Japanese textbooks

Anti-Japan riots spread in China. The Chinese are not satisfied with the attempts of Japan to become a permanent member of the U.N. security council (this bid is supported by the U.S. while China not only opposes it, but probably wants India to become a permanent member), and with the new Japanese history textbooks that seem to downplay the evils of the Japanese aggressions against its Asian neighbors.

For example, the textbooks in the past used to talk about the "comfort women" i.e. the employees of the military brothels (a part of the Japanese war policy at that time). Most of them were Japanese, but some of them were Korean or Chinese. Most of the new textbooks fail to mention the "comfort women" and other war topics. These textbooks may be viewed as a victory of the Japanese nationalist groups that have fought against the "masochist" education that was undermining the national identity.

In Shanghai, 20,000 protesters attacked cars and restaurants that had something to do with Japan. There were also 10,000 protesters doing similar things in Hangzhou where Andy Strominger, his family, and his collaborators are having a great time. Let's pray - or do a rational equivalent of it if there is one - that the situation won't become dangerous for them. Japan demands an official apology from China - a country that apparently failed to prevent the violence; China seems to blame Japan's "wrong attitude" for these protests.




Shing-Tung Yau was explaining us that the current education system in Japan is very nationalistic. But there are many statements one cannot be certain about. I would recommend both nations to think about the present and the future - which means to tollerate different interpretations of history as long as these interpretations don't influence the present and the future. Well, this is definitely not a universal recipe for peace and friendship - China wants to become the Asian number one instead of its rival, Japan - but given the fact that the co-operation and trade is important for both countries, the future is probably a better guide than the past.

Finally, representative Chinese and Japanese newspapers:

• japantoday.com
• chinaview.cn