“Imperialist Japan Did Not Forcibly Arrest Koreans”

The younger faction of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan has started to deny the historical facts that imperialist Japan forcibly arrested Korean people to make war preparations.

The “Meeting of Young Congressmen Who Think Of Japan’s Future And Historical Education,” in which 80 representatives and senators belonging to the LDP took part, held a meeting on February 13. At the meeting, which was held for the first time in two years, the members elected senator Huruya Keiji as the successor to the former head of the meeting, Nakagawa Shoichi, who inaugurated as the minister of economy and industry.

They mainly discussed the question which appeared on the world history subject of the university entrance exam, called the “Center Exam” in Japan, which was conducted in January, Asahi Shimbun reported on February 14.

The presented question was a four-choice question which asked; “Choose one of the following that occurred in Korea while under Japanese colonization rule.” The answer was “During World War II, the Japanese government forcibly arrested people to go over to Japan.”

The congressmen pointed out that the expression “forcibly arrest” was a problem. They decided to take the initiative to delete the expression of the “Forcibly arrest” from the history text book.

This movement of the congressmen can be harmonized with the logics of the “Meeting To Make New Text Book” which asserts that the “forced arrest of Koreans under Japanese colonization rule was a mere concoction. It is not true.” This organization has issued an open inquiry document that requires the examination management agency to disclose the name of the relevant examiner and inflict punishment on the related people through investigating the background of those presenting such a question.

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com