One controversy you may not be fully aware of is Japanese history textbooks used in their compulsory schools and how history is being told to students.

Fudging history through education is nothing new. Still, some of the drama is instigated by these books. What exactly is the problem?

The Narrative Issue

The issue with these textbooks are the narratives, especially when retelling the recently historic event’s of Japan’s colonialism and imperialism. Outlook of the narratives have been of debate among Japanese politicians and scholars, liberals and conservatives. Many progressive & left-leaning Japanese academics and the international community believe the victimization of the people of Asia are whitewashed, understated, and/or not recognized in these textbooks. On the opposite camp, conservative Japanese nationals believe the textbooks lack the tone of victimhood for the Japanese people.

Getting a textbook into the hands of Japanese children is a fairly simple process when observed from the outside. Textbook makers send drafts of their product to Japan’s Ministry of Education, where government officials review the material and ensures the material follows the curriculum. Corrections are noted on the drafts, which are sent back to the textbook company. If the Ministry likes you enough (interpret this as you will), they’ll add your book to the very short list of textbooks allowed in Japanese public schools. As you can imagine, the Japanese school textbook industry is cutthroat. And it is a very cash lucrative business. Depending on the age groups, the list of allowed textbooks can range from only 1-2 to the low 10s. These are options for every school in the entire nation.

Controversial Textbook

In 2001 and again in 2006, the Ministry of Education approved a more controversial-than-usual textbook that could be used to instruct students aged between 13 and 15. It was one out of eight available options for the schools. The book created an uproar with China and South Korea. Written by a group of nationalists called the Atarashii Kyokasho o Tsukuru Kai (Tsukuru Kai for short), the book whitewashed Japan’s militaristic past and glossed over many of the atrocities conducted.

What historic events were whitewashed and glossed over? Here a few examples.

• In reference to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre (dubbed as Nanjing Incident in Japanese textbooks), where 300,000 Chinese civilians were slaughtered, the atrocity was written as an “incident” in which “many” Chinese were killed.
• The use of the word “invasion” when referring to Japan’s military occupation of Asian countries was avoided.
• In regards to the occupation of Korea, the book original stated, “The US and European military powers approved Japan’s annexation of Korea in return for Japan’s approval of their colonial rule elsewhere.” This is in reference to the 1905 secret meeting by the U.S. Secretary of War William Taft and Japan’s Prime Minister Katsura called the Taft-Katsura Agreement. Although, not  a signed agreement as the title suggests, it was a set of notes consisting of private conversation of opinions by the two politicians. Taft recognized Japan’s interests in Korea, and Katsura recognized the U.S. interest in the Philippines.
• In regards to territorial disputes between Japan-Korea and Japan-Chinese, descriptions such as illegal occupation and invasion of sovereign land were used throughout the text.

Aside from this particular book, out of the eight books for the age bracket, only one mentions “comfort women,” the couple hundred thousands of sex slaves from invaded Asian countries that were forced to service the Japanese military during the war.

Former education minister Nariaki Nakayama said he was proud that Japan succeeded in getting rid of the term “wartime sex slaves.” He later openly agreed to an e-mail sent to him that the “victimized women in Asia should be proud of being comfort women.”

The Tsukuru Kai textbook, although an option to compulsory schools, is not exactly taking Japanese schools by storm. In the year of its release in 2001,  the book was used by 0.0039% of the junior high school population. In 2005, the number rose to 0.4%.

Is it proper to word history in a way that it reduces the severity of the country’s actions? Is this problem really unique to Japan? I, for one, can think of many history lessons from my U.S. compulsory school attendance, where the historic accounts told were very questionable.

Case in point, one Japanese food has caused more controversy than any other: whale meat. Those outside of Japan have long criticized the Japanese practice of eating whale, but Japanese defenders say that eating whale is no different from eating any of the many other forms of aquatic life that’s used in Japanese cuisine on a regular basis.

But is that the whole story? Why do the Japanese hunt and eat whale, and why do people want to stop them so badly? Let’s take a look:

Whaling

Japan isn’t the only country in the world that’s killed whales. Lots of cultures from all over the world have hunted, killed, and eaten whales – European, American, and Pacific cultures have all, at one time or another, hunted whale for food, ivory, blubber, or cultural reasons.

“The whiiiiite whaaale!”

So why is whaling uncommon now? Lots of whales have been recognized as endangered, and a lot of the products that people have gotten from whale has been replaced with more modern substitutes.

And a lot of people’s feelings have changed about whales, seeing them as an animal closer to us humans than your common, everyday sea creature. American movies like Free Willy and the recent Big Miracle show that people have strong, emotional attachments to whales.

But Japan still hunts and kills whales for scientific research. Japanese whalers claim that in order to protect fledgling whale populations, they have to capture and study whales.

This would all sound well and good, but critics say that scientific study is a thin veil for Japan’s “true” intentions – eating whale meat.

Eating Whale

In the United States, eating whale is a rare occurrence. Some Native American groups are permitted to hunt and eat a limited number of whales for cultural reasons, but otherwise whale hunting and consumption is pretty restricted.

Japan is a different story. After Japanese whalers have finished studying whales, they sell the meat for people to buy and eat. You can get whale at stores and restaurants across Japan and, up until last month, you could even buy whale meat on Amazon.

The Japanese have eaten whale for hundreds of years, but nowadays it’s uncommon. I think a lot of people have a misconception that whale is a regular part of the Japanese diet, but eating whale meat is more of an unusual, niche food.

I tend to think of eating whale in Japan as similar to eating something like alligator or squirrel in the US. It’s uncommon, but it’s still done.

During WW2 and the early postwar years, the Japanese ate a lot more whale meat because it was an easy, plentiful source of protein. One of my Japanese teachers in college said that she vaguely remembered eating whale for lunch at school as a kid, but didn’t think anything of it at the time.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering how it tastes – Koichi ate whale once and said it was “gamey.” He also says that the blubber was the best part. Yum!

What Lies Ahead?

At the moment, it appears whaling opponents and advocates are a at a bit of a standoff. Momentum has swung both ways over the years, but to date there still hasn’t been much of a change in the status quo – whalers are still taking to the seas to hunt whales, and anti-whaling activists are still trying their hardest to stop them.

In any case, what the Japanese do with whales is probably better than what we do in Oregon: blow ‘em with dynamite.

[Header image source.]