A Chinese scholar denied on Tuesday the Japanese charge that the country instills anti-Japanese ideas in its students, calling the accusation "totally groundless."
Yang Dongliang, head of the Chinese Ministry of Education's expert panel on Japanese issues, made the remarks in response to Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura's March 4 calling for China to change its "anti-Japanese" attitude to historical education.
Nobutaka also asked China to "modify" the displays at its memorials on the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which are scattered throughout many Chinese cities including Beijing.
It is not the first time that Japan has accused China of being anti-Japanese. The influential Japanese newspaper Daily Yomiuri has said that Chinese people's unfriendly attitudes toward Japan are rooted in the country's "anti-Japanese patriotism education."
Yang disputes this. "No commemorating activities or patriotism education in China is set or designed with anti-Japanese hints," Yang said.
The professor with Japan Studies Institute of Nankai University said "every country in the world is advocating and encouraging the youngsters to learn its own history to foster patriotism, not as a weapon against other nations."
He said China's patriotism education is not anti-Japanese-oriented. Opening textbooks on modern Chinese history, one can read the objective facts of how the country was invaded and partially colonized. From the Opium Wars to the burning of the imperial garden Yuanmingyuan, Chinese textbooks have never merely stressed Japan's aggression.
Of course, it is inevitable to mention Japan's invasion when teaching the modern history and giving patriotism education to the students, because it is "unchangeable historical fact," Yang said.
He said China's narration of Japan's invasion is also "objective and impartial." As Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wang Yi said, "Since the era of Mao Zedong, Chinese leaders have been telling its people that the responsibilities of the war between the two nations should be taken by the Japanese militarists. The Japanese people were also victims of the war, and the friendship between the two nations should be kept forever."
On the contrary, the contents of the Japanese history textbook slack "objectivity and impartiality," Yang said. The Japanese government tampered with historical facts when censoring the textbooks in 1982. They changed the word "invade" to "enter" when talking about its occupation of China.
Justifying the ferocious "Nanjing Massacre," they said "the Japanese troops suffered great losses and casualties due to the resistance of the Chinese army and thus the raging soldiers killed many people in the city." Yang said the Japanese government also deliberately distorted history concerning their invasion in the Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia in the textbooks.
In this respect, Germany has done much better than Japan, Yang said. In France and Poland, people held activities last year commemorating the 60th anniversaries of Normandy Landing and Warsaw Uprising. Germany actively participated in the activities instead of charging the countries with "anti-German" emotions.
"People study history, not for blaming but for drawing lessons so that the same mistake will not be made once again," Yang said.
Many nations including China will hold grand commemorating activities for the 60th anniversary of triumph over the war against fascism. Instead of deepening the enmities between nations, these activities will remind people not to forget the past agonies and treasure the precious peace, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2005)
