959 July, total number of Korean residents registered in Japan was about 610,000, of those, total number of Koreans who came to Japan being forcibly conscripted by war time mobilization law was only 245.

朝日新聞 1959年7月13日版

大半、自由意思で居住

外務省、在日朝鮮人で発表

戦時徴用は245人

在日朝鮮人の北朝鮮帰還をめぐって韓国側などで「在日朝鮮人の大半は戦時中に日本政府が強制労働をさせるためにつれてきたもので、いまでは不要になったため送還するのだ」との趣旨の中傷を行なっているのに対し、外務省はこのほど「在日朝鮮人の引揚に関するいきさつ」について発表した。これによれば在日朝鮮人の総数は約六十一万人だが、このうち戦時中に徴用労務者として日本に来た者は二百四十五人にすぎないとされている。主な内容は次の通り。

一、戦前（昭和十四年）に日本内地に住んでいた朝鮮人は約百万人で、終戦直前（昭和二十年）には約二百万人となった。増加した百万人のうち、七十万人は自分から進んで内地に職を求めてきた個別渡航者と、その間の出生によるものである。残りの三十万人は大部分、工鉱業、土木事業の募集に応じて来た者で、戦時中の国民徴用令による徴用労務者はごく少数である。また、国民徴用令は日本内地では昭和十四年七月に実施されたが、朝鮮への適用はさしひかえ、昭和十九年九月に実施されており、朝鮮人徴用労務者が導入されたのは、翌年三月の下関-釜山間の運航が止るまでのわずか七ヵ月間であった。

一、終戦後、昭和二十年八月から翌年三月まで、希望者が政府の配給、個別引揚げで合計百四十万人が帰還したほか、北朝鮮へは昭和二十一年三月、連合国の指令に基く北朝鮮引揚計画で三百五十人が帰還するなど、終戦時までに在日していた者のうち、七五％が帰還している。戦時中に来日した労務者、復員軍人、軍属などは日本内地になじみが薄いため終戦後、残留した者はごく少数である。現在、登録されている在日朝鮮人は総計六十一万人で、関係各省で来日の事情を調査した結果、戦時中に徴用労務者としてきた者は二百四十五人にすぎず、現在、日本に居住している者は犯罪者を除き、自由意思によって在留した者である。

@blue

 That Land Spoliation theory is the myth created by fantasists with no evidence

Such baseless myth( like...Governor-General of Korea spoliated more than 40~50% of Korean Lands or Most of land owners were Japanese) has been completely refuted by actual empirical research filled up with actual statistical figures which those liars spewing such myth have never presented.

I am sure you can read Japanese.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://harc.tokyo/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/3e29d176ebb1651ddb90a4d5a62c1142.pdf

This myth has been spread everywhere, not to mention English-Wiki, it is still there at Japanese-Wiki, and even in some Japanese official high school text books . Hope those errors be revised properly soon.