Distorted textbooks `no biggy` for Japanese ruling party leaders

The four lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)`s presidential race in Japan all gave their view that there would be no serious problem with the history textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education and Science. The common reaction bodes ill for compliance with Korea`s demand for a second revision of the disputed books. They are former prime minister and minister for administrative reform Ryutaro Hashimoto, ex-health minister Junichiro Koizumi, the LDP`s policy chief Shizuka Kamei and Taro Aso, the minister for economic and fiscal policy. The four formally submitted their applications to stand as candidates for the party leader to be elected Apr. 24 and held a joint press conference Thursday. The new LDP head will automatically become premier by a vote in the Diet on Apr. 26 because of the party’s strength in the legislature.

Hashimoto told the conference that any country could embrace a diversity of opinions on its own history with good reason and the Japanese system of approving textbooks was intended to rule out extreme views in Japan. Koizumi said that Korea and China were free to take issue with alleged historical distortions in the textbook authored by the Society for History Textbook Reform, but Japan did not need to be shaken by such criticism.

So many countries, so many historical interpretations, said Kamei, who argued that it might be wrong to try to impose a uniform view of history on all nations. Aso gave examples of the United States where, according to him, the North describes the civil war as a just one while the South brands it as a war of aggression by the Northerners. Consequently, the education ministry`s authorization of textbooks should pose no problem, he said.

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Lee Young-Ee yes202@donga.com