BEIJING, (Xinhua): China has lodged a serious protest with the Japanese side concerning distorted narratives related to history in Japan’s textbooks to be used by high school students from 2027, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday.
It was reported that Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on March 24 reviewed high school textbooks to be used from 2027. Some textbooks include descriptions suggesting there was no coercion regarding “comfort women” and forced labor, and assert that Diaoyu Dao is “Japan’s inherent territory.”
“To obscure historical facts, play down Japan’s war crimes and seek to evade responsibility by playing on words when reviewing textbooks is Japan’s go-to tactic to deny and distort its history of aggression,” Lin said at a regular news briefing.
He said China strongly deplores and firmly opposes Japan’s move and has lodged a serious protest with the Japanese side.
Japan has yet to make a clean break with militarism after the war, and its Yasukuni Shrine still honors 14 convicted Class-A war criminals. Forcibly recruiting “comfort women” and labor is a serious crime against humanity that Japanese militarists committed during their aggression and expansion, Lin said, adding that these are historical facts clear to the whole world and backed by solid evidence, and there’s no way they can be denied.
He stressed that Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands have been China’s territory since ancient times, over which China has indisputable sovereignty. “No matter what small tricks the Japanese side uses regarding textbooks, they cannot change the fact that Diaoyu Dao belongs to China. Any attempt to undermine China’s territorial sovereignty is futile.”
China noted that the Republic of Korea has also lodged serious démarches with the Japanese side to protest against contents about Dokdo and “comfort women” in the textbooks, Lin said.
“This shows that Japanese far-right forces’ moves of distorting history and misleading Japanese people in their view of history have triggered high alert and strong indignation from the international community, including its Asian neighbors,” he said.
“We seriously urge the Japanese side to look history in the eye, make a clean break with militarism, allow the young generation in Japan to know the true history,” he said, adding that Japan should properly handle historical issues in a responsible attitude and avoid further losing the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community.
