Something About Textbooks

On Tuesday Japan approved a new textbook for it's middle school students that will be introduced in 2006. The textbook in question "rewrites" history to make Japan look better during WWII. One example is with "comfort women": The new textbook claims that these were widows (husbands killed by the Japanese) who went willingly with the Japanese army because they wanted to have sex. The textbook also claims that many Koreans welcomed the Japanese occupation that began in 1910 and finally ended at the end of WWII. These are just a couple of examples. Since Tuesday there have been protests in both South Korea and China. On the weekend more than 20,000 protesters took to the streets in southern China urging consumers to boycott Japanese goods. Here's where it gets interesting. During the protests the Japanese Embassy was peleted with bottles. On Sunday Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura summoned China's ambassador to Japan for a scolding: "We formally demand China's apology and compensation." Now that is interesting. Besides "rewriting history" Japan is also trying to get a seat on the UN's Security Council. South Korea and China both strongly oppose Japan's proposal based on the fact that Japan has never "apologized or given adequate compensation" to the Asian countries they invaded leading up to and during WWII. I doubt very much that Japan will receive the apology or compensation they are seeking, given that Asian countries have been demanding the same from Japan for more than half a century.