Huge Japan protest over textbook

Huge Japan Protest Over Textbook

Last Updated: Saturday, 29 September 2007, 21:49 GMT 22:49 UK

More than 100,000 people in Japan have rallied against changes to school books detailing Japanese military involvement in mass suicides during World War II.

The protest, in Okinawa, was against moves to modify and tone down passages that say the army ordered Okinawans to kill themselves rather than surrender.

Okinawa's governor told crowds they could not ignore army involvement.

Some conservatives in Japan have in recent years questioned accounts of the country's brutal wartime past.

Saturday's rally was the biggest staged on the southern island since it was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, according to the Kyodo News agency.

Grenades

When US soldiers invaded Okinawa at the end of World War II, more than 200,000 people died.
Hundreds of them were Japanese civilians who killed themselves.

The textbooks, intended for use in high schools next year, currently say that as the Americans prepared to invade, the Japanese army handed out grenades to Okinawa residents and ordered them to kill themselves.

Many survivors insist the military told people to commit suicide, partly due to fears over what they might tell the invaders and because being taken prisoner was considered shameful.
The governor of Okinawa, Hirokazu Nakaima, told crowds the episode should not be forgotten.
"We cannot bury the fact that the Japanese military was involved in the mass suicide, taking into account of the general background and testimonies that hand grenades were delivered," he said.

Japan's Kyodo news agency said Saturday's rally was the biggest staged on the southern island since it was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972.

Okinawa anger at textbook plans

Friday 22 June 2007

The Japanese island of Okinawa has reacted furiously to government plans to revise textbook accounts of army activities during World War II.

Okinawa politicians are protesting against a decision to tone down reports that the army ordered civilians to commit mass suicide at the war's end

Okinawa was the scene of one of the war's bloodiest battles.
Some conservatives in Japan have in recent years questioned accounts of the country's brutal wartime past.

It is an undeniable fact that mass suicides could not have occurred without the involvement of the Japanese military

Okinawa assembly

Only this week, a group of MPs from the right-wing ruling party claimed China had exaggerated the number of people killed by Japanese troops in Nanjing in 1937.

And Prime Minister Shinzo Abe drew condemnation abroad earlier this year after he questioned whether there was any proof that Japan's military coerced women to work as sex slaves during the war.

'Important issue'
Many Okinawa civilians, including entire families, committed suicide rather than surrender to US forces after the 1945 Battle of Okinawa that left more than 200,000 dead.

Eyewitness accounts and historical research say government propaganda led civilians to believe they would face terrible atrocities if they were captured by US forces.

Japanese troops were reported to have handed out grenades to residents and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to US soldiers.

The education ministry ordered publishers last March to make changes to several textbooks, which must then go before a government-appointed panel for approval.

Okinawa's local assembly unanimously approved a statement on Friday criticising the move.
"It is an undeniable fact that mass suicides could not have occurred without the involvement of the Japanese military," the assembly said.

The politicians called on the government to "retract its instruction... so the truth of the Battle of Okinawa will be correctly conveyed and such a tragic war will never happen again".
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki was quoted by the Associated Press as saying the education ministry would take "appropriate measures" in line with process.

"We understand this is an extremely important issue for the people of Okinawa," he said.