Talk:Japanese history textbook controversies

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I have wholly rewritten the article as announced earlier so that the title "Japanese history textbook controversies" correctly reflects the content now. The old content was moved to Anti-Japanese demonstrations, 2005 because it was almost exclusively on the anti-Japan protests of the last year (April 2005) and was way too lengthy to be included in an article on "Japanese history textbooks controversy" in general. Japanese history textbooks controversy is a much larger issue that spans more than 40 years than the 2005 protest (see Examining the Japanese History Textbook Controversies). Hermeneus (talk) 08:30, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

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I haven't checked this article in a while, and I must say this has become a whole lot more objective and informative than before. My compliments to Hermeneus. One small error though. "Despite the scale of the controversies, the New History Textbook was adopted by only 0.039% of junior high schools in Japan as of August 15, 2001." should read "0.039% of junior high school students ". If I recall correctly, the book reached about 300 students total. Much fewer than the allegedly "banned" Ienaga textbooks reached. 219.163.12.72 06:04, 7 December 2006 (UTC)Oscar_the_Grouch

One more comment. Maybe it should be written somewhere that inspite of the hoopla, among the eight textbooks authorized by the Japanese government, liberal textbooks (with emphasis on Korean and Chinese POV) still outsell conservative textbooks by a large margin.219.163.12.72 07:16, 21 December 2006 (UTC)Oscar_the_Grouch

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I've attended a lecture on a related topic: the Japanese denial of responsibility for thier barbarism towards other nationalities during WW2. One point of interest was a comparison of post-war-Germany with post-war-Japan. The Germans accepted responsibility for their actions while the Japanese have evaded all responsibility, consistantly denied any involvement, and have activly covered up their crimes by refusing to even teach the truth in their textbooks. One 'reason' that was given during the lecture is the 'cultural differences'. Chrisitan/European Germany has a 'confessional' culture (as in the Christian sacrament of 'confession'). Japanese society has a 'culture of shame' that internalizes their 'guilt'. Personally, I don't buy it. From my experience, the Japanese are a *very* racist society who look down on other cultures as inferior to their own. Trying to foist off racism as a 'cultural difference' is a pretty shabby excuse. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.67.104.4 (talk) 17:18, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Nah, you're right. If "Christian confessional culture" were behind it, then Italian revisionism would also not be happening, yet it does, and in no small measure. I think it's more to do with post-war geopolitical conditions and the amount of guilt that countries could safely shrug off in these same geopolitical conditions. Who gave the lecture, BTW? I mean, was it a Japanese or a non-Japanese? If it was a Japanese, than the given "reason" smacks of (intentional or unintentional) Nihonjinron... TomorrowTime (talk) 12:02, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] No mention of abuse of Koreans after Great Kantō earthquake

This article has nothing in it about how Japanese history textbooks have also white washed the atrocities committed against ethnic Koreans living in Japan at the time of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. BillyTFried (talk) 20:54, 20 April 2008 (UTC)