Civic group blasts approval of controversial textbooks

TOKYO - A Japanese civic group called criticized the Japanese government for approving controversial middle school textbooks, requesting the government to reword them, local media reported Tuesday.

The "Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21," a non- governmental organization formed in 1998 to resist historical revisionism, said the Japanese people need to cultivate independent ability to judge by learning views different from the government.

On Monday, the Education Ministry approved middle school textbooks with language that asserts its ownership over disputed islands and downplays the country's responsibility for World War II.

"There are plenty of problems in the expressions of those textbooks," the civic group said in a statement. "They totally copy the government's views and refrain from mentioning South Korea and China's position."

All 18 of the textbooks approved for use in middle schools beginning next April describe China's Diaoyu Islands, claimed by Japan as Senkaku Islands, and the Dokdo Islands, under effective control of South Korea, as Japanese territory.

The new books also revised its expressions over Japan's wartime atrocities during World War II. On the infamous Nanjing Massacre committed by the then Japanese Imperial Army, some reviewed textbooks stated that captives and civilians were involved in "the tragedy" and "casualties were exposed," compared to the original words like the Japanese Army "killed many captives and civilians."

More than 300,000 Chinese people were killed by the Japanese army in Nanjing after they occupied the then China's capital on Dec 13, 1937.

In January 2014, the Education Ministry revised its textbook- screening standards for social studies, asking publishers to state the government's official views or the Japanese Supreme Court's decisions in contentious cases.

Talking about the standards, the civic group's Secretary General Tawara Yoshifumi pointed out that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration must not use textbooks as a tool to maintain power.