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New textbook reveals Japan's atrocities
By Qin Jize (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-08-17 01:30
A new history textbook aiming to put right mistakes made in a Japanese
version will be published by scholars from China, Japan and the Republic of
Korea.
The new book, named "A Common Book on the History of East Asian Countries,"
should go public next year, when Japanese textbooks will be inspected by the
Japanese education authorities for approval, said Bu Ping, deputy director of
the Institute of Modern History Research at the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences.
Japanese textbooks are inspected every four years.
Bu said the disputed Japanese textbook, which was written by a group of
right-wing Japanese academics, was approved in 2001 for use in high schools.
It failed to mention the atrocities the nation committed against the Chinese
in World War II.
The new book was spearheaded by a Japanese scholar who attended the First
Forum for History Recognition and East Asian Peace held in 2002 in Nanjing, the
capital of East China's Jiangsu Province. The forum has been held every year
since then.
Participants echoed the scholar's proposal and got together to compile what
they said should be a true account of the period.
More than 30 scholars from the three countries worked on the first draft,
which was completed in May.
Seven meetings about the book have been held over the past two years and an
eighth session will start in September in Beijing.
"It is difficult to agree on historical truth for people from different
countries and different cultural backgrounds, but it can and must be done for
the future of our children's education," said Bu, one of the authors.
"We have reached agreement from the academic sector at last," he said. The
final version should be finished in January.
Difficulties in translation have also held up the compilation. .
The book aims to give a full account of the history of east Asian countries
from the mid-19th century to the end of world War II, in 1945.
It will be published at the same time in three languages.
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