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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, SEPTEMBER 3, 1982
PAGE 9
and television re-released photographs and newsreel footage of Japanese
military brutality committed in the 19 30' s and 40's.
The papers also
carried herrifying new reports of Japanese germ-warfare experiments in
which 3,000 Chinese prisoners reportedly died.
Prime Minister Suzuki has announced that in the wake of the sea of protests
he would approve changes to make the passages in the new books "more appro
priate" to the wishes of Japan's neighbors. He will have a tough time of
it, however, with Education Ministry officials who are described as "un
repentant and defiant."
Mr. Suzuki himself did little to calm Asian fears recently when he became
the first post-war chief of government to pay official homage at the Shinto
shrine dedicated to Japanese military dead. He and his entire cabinet led
more than 7,000 guests in a service mourning the war dead, including those
executed by allied occupation forces as war criminals.
For a background to these disturbing events in the Far East, first is this
account from the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, August 12, 1982:
The question might be asked: Why has Japan suddenly decided on
the need to rewrite history? In fact, the process has been under
way for 30 years. But the current revisions are the most sweep
ing, and clumsy Japanese explanations of the need for such revi
sions have merely exacerbated foreign anger. A Japanese Cabinet
member, for example, made a statement that the Japanese occupa
tion of the Korean Peninsula was justified and even beneficial.
Essentially, Japan feels it is now a powerful, free nation that
doesn't have to accept other countries' version of history. Over
the past three decades, the Education Ministry, with powerful
support from within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has
battled tirelessly for a "correct Japanese view" of the war,
which it thought was ignored by the American occupation and then
the left-wing-dominated teachers union (Nikkyoso) ••••
Japanese education over the past 30 years, in fact, has been a
pitched battle between Nikkyoso and the Education Ministry, which
the latter now feels it has won through the elimination of
"biased textbooks••.." Part of the government's motivation, it
could be argued, is to promote national pride and patriotism and
make possession of a strong defense force respectable again.
In the August 6, 1982 LOS ANGELES TIMES, syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman
discusses that the dilemma now confronting Japan is one that many powers
have had as they attempt to deal with the skeletons of their national his
tory.
As of this fall, the Japanese will no longer have
sions" in China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
"advanced."
In the rape of Nanking, they will
"killed and assaulted" 200,000 Chinese willfully
the midst of the confusion.•••"
launched "inva
They will have
have no longer
but rather "in
To understand the impulse of the Japanese Education Ministry,
just imagine the difficulty of teaching young children about the