Posted on: Wednesday, June 13, 2001

Hawai'i Koreans decry book that tones down Japan's role in World War II

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

About 100 Koreans marched in front of the Japanese Consulate in Nu'uanu yesterday to protest a book published in Japan that Koreans say distorts Japan's involvement in World War II.

The protest was one of dozens held at Japanese embassies and consulates worldwide yesterday. The local march was organized by the Korean American Society of Hawai'i.

The book, "New History Textbook," written by a group of Japanese nationalists, is among eight approved by Japan's Education Ministry for use in junior high schools.

Korean American Society spokesman Richard Lee said Koreans are objecting to the book's "total omissions and gross distortions" of Japan's involvement in the war.

For example, Lee said the book fails to mention Japan's abuse of Korean women as "comfort women" during the war.

"For the author(s) to question the validity of the Japanese government's involvement with that — I think it is an error," Lee said.

Lee said the book also characterizes Japan's invasion of Korea as "beneficial in the long run for Koreans." The Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, he added, was described in the book as "justified and a necessary movement to liberate Japan from Western control."

The protests aren't part of an anti-Japanese movement, Lee said, nor are they meant to cause a rift between the two countries.

In fact, he said, Koreans hope that removing such books from the schools will improve Japan-Korea relations.

"What we're trying to say is: Allow the future leaders of (Japan) to be educated in a truthful manner, so they can decipher what is right and wrong, instead of misleading them," Lee said.

"If future generations are taught that war is 'beneficial,' I'm afraid to say what the future leaders of Japan's mindset will be."