Here’s an interesting column by Gwynne Dyer in the Winnepeg Free Press about how two cultures deal with historical events that are believed to have happened by a majority of the civilized world, but that might be to their advantage to distort, minimize or deny altogether.
The two cases in point: a) how the Japanese deal in their history books with the period between 1890 and 1945, when leaders of their country tried to conquer most of Asia, causing the deaths of millions of Chinese, and, in a different vein, b) how many Muslims of the Middle East, particularly in the last few years, demonize the Jews by denying the occurance of the Holocaust and promoting what they consider to be “the myth of the Holocaust.” Dyer is quick to point out the difference between the two though; the Arab deniers of the Holocaust are falsifying someone else’s history , not their own.
Falsifying someone else’s history
Speaking about “falsifying someone else’s history”, does anyone here know if the US is still preaching Manifest Destiny in the K-12 schools? I saw it up until the early 80’s at least.