Kathleen writes “It is not right to look at history through narrow nationalism.
Publishers from China, Japan and South Korea have gathered in Beijing to launch the Chinese version of a new textbook that seeks to set the record straight on the region’s history. The book is seen as a response to attempts by right-wingers in Japan to gloss over the country’s wartime atrocities.”
the difference
Nationalism isn’t the equivalent of whitewashing as this seems to imply. Japan needs to be honest with itself but letting China write its history is like letting the Soviets write ours.
The last paragraph: “Researchers say the book will still be limited as to how much influence it will have in Japan. The key to letting Japanese people know the truth, they say, lies in the Japanese government’s attitude towards history.”
Let’s not forget that unlike China, Japan’s government, like ours, *is* the people.