Japan Re-writes History Again (moved from ATSNN)

New history books that will be used in schools in Japan have a skewed look at Japan's military history. For example, 1937 in Nanjing China, the Japanese murdered over 30 thousand Chinese civilians and POW’s. Most countries and peoples consider this to been a massacre. To the new schoolbooks, it is only deemed as an incident. "Comfort Women" a term used to describe the women that were captured and then used as sex slaves by the Japanese military is not even mentioned.




Just another example of where history is does not necessarily reflect the facts. History as we know it actually reflects the author’s viewpoint or their sponsor and even their political alliance or nationality. Forget the facts; do not teach the truth, this is not only in Japan. It is something that every nation and every age have been guilty of. If a king wants to down play the murder of farmers for sport (LOUIS XVI) to even having the historians lie about their looks. Never trust history as written by one source, one people, or one nation. If you do, you will miss the truth


[edit on 5-4-2005 by kenshiro2012]

[edit on 5-4-2005 by kenshiro2012]

[edit on 5-4-2005 by kenshiro2012]

[edit on 5-4-2005 by kenshiro2012]

Its right, all countries try to hide from their shameful pasts.

Do British middle schoolers learn about the Dresden massacre and the thousands of civilians that were burnt to cinders? There was no justification for that and although Germany was the aggressor in the war there is still no right to intentionally kill all those civilians.

Japan shouldnt hide its past but with that said neither should other countries.

unfortunatly those who write history can and do make events look more towords the faver of the writer.

amuseingly i have a friend who was raised primarily in canada but has also lived in the us here and there as he is a us citizen. he is now a highschool teacher in canada though he recieved his teaching degree in the states. he has remarked on how canadian histery is differant from us history and the fact that canadian history is wrong. he is primarily a history teacher.

history is made by the winners. if germany had won ww2 then we would be hearing of the atrocities of the alies not the atrosities of the germans. the winner must always look like the "good guy". the looser the "bad guy". good always triumphs over evil.

i have always heard of "the rape of nanking".

This relates to the classic example of a car accident. One person will see the accident, and say one thing, another person will say another completely different thing. Both people belive they are right, but there can only be one truth. So how do you find out what the real truth is? You look at the same information from a variety of sources, and then "blend" them all together. What the result is will be something of the truth. It's hard to blend together two opposite views, but you can piece togther the "truth".

war is not about who's right and who's wrong, it's about the winner writes the history.

Do British middle schoolers learn about the Dresden massacre and the thousands of civilians that were burnt to cinders?

Yes we do learn about Dresden. We're also taught about the blitz on London. We're also taught about the destruction of Coventry, and any other number of times our civilians were bombed. It was a desperate time, which called for desperate measures. Not saying I agree with what was done in return, but look how much the British public suffered to force that decision.

There was no justification for that and although Germany was the aggressor in the war there is still no right to intentionally kill all those civilians.

Exactly the same could be said regarding Nagasaki and Hiroshima

The education ministry also ordered that all references to weapons of mass destruction NOT being found in Iraq be removed as well as the description of the US and allies' attack on Iraq being unilateral.


The move has cast a shadow over Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.


Protests have flared up in China and South Korea.