A joint editorial committee of scholars from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea is writing a new history textbook to resist efforts to white-wash Japan’s militaristic past.
The committee has published two books: The Contemporary and Modern History of Three East Asian Countries in 2005 and A Modern History of East Asia Beyond the Boundaries in 2012. A third book is expected to be completed in 2020, according to committee members who attended the history seminar in Nanjing.
Li Xizhu, a fellow of the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said scholars from the three countries reached a consensus and said the focus of the book is “to address the differences in how we, the three countries, see history and to respond to the current debate on historical issues.”
Scholars agree that a correct perception of history is the foundation for reconciliation in East Asia.
Japanese scholar Kasahara Tokushi said history textbooks in Japan contain fewer and increasingly more obscure contents on the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.
Japanese troops captured Nanjing, then China’s capital, on Dec. 13, 1937 and started slaughtering people which lasted for more than 40 days. About 300,000 civilians and Chinese soldiers who had laid down their arms were murdered. Over 20,000 women were raped.
Tokushi warned that if teachers can’t teach it, and if media does not report on it, then it will be harder for young Japanese to learn the truth.
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Chinese, Japanese, Koreans co-author new history textbook
