Japan rewrites history… again
And this time it isn’t the Chinese or Koreans they are offending, but their own people! Although whether the top hierarchy in Japanese government regard Okinawans as their own people is another matter, considering how they have been treated since it changed from the Ryukyu Kingdom and became part of Japan. Frequently they have been seen as the black sheep of the Japan family, and have been given the least government funding and roughest time of all the prefectures. It’s no coincidence that 75% of the US military forces stationed in Japan are in Okinawa. The “real” Japanese don’t want to be burdened with the forces and potential problems they could create, but Okinawans are supposedly expected to just deal with it quietly.
In the story below, Japan is once again trying to rewrite the history textbooks regarding actions during the Battle of Okinawa, and make future generations forget about their actions. This kind of action is quite scary to contemplate, and it’s no surprise that Okinawans are up-in-arms about this. This news article is taken from www.japanupdate.com - an English-language website and newspaper about news in Okinawa.
Battle of Okinawa history book revision angers Okinawans
Date Posted: 2007-04-05
Japanese high school textbooks have eliminated statements that Okinawans were forced by Japanese soldiers to commit suicide during the Battle of Okinawa, rather than be captured.
The order to modify textbooks came from the Education Ministry, and is being called a gross modern day revision of history. More than 94,000 Okinawans died during the three-month closing battle of World War II, with an estimated 25% committing suicide. The battle, referred to as the gtyphoon of steelh, claimed the lives of more than 200,000 including 12,520 Americans.
Screeners at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology asked the five textbook publishers to change the sections referring to suicides, eliminating any reference to Okinawans having been told to commit suicide. They said the old textbooks provided misunderstandings to students. The new approved verbage states gMass suicides and killings took place among the residents using hand grenades given them.h, deleting reference to the Japanese Army.
Okinawans vehemently disagree. Local Zamami and other Kerama Archipelago natives insist gOur ancestors told us Japanese military told local people women would be raped by the American military soldiers, and men would be run over by tanks, and said itfs better to die than be taken prisoner by the Americans.h Okinawans recall family members recounting the battle telling them gthe Japanese military gave grenades to everybody in Zamami Village, Tokashiki and others.h A former Japanese military commander says it didnft happen that way, saying ggrenades were very important, and Okinawans couldnft take them without permission, and also village people didnft know how to use them.h His comments were found in an American history document about the Battle of Okinawa.
Zamami Village leaders say gHistory shouldnft be changed by current people. Facts are facts.h One leaders says gMy house had grenades, and that means the military delivered them to every house for use in suicides.h
Okinawans do not want Japan to forget what happened here.
Masahide Ota was one who fought in the battle. He recalls ghand grenades, which were in extremely short supply, were distributed to residents. I heard people say they were told by the military to commit suicide using the grenades rather than becoming captives. Ota, now 82, surrendered four months after the battle ended, joined the ranks of Okinawa historians, and ultimately became Okinawafs governor in the years 1990-1998. Historians note a Japanese wartime slogan pitched heavily on Okinawa was gsoldiers and civilians must live and die together.h
Sumie Oshiro was a Battle of Okinawa survivor who was told directly by Japanese soldiers to kill themselves rather than be captured. gWe tried to kill ourselves many times,h she says, gbut the grenade we were given by the Japanese Army would not explode.h
Ota says gI saw civilians shot by Japanese soldiers when they came out of caves with their hands up to surrender. People were given two grenades. One was to throw at the Americans and one was to use on themselves.h
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Could you imagine if Germany started to rewrite it’s textbooks, missing out mentions of the Holocaust? There would be complete outrage, and rightly so. But here in Japan there will be protests by Okinawans that will undoubtedly have no effect on government policy in sweeping this part of Japanese history under the carpet.
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Bush and Blair do it every day about Iraq and Afghanistan, so they’re certainly not the first! Though I guess there are still some journalists over here and in the States who will ensure the truth also gets out.
I was chatting to a couple visiting from Michigan in Covent Garden last weekend (see there are some Brits in London some of the time), and they said they had been telling people they were from Canada rather than the US because of the shame and embarrassment of what Bush had caused. It’s very sad.
Bim x
This situation is quite different though. Here the government is changing school textbooks so that current and future generations will not know a significant part of their country’s history. They are doing this because they don’t want Japanese people to know the things that the Japanese military forced a certain, somewhat estranged part of their own population to do.