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Opinion

Why stop halfway?

A group of Japanese history writers (I wouldn't call them "historians ") have proclaimed that what matters most about history books is whether they make young people feel good about their country. Given that Japan's modern history, like that of most countries, contains much to make any sensitive person feel awful, to write a feel-good history book requires some doing.

But they're doing it. Their method is straightforward: They simply deny those unhappy events happened. The colonization of Korea never happened. (It wasn't colonization; the Koreans welcomed the Japanese with open arms.) The seizure of Manchuria never happened. (It was self-defense.) The Rape of Nanjing never happened. (The story was fabricated by the Chinese.) Forced labor induction never happened. (Those young Koreans were happy to work for the power that dominated them.) Sex slavery never happened. (Those Korean and Chinese women were happy to have sex with 30 or 40 men each day, and anyway they got paid.) And so on.

But why stop there? Once you've decided facts don't matter, why not rewrite history entirely? Young people don't want to hear about World War II, so why not eliminate it altogether? If you have the courage to say that the Nanjing Massacre never happened, why not take the next step and deny that the war itself happened? Or if that seems to be going a bit far, why not at least rewrite the books to say it was Korea and China that invaded Japan, not the reverse?

If history is to be fiction, why not hire fiction writers, or better yet, cartoonists, to write it? If history books were as interesting as, say, "The Lord of the Rings " or the Harry Potter series, think how eagerly students would study them.

History books full of witches and warlocks and hobbits and other supernatural beings? Why not? There is precedent for this. I once read in an old San Francisco newspaper (1905) that the San Francisco district attorney was examining the claim of the Japanese government that the Japanese people were supernatural beings. In brutally racist California, a law existed stating that people of Mongolian descent (meaning Chinese) could not enter the state. Racist politicians began arguing that the law also covered Japanese. Against this, the Japanese government argued that as the Japanese people were direct descendents of the goddess Amaterasu Omikami, the law didn't apply to them. Remarkably the district attorney took the claim seriously enough to read a couple of books on Japanese history before making his refutation.

In the end he did not accept the Japanese claim. But that was then. Today, as television and computers get people more and more confused about the nature of reality, who knows? The claim might pass. These new rewriters of history could take a hint from the past: If you are going to lie, why not lie big?

Shukan ST: July 22, 2005

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Opinion Why stop halfway? By Douglas Lummis A group of Japanese history writers (I wouldn't call them "historians ") have proclaimed that what matters most about history books is whether they make young people feel good about their country. Given that Japan's modern history, like that of most countries, contains much to make any sensitive person feel awful, to write a feel-good history book requires some doing. But they're doing it. Their method is straightforward: They simply deny those unhappy events happened. The colonization of Korea never happened. (It wasn't colonization; the Koreans welcomed the Japanese with open arms.) The seizure of Manchuria never happened. (It was self-defense.) The Rape of Nanjing never happened. (The story was fabricated by the Chinese.) Forced labor induction never happened. (Those young Koreans were happy to work for the power that dominated them.) Sex slavery never happened. (Those Korean and Chinese women were happy to have sex with 30 or 40 men each day, and anyway they got paid.) And so on. But why stop there? Once you've decided facts don't matter, why not rewrite history entirely? Young people don't want to hear about World War II, so why not eliminate it altogether? If you have the courage to say that the Nanjing Massacre never happened, why not take the next step and deny that the war itself happened? Or if that seems to be going a bit far, why not at least rewrite the books to say it was Korea and China that invaded Japan, not the reverse? If history is to be fiction, why not hire fiction writers, or better yet, cartoonists, to write it? If history books were as interesting as, say, "The Lord of the Rings " or the Harry Potter series, think how eagerly students would study them. History books full of witches and warlocks and hobbits and other supernatural beings? Why not? There is precedent for this. I once read in an old San Francisco newspaper (1905) that the San Francisco district attorney was examining the claim of the Japanese government that the Japanese people were supernatural beings. In brutally racist California, a law existed stating that people of Mongolian descent (meaning Chinese) could not enter the state. Racist politicians began arguing that the law also covered Japanese. Against this, the Japanese government argued that as the Japanese people were direct descendents of the goddess Amaterasu Omikami, the law didn't apply to them. Remarkably the district attorney took the claim seriously enough to read a couple of books on Japanese history before making his refutation. In the end he did not accept the Japanese claim. But that was then. Today, as television and computers get people more and more confused about the nature of reality, who knows? The claim might pass. These new rewriters of history could take a hint from the past: If you are going to lie, why not lie big? Shukan ST: July 22, 2005 (C) All rights reserved