Japan's textbook revisions poisonous to neighborhood ties

BEIJING - Japan's recent revisions of history textbooks have once again laid bare Tokyo's unapologetic stance on its past crimes and sent a chill into its defrosting relations with China and South Korea.

Japan's move has raised concerns among East Asian countries over its attitude toward wartime atrocities, as historical issues along with territorial ones play a decisive role in its relations with those countries.

The Japanese Education Ministry has revised some junior high school history textbook passages regarding Japan's WWII barbarities and its colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.

For example, in a passage on the world-shocking Nanjing Massacre, the original expression that the Japanese army "killed many captives and civilians" was watered down to that "captives and civilians were involved in" the tragedy and "casualties were exposed." Statements such as "Japan's atrocity was condemned" were deleted from some revised school books.

The textbook review is outrageous. Japan is obviously attempting to shirk its due responsibility on its wartime past and to brainwash its young people.

The truth is that invading Japanese troops slaughtered more than 300,000 Chinese people in the 1937 mass killing in Nanjing, which stood out as one of the darkest period of human history.

Japan's textbook revisions mark a step in the wrong direction, and run counter to the hard-won progress in China-Japan relations since they reached a consensus at the APEC meeting in Beijing last year.

Japan's skewed perception of history also goes against the common interests of the two nations and the expectations of the international community.

Japan's irresponsible behavior on history is unwise. The island nation is trying to bring forth a summit with China and South Korea, yet its impenitence and dishonesty are poisoning the atmosphere, and weakening the auspicious signals from the recent trilateral foreign ministers' meeting.

On the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, it is high time that Japan, now under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, looked at history squarely. It has owed its neighbors and the whole world a correct attitude for too long.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel said to Abe, Japan should learn from Germany. Only with an honest and responsible approach to history can Japan be truly reaccepted by the international community.