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| Japan's Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura, left, talks about the new teaching guidelines set for middle and high school textbooks during a press conference at the ministry's headquarters in Tokyo, Tuesday. At right, a portrait of the late Hwang Geum-ja, a former sex slave under the Japanese imperial army who died Sunday, is passed into a hearse at Ewha Womans University Hospital in Mok-dong, Seoul. / Yonhap |
Joint international research sought on wartime atrocities
By Chung Min-uck
South Korea Tuesday denounced Japan for claiming Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo in its newly revised teaching manuals for middle and high schools.
The denouncement follows the Japanese education ministry's disclosure of new manuals stating that Dokdo is Japanese territory, rejecting Seoul's earlier call to withdraw the claim.
"Japan will face the consequences," said Cho Tai-young, a spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Cho did not specify the timing or nature of those "consequences," and did not answer when asked whether they might include a recall of the Korean ambassador.
However, as part of initial protest, Seoul plans to launch a joint international research team on Japan's wartime atrocities. Experts say the move is aimed at strengthening cooperation with Beijing, also a victim of Japan's past imperialism, in coping with Tokyo's continued denial of its historical misdeeds.
The latest provocation sent bilateral relations — which were already in a dismal state — to a new low, while setting back the credibility of Japan's Prime Minister Abe, who has been promoting dialogue with Korea and China while he continues to deny Japan's responsibility for its colonial misdeeds.
"Our government strongly denounces and demands an immediate retraction," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. "If the Japanese government does not answer our demands properly, we will take stern action against the move. The latest Japanese decision only shows that the country is still possessed by its past imperialism."
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun summoned Koro Bessho, Japan's ambassador to Seoul, and complained about the provocative move.
Although not legally binding, the new manuals have an enormous influence on Japan's education sector. They will be applied to middle school textbooks in 2016 and high school textbooks in 2017, according to the ministry.
Japan's right-leaning Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura told a press conference Tuesday that his ministry has stated Dokdo and the disputed islands of Senkaku, also called Diaoyu in China, as "indigenous territories" of Japan in the guidelines in the new manuals.
They also instruct textbook authors and school teachers to describe "Takeshima (the Japanese name for Dokdo) as being illegally occupied by Korea," and that, "Japan is lodging a protest." It also orders that a full account be given on how Dokdo and Senkaku became part of Japanese territory.
Concerning Senkaku, the manual says there is "no territorial dispute" and that Japan is "effectively controlling" them.
Earlier this month, the foreign ministry demanded a withdrawal of Japan's plan to include its Dokdo claims in its education guidelines.
Following Japan's railroading of its right-wing agenda, relations between the two neighbors are expected to remain at an all time.
Tokyo's diplomatic ties with its neighboring countries, mainly Korea and China, have been strained over rightist steps taken by Abe.
Last month, he visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine — viewed by its neighbors as a symbol of Japan's imperial conquests during World War II (1939-45) — despite warnings from its two neighbors.
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