New York Times finally took up the issue: Japan public history text book enforcing anti-fact praise for former Japanese
military under World War II.
Nevertheless, NYT missed important backgrounds what has led to such Governmental enforcement.
Shimomura Minister's order is merely stepped up from 'select but don't use' to 'select and recive free Ikuhoisha text books but don't use Ikuhousha text book and pay cost for text book by each school or ward itself municipal budget or so but not by tax. This has been actually prevailing among Japan especially after 2009 DPJ regime which has been supportive for "pro-former Japanese military war against West context"and DPJ/Ishinn/Katteren/Minnnanotou/Seikatsunotou/Mirai/Greens which are all opposing to US military bases and professional national budgeted Japan Defense Force (JDF) but every National"civilian" self-defense solders which allow/legalize/normalize/universalize armed civilians like private military (or simply gangs?!).
What Minister Shimomura under Abe LDP regime intends to seemingly administrative punishment to Takeshima-cho or Chairman of Board of Education according to violation of the law "Text book free distribution" or law enforcement of the law by what procedures?! But as I write below, it can be deemed that Taketomi-cho Board of Education may not have infringed the law.
What Abe cabinet did was/is just power up its upper hands on text book selection once Taketomich-cho has made because many local wards, many schools did "select" anti-fact far right history text book by tax then use another normal neutral fact based history text book by budgeting with reserves.
What exactly local wards or districts have been doing, especially after 2009 DPJ regime, for almost 4 years is many of all schools and local wards have been using normal fact based history text book by managing to pay the necessary cost from munincipal tax reserves or private donations while receiving free ikihousha text books in which each local wards/district Board of Education (education committee to select text books from text books passed national level chech perpfrmed by the Ministry of Education,Culture, Sports, Science and Texhnology-Japan(MEXT).
Under the long LDP era, it has been mainly a fight between text book publishers and examiners of MEXT(at that time called Monbusho Ministry of Education). Since, however, once "Atarshii-kyoukasho wo Tsukurukai 新しい教科書をつくる会" undou (movement) started in January 1997, which is almost the same year when DPJ 民主党 Democratic Party of Japan which was established as an entity in September 1996.
Tsukurukai: URL: http://www.tsukurukai.com/aboutus/ayumi.html
The first year the anti-fact far right history text book "Atarashii IRekoshikyoukasho" published by Ikuhousha passed MEXT examination was 2001, just 10 years ago. 2000, hmmm, interesting, isn't it?!? Because in September 2001, DPJ won 127 seats in the upper house 衆議院. In August 2001, as the first case, the Board of Education for local district Ehime prefecture selected Atarashiikypukasho published by Ikuhousha.
In August 2004, Board of Education for Tokyo Metropolitan City selected Revised Atarashii Rekishikyoukasho published by Ikihousha (育鵬社) whereas since November 2003 DPJ won 177 in the upper house. In 2005 Atarashii Rekishikyoukasho(history) AtarashiiKoumimn (basic political science) passed the MEXT examination.
In 2005, Suginami-ku Tokyo, Ootawara-city Tochigi prefecture selected Revised AtarasiiRekishikyoukasho by Ikuhousha.
In April 2006, DPJ elected Ichirou Ozawa as Part leader. In April 2009, Shinpen AtarashiiRekishi kyoukasho published by Joyuusha自由社 passed the MEXT examination. In 2009, DPJ took 308 seats in the upper house to pin the sole majority in policy making. On16 September 2009, DPJ took the Cabinet office under Yukio Hatoyama, the Prime Minister. In August 2009, Yokohama-City Board of Education selected Shinpen AtarashiiRekishikyoikasho published by Jiyuusha. In 2009, the percentage of the number of local ward(districts)Boards of Education which selected Atarashii Rekishikyoukasho-anti-fact far right biased- published by Jiyuusha among all the local district Boards of Education in Japan went beyond 1 percent.
In 2011, the percentage went beyond around 4 percent, more or less.
http://www.tsukurukai.com/aboutus/ayumi.html
In 30 August 2011, DPJ elected Yoshihiko Noda as the DPJ party leader to become PM.
DPJ Noda regime started in 2011. Under DPJ regime, the Noda cabinet, without real concensus with PM Noda?!, the DPJ cabinet decided to announce Japanese national official possession of Senkaku island following the Japanese Government trade with a Japanese private owner of the Senkaku islands with Japanese national budget 2.05 billion yen on 11 September 2012.
At the moment, atarashiitekishikyoukasho wo tsukurukai "undou" has been in adamant after seemingly DPJ was step down from the Leading Party since December 26 2012 LDP won 294 seats in the 46th general election. It was a land slide won and got upper house majority with Komeitou. LDP won in the 23th lower house election (half of seats to be applied) in July 23, 2013, which ends up a political state where LDP pins it's majority in the both houses.
Nowadays,AtarashiiRekishikyoukashowotsukurukai has been very much dormant but some radical wired "movement" has been shown in such as "bashing against a legendary Manga depicting Genbaku Higai Nuclear Weapon's devastative victimization to homosapience called Hadashinigen to be expelled from open library shelves"
http://www.tsukurukai.com/index.html
Also more wired "movement"has been going on, which is a "movement" "bashing against Hitoshima/Nagasaki Genbaku kinenkan, in a direction to abolish or demolish under "legal democratic choice" under far right?! or violence supremacy violent pressures, a building for eternal exhibition of Nuclear Bomb Devastation Victimization on human and environment called "Horoshima Peace Site"
What is happening now.
竹富町問題
In 2011, Ishigaki-city, Taketomi-cho, Yonakuni-cho launched a higher level Committee for text book selection called Yaeyama-ward (district) text book selection committee 教科書用図書八重山採択地区協議会
http://www.city.ishigaki.okinawa.jp/400000/410000/410200/2011/kgki/H23kiyaku.pdf
which is an public local committee composed of the three local districts Boards of Educations, TAKETOMI-cho,Ishigaki-city, Yonakuni-cho, and text selection advisers under Okinwa prefecture Board of Education advise. http://www.city.ishigaki.okinawa.jp/400000/410000/410200/2011/kgki/H23kiyaku.pdf
Points are actually divided into two.
One is an issue of independence of decision made by TAKETOMI-cho Board of Education in terms of AyarashiiKyoukasho for basic public policy(Koumin 公民) in which Taketomu-cho Board of Education rejected to use inTaketomi-cho against the decision raid by the Yaeyama ward text book selection committee and Okinawa prefecture Board of Education.
Two is TAKETOMI-cho Board of Education rejected to use basic public policy science (Koumin) published by Ikuhousha then no national budget was provided for the text book TAKETOMI-cho public school use then TAKETOMI-cho paid the costs without national budget but privately donnated ( correction: I wrote it was budgeted by taketomi-cho public budget reserve but it is the different case, seems to be).
There have been many local wards Board of Education directly buy text book, besides the one which Board of Educations decide to use with free distributed by national government, to be literally used in the schools in the area the Board of Education is serving for; please see the following material http://www.city.toba.mie.jp/kokusai/documents/h25kokusaiyosan.pdf .
TAKETOMI-cho nonetheless decided to reject Text book AyarashiiKyoukasho (Basic public policy science means "Koumin") published by Ikihousha and decided to use TokyoShoseki東京書籍which implies certain unconstitutional presence of Japan Defense Foeces and US bases in Japan and Okinawa prefecture. The case of TAKETOMI-cho could not raise public budget from TAKETOMI-cho from its reserves but from private donation.
Now, you see why only TAKETOMI-cho text book selection is an issue for DPJ because Koumin text book published by Ikuhousha is not telling about what DPJ did want text book to write about, not about cover ups against
brutality of former Japanese military, a unconvinient presence of US military sand Japan Defence Force which both are not "collaborating" with unlimited politicians discretion to choose arm industry makers in turn of political donation. It is not because of liberalism to accuse of former Japanese Tojo Cabinet or Japanese military brutal massacre against Asians and Europeans Americans oseanians ANY including OkinawaRyukyuuminn or Japanese anti-war resitance from JCP Japan Communist Parties or Socialist parties.
You must understand DPJ anti-US base/anti-JDF stance before you read the following former HiranoMinister of MEXT under the DPJ regime where AtarashiiRekishikyoukasho anti-fact far right text book has been broadly penetrated into candidates for public text selections and selected by many local Boards of Education.
Remember? It was Fukuda PM of LDP regime who rejected MEXT's rejection against contents of normal history text book which described fact of former Japanese military which had enforced Okinawans to suicide by providing Okinawans with small devises to blow up under World War II.
about many "changes" made through the MEXT but ignored every far right distortions and Boards of Educations which have been using text book raising anger at US military bases and Japan Defence Force whereas many points in which former Japanese military's wrong brutal activities have been deleted from history text books especially in AtarashiiKyoukasho published by Ikuhpusha or Joyuusha.
You have to notice the difference between Japanese liberal fight against deletion of what former Japanese military under Hideki Tojo PM/Cabinet during WWII and the case of TAKETOMI-cho supported by private donation and DPJ to keep contents of text book to accuse of presence of US military and Japan Defence Forces.
In December 2013, Hirohumi Shimomura
Minister of MEXT under Abe Cabinet decided to order TAKETOMI-cho Board of Education to use, literally, AtarashoiTekishiKyoukasho published by Ikuhousha.
This is not only an issue of political view but also a difference of legal interpretation of the two inconsistent measures.
Japan has a measure to provide free public elementary/junior/high school text book with student on a condition in which each school uses text book in which a ward Board of Education decides to use if a ward is paticapting into such Board of Education. Point is actually the nature of Yaeyama-ward (district) text book selection committee 教科書用図書八重山採択地区協議会 which allows review of its decision to coordinate with decisions raid by each member Boards of Education. TAKETOMI-cho's opinon is also to be respected because TAKETOMI-cho is complying with Board of Education decision which could be seen as "common selection" decided under local ward Board of Education in which Minister Shimomura requests in his public comment in MEXT regular communication with journalism「http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/daijin/detail/1340543.htm 共同採択地区内の市町村は、協議して同一の教科書を採択しなければならないと定めた教科書無償措置法第13条第4項に違反している状態」.
I would argue that the nature of Yaeyama-ward (district) text book selection committee 教科書用図書八重山採択地区協議会
http://www.city.ishigaki.okinawa.jp/400000/410000/410200/2011/kgki/H23kiyaku.pdf
is not the Board of Educaton in which the measure "public school Text book free distribution" in its nature and in its text and characters which allow each Board of Education to re-evaluate and re-review the decision without any power to enforce the committee decision. It seems to me that
the nature and purpose of Yaeyama-ward (district) text book selection committee 教科書用図書八重山採択地区協議会 is rather advisery one but not decision making power body or authority.
Then, provided if each school in TAKETOMI-cho is complying with the decision raid by Taketomi-cho Board of Education, National Government is supposed to be under legal obligation to provide text books in which the Board of Education had selected without any expenses under the law "Text book free distribtion".
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Who has started AtarashiiRekishikyoukashowotsukurujai?!
2009JPantiLDP"liberals"welcomedDPJ/antiUSAsiansupremacyKatteren had started encouraging same anti-fact farrighttexts! Conservative far right history text book "initiative"was "normalized" under a Greens movement so called "Atarashii kyoukasho" 「新しい教科書運動」which has been accelerated since 2009 under anti-US anti-China/anti-Russia Asian (gang) Supremacy fundamentalism DPJ/Katteren/Minnanotou/ishinn/Seikatsu/Greens along with Asian violence supremacy far right gangs mainly composed by former Taiwanese who have been having string impact on dividends especially for huge scaled big shareholders in relation with yakuza fraudulent move in share deals "benefitting"such as company executives or DPJ/Seikatsunotou/Katteren/Ishinnnokao/LDP/Greens/Sumiyoshi-Kai or anti-US/anti-Communism/anti-capitalism/antiJewish/Natiz/Greens big anarchism philantorophy shareholders and such politician relative owned Anti-US/anti-Communism/anti-Jewish Asian(gang)Supremacy Greens companies/executive directors.
Point is such DPJ/Katteren anti-west anti-commu anti-china anti-foreign Asian gang supremacy mainly former Taiwan gang yakuza having impact on violent mortal attacks on members of local education committees (Board of Educations) and their Chairmen who have power to select public text books to be publicly budgeted ( to be distributed by national government without any expenses) I mean what is real motif behind such self-kill Japanese public history text book is really concerned. Because it is too much apparent that such anti-fact history text book would cause every problem to Japan to the extent which may justify or rationalize any anti-Japan or anti-Japanese products, which definitely benefits Taiwan/China Korean or any other economic war.
But the seriousness of the far right anti-fact public history text book "choice""(Greens)movement" which has been violently induced along with several brutal physical attacks on Chairmen of local education committees/Board of Educations (kyouikuiinkai) since 2009 DPJ took the office is not only concerned in terms of Japanese far right steps rushing into Japanese foreign policy alienation or economy bashing "rationalization".
(*Board of Education, kyouiku-iinkai set out in each local ward in any prefectures under municipal governance in retaining its power and decision independence from political results in its original intention. Chairman and members of Board of Education are appointed by each mayor for four year term.).
There have been wired "movements" going on, which is a movement to abolish Hiroshima nuclear bomb victimization exhibition and the building of such exhibition called Hitoshima Peace Site.
Almost same sort of organizations: former originally far right anti-communism anti-labour rights Taiwanese gangs now anti-US anti-China anti-Russia anti-Islam anti-Jewish anti-foreigners Asian gang violence Supremacy fundamentalism gangs mainly composing of many of anti-US anti-China anti-Korea? "Japanese" yakuza have started "Greens movement" to abolish Hiroshima/Nagasaki Nuclear Bomb victim memorial exhibition center or exhibition itself. Which is seemingly not for ANYONE but only for justifying Nuclear bombs or such violence itself in considering such organization, which are close to DPJ/Katteren/Minnano-tou/Ishin/Seikatsuno-tou/Greens/Mirai/Yui:all anti-LDP anti-US/anti-Russia/anti-China/anti-Jewish/anti-Islam/anti-foreign nation fundamentalism political parties, which are/have been very active in annoyance against US restaurant chains or MacDonald or so for example in Kanagawa prefecture.
Wired self-kill is going on only for violence gang supremacy in the disguise of "AsianUnity""AsianSupremacy" all are actually undermines legitimacy of Japan in damaging feeling of Asians or everyone in the world or in promoting of normalizing of lower wages lower welfare in work places in Asia including Japan as UNICLO CEO Yanai, active supporter of DPJ/Katteren(workers non-union Greens organization against US/west/China/Jewish/communism) proposed as "Japanese must lower wages as much as possible as Asians in "unity" with Asians (to raise CEO's or world or Asian big shareholders' dividends,of course).
But it is true that LDP regime under PM Abe, far right public history text book is not only enforced to buy (as many local wards did under DPJ regime) but also literally enforced to use by legally banning local communities to budget other better genuine fact-based history text books and literally banning teachers/public schools to use other better texts in Taketomi-cho.
But actually it is exactly what DPJ/Katteren/Minnano-tou/Ishin/Yui/(Mirai)Greens all anti-LDP Asian (gang)supremacy fundamentalism based anti-US anti-China anti-human rights anti-communism far right Greens political parties have sought for so long.
So Japanese voters have no choice but Japan Communist PartySocial Democratic Party is far leaning to far right violence supremacy Greens and Seikatsunotou which seeks arm industry and Casino bloom most to DOJ/Ishin) to stop such far right wired self-kill "initiatives" encouraging/enforcing anti-fact wired anti-Japaneseinterest far far right anti-US anti-China anti-Asia history text book in the name of regaining. ironically, Japan as Asia.
by Mari Tomita冨田麻里(7thclouds)
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The following URL is the one of the article what I mentioned in this blog.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/world/asia/japan-fights-a-political-battle-using-history-texts.html?smid=tw-share&post_id=626073016_10151855853343017#_=_
New York Times
TAKETOMI, Japan — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative government has begun to pursue a more openly nationalist agenda on an issue that critics fear will push the country farther from its postwar pacifism: adding a more patriotic tone to Japan’s school textbooks.
The proposed textbook revisions have drawn less outcry abroad than Mr. Abe’s visit on Thursday to a shrine that honors war dead, including war criminals from World War II. However, though Mr. Abe’s supporters argue that changes are needed to teach children more patriotism, liberals warn that they could undercut an antiwar message they say has helped keep Japan peaceful for decades.
“Prime Minister Abe is feeling the heat from his political base, which feels betrayed that he has not pursued a more strongly right-wing agenda,” said Nobuyoshi Takashima, a professor emeritus at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa who has studied the politics of textbooks. “Classrooms are one place where he can appease ultraconservatives by taking a more firmly nationalist stance.”
Mr. Abe and the nationalists have long argued that changes in the education system are crucial to restoring the country’s sense of self, eroded over decades when children were taught what they call an overly negative view of Japan’s wartime behavior.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other nationalists want history textbooks to nurture patriotism among schoolchildren.
ISSEI KATO / REUTERS
The latest efforts for change started slowly, but have picked up speed in recent weeks.
In October, Mr. Abe’s education minister ordered the school board here in Taketomi to use a conservative textbook it had rejected, the first time the national government has issued such a demand. In November, the Education Ministry proposed new textbook screening standards, considered likely to be adopted, that would require the inclusion of nationalist views of World War II-era history.
This month, a government-appointed committee suggested a change that would bring politics more directly into education: putting mayors in charge of their local school districts, a move that opponents say would increase political interference in textbook screening. And just days ago, an advisory committee to the Education Ministry suggested hardening the proposed new standards by requiring that textbooks that do not nurture patriotism be rejected.
The moves come at a time when China is asserting its growing strength, directly challenging Japanese territorial claims and its standing as a regional power. The proposed educational changes are the latest that nationalists in both countries have pushed and that some fear will, over time, harden views and deepen tensions between Asia’s two strongest countries.
Taketomi is ground zero in a war over what students learn.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The history issue may also be fraught with political danger for Mr. Abe, who had initially focused on the economy rather than an ultraconservative agenda.
He has already seen his popularity levels fall since the recent passage of a secrecy bill that some local media criticized as a throwback to wartime censorship laws. And a battle over textbooks helped drive Mr. Abe from power in 2007 after less than a year the last time he was in office; in that case, his government tried to delete mention of the Japanese military’s forcing Okinawan civilians to commit mass suicide during the war.
But at least so far, the latest efforts have engendered little backlash from the public, a reflection, teachers say, of increasing anxieties about China’s more confrontational stance toward Japan.
The new screening standards proposed by the education minister, Hakubun Shimomura, a longtime advocate for teaching patriotism, require that elementary, junior high and high school textbooks give a “balanced picture” of disputed historical facts.
In an interview, ministry officials said that in practice this would require that textbooks include viewpoints of nationalist scholars on two highly contested historical issues. One is the death toll of the 1937 massacre in Nanking of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers that the Chinese government says stands at 300,000, a figure many Japanese scholars see as grossly exaggerated.
Textbooks would also be required to state that there is still a dispute about whether the Japanese Army played a direct role in forcing so-called comfort women from Korea and elsewhere to provide sex to its soldiers, even though most foreign historians say the brothels could not have been run without the military’s cooperation.
Educators worry that the vague wording of the standards could lead to more widespread changes in tone.
The suggested changes follow years of nationalist attempts — long backed by Mr. Abe — to whittle away at negative depictions of Japan’s wartime activities. Those who oppose textbook revisions say they are beginning to see the contours of a new strategy: forcing change at the local level that has sometimes failed at the national level.
Taketomi, a township of eight tiny islands that had been best known for its water-buffalo-drawn carts and placid coral lagoons, appears to have become ground zero for that battle.
The trouble began two years ago, when a newly elected conservative mayor on the neighboring island of Ishigaki appointed a new head of a local education district who selected a ninth-grade social studies textbook published by a right-wing company. Taketomi, whose school system is part of that district, immediately rejected the book for what its teachers called overly revisionist content, including the portrayal of the antiwar Constitution as an alien document imposed by Allied occupiers who wanted to keep Japan weak.
Replacing the postwar Constitution has been a careerlong goal of Mr. Abe’s.
Taketomi’s school board voted that its ninth graders, who this year number 32, would keep using the current text, which praises the Constitution and the pacifist message that it enshrines.
At first, the national government ignored the quiet insurrection. But since Mr. Abe’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party returned to power last year, analysts say members of his government have appeared increasingly determined to make an example of Taketomi in their campaign to roll back what they call an excessively left-leaning tilt in education.
So far, Taketomi has refused to bend to the central government’s demand that it follow the district’s orders. The town’s school superintendent, Anzo Kedamori, says the conservative book fails to teach children the hatred of war that his generation learned from bitter experience. During the Battle of Okinawa, hundreds of people in Taketomi perished when Japanese soldiers forced them to evacuate into malaria-ridden jungles.
“We have an obligation to teach the horrors of war to future generations,” said Mr. Kedamori, 72, who remembers watching playmates die while shivering with malarial fever.
Mr. Kedamori and other local educators say rightists in the Abe government are targeting Taketomi to score a politically symbolic victory in a small corner of Okinawa, long a bastion of antimilitary sentiments. Members of the governing party counter that Taketomi is breaking the law by refusing to obey the district’s decision and that it is Taketomi’s school board, led by a leftist teachers union, that is imposing its ideological agenda.
“This is not about going back to militarism, but just teaching the love of country that is normal in the United States and other nations,” said Hiroyuki Yoshiie, a governing party lawmaker.
The proposal to put mayors in charge of their local school districts, analysts say, is a further attempt to bring Taketomi to heel, but it could also serve what critics see as a larger agenda. They say empowering sympathetic local leaders will allow the nationalists to adopt more nationalistic textbooks that have so far fallen flat.
Ikuhosha, the publisher of the conservative textbook chosen by the district, provides only 4 percent of the 2.5 million history and social studies books used nationally by grades seven to nine, according to the Education Ministry. By contrast, Tokyo Shoseki, the publisher of Taketomi’s antiwar textbook, prints more than half of the school books used nationwide.
“The conservatives want to use Taketomi as a manual for imposing Ikuhosha textbooks on other districts,” said Toshio Ohama, a former head of the Okinawa prefectural teachers union.
Mr. Kedamori, Taketomi’s superintendent, said the town lacked the resources for a prolonged battle with the national government, but he vowed not to give in.
“Why can’t they leave us alone,” he said, “to teach the value of peace to our children?”"
