Fleshing out History’s Truths

Academicians from China, Japan and South Korea have jointly published a
history textbook on recent East Asian history,
opening a new page in regional cooperation

By DING YING

NEW OPTION: The jointly compiled history textbook gives Chinese students a different angle to view East Asia’s past

MULTILINGUAL: A Japanese compiler shows the joint textbook published in Japanese, Korean and Chinese at a news conference in Tokyo

MORE ACCEPTABLE: Publishers unveil the textbook in Seoul

DISTORTIONS MUST GO: Japanese director Tomoko Kana introduces her documentary film on Japan’s aggression in China during World War II

HISTORY UNDENIABLE: South Korean women, who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II, shout slogans during a protest against a controversial Japanese textbook in Seoul

It is said that “history is a mirror,” and so should faithfully relate events as they occur so that people can draw important lessons from it.

With relations between Japan and its neighbors still rocky, academicians from China, Japan and South Korea came out with a history textbook recognizing their countries’ recent history in late May.

“This book has a totally different point of view of history from the right-wing Japanese history textbook, which whitewashes its militaristic past and its atrocities in Asia before and during World War II,” said Bu Ping, a leading Chinese compiler of the book. “We are targeting youngsters of our three nations, especially those from Japan. They have not experienced the war and do not have a clear understanding of the war. We are responsible for telling them the history.”

Sixty years after the end of World War II, Tokyo’s reluctance to own up to its acts of aggression in Asia has angered Asians, including the Japanese. In early May, the approval of a history textbook by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, which is criticized for whitewashing Japan’s wartime history, sparked the latest wave of criticism from neighboring countries. The textbook is meant for use in junior high schools from the academic year of 2006. Protests and demonstrations have erupted in major cities of China, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries, which suffered the most from Japan’s wartime aggression.

The disagreement on this period of history not only affected political relations, but also started to influence economic ties between the countries involved. Historians and academicians felt that rectifying this distorted historical account would go a long way in easing a worsening situation.

According to Zhu Chengshan, Curator of the Memorial Hall to Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, as early as in 2001, when the first version of the controversial Japanese textbook, compiled by the right-wing Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, was released, it was strongly opposed by East Asian countries for its serious distortion of World War II events. Historians from China, Japan and South Korea held a workshop to discuss East Asian history in China’s Nanjing in 2002. Japanese academicians suggested that a history textbook should be jointly compiled by the three countries, and this proposal received warm response from the participants. A joint committee, including 50 academicians, teachers and representatives of nongovernmental organizations of the three countries, got working on the book in March 2002.

It has taken more than three years to complete the textbook entitled History to Open the Future. Chinese scholars involved in the project admit the book aims to fight the history-distorting Japanese history textbook.

This is the first time academicians from China, Japan and South Korea have worked together on a history textbook, which comes in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. The book, comprising five chapters and a large number of photos and illustrations, covers East Asian history over the 1850-2000 period. Events such as the Lugouqiao Incident in 1937 that marked the Japanese army’s all-out invasion of China, as well as the Nanjing Massacre in December 1937 during which an estimated 300,000 unarmed Chinese civilians and soldiers were killed, are recounted impersonally.

Besides, accounts of “comfort women,” as well as the Japanese army’s launch of “germ warfares,” which find little mention in Japanese history textbooks, run alongside the history of post-war reconstruction and educational reform in East Asian countries, including Japan.

“We are trying to help young generations in the three countries open a wide eye on history, especially recent history involving us,” said Curator Zhu. He also pointed out that a number of historical documents, such as photos and records used in the book, come from the collections of many historians and are being made public for the first time.

The road to consensus on the history was not an easy one. “Disagreements did exist between us compilers, not on the historic facts, but on how to reflect those facts,” said Bu Ping, who is also deputy director of the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He pointed out that “mutual understanding” helps things along.

For example, Bu noted, the Japanese participants did recognize that China suffered under Japan’s aggression during World War II, but were only vaguely aware of the extent of the agony. In the meantime, they had a more vivid picture of the U.S. atom bombs that landed in Japan in 1945.

“That is why I believe a neutral stance is important. Japan was an invader to Asian neighbors during the war, but its civilians were also the victims. Similar conceptions are important to all countries involved,” Bu continued.

According to the Far East International Military Tribunal of 1946, more than 200,000 Chinese civilians were killed in the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese army, but China’s statistics show actually at least 300,000 people were slaughtered. “After discussions with Japanese academicians, we used both figures in the textbook,’’ said Curator Zhu.

Bu acknowledged there were also similar dissensions on Japan’s colonial reign in South Korea during the first half of the 20th century. “But, we finally got consensus on major historical events. I think the process is more important than the result.”

The result is, in fact, good. Although the textbook is not compulsory study material in any country, it has been greatly welcomed. In Japan and South Korea, more than 20,000 copies were sold out in each country one week after the book’s publication in early June, while in China the number is expected to hit 100,000. “We are very surprised at this result, since the compilation and publication of the textbook have neither government support, nor big promotion campaigns,” said Bu, adding that Japanese and South Korean publishers have received orders for reprint of the textbook.

The joint project has opened up a new mode of nongovernmental communication and proved that it can help stabilize relations between countries, according to Bu.

The researcher believes in the 21st century, peace and development are what should drive the international community. Conflicts should be resolved through dialogue and negotiation. “In this age of globalization, people should know not only the history of their own countries, but also the history of other countries, so as to understand one another better,” Bu noted.

“This textbook is a good try,” said Su Zhiliang, a historian from the Shanghai Normal University. “We can go further on the joint history textbook compilation.” For example, he noted, scholars and historians from all East Asian countries could jointly compile a textbook, to promote the integration of East Asia.

“Some facts have never before been mentioned in textbooks, but they should not be skipped,” said Su Zhiliang.