The dangerous history Japan is teaching its children

This Japanese history textbook is no ordinary schoolbook — it's a political weapon.

In this textbook:

· The Nanjing Massacre, one of the most infamous war crimes in human history, is reduced to a single line: "The Japanese army occupied Nanjing."

· The comfort women — hundreds of thousands of Asian women forced into military brothels — are erased entirely.

· The back of the book asks whether the Pacific War was really an "aggressive war", echoing the revisionist claim that Japan was "forced" into war or even "liberated Asia" — a narrative long condemned by historians across the world.

It is not "a different interpretation of history". It is a society-wide identity-reengineering project — reshaping how a nation understands its past, justifying how it acts in the present, and preparing the public for what it may do in the future.

Historical denial is already shaping Japan's present behavior. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has openly threatened military action regarding China's sovereignty over Taiwan. The Japanese military recklessly provokes China at sea. A country that refuses to confront its past while escalating confrontation in the present gives the world every reason — and every responsibility — to stay vigilant.