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Less than a year following the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) victory in the House of Representatives (Lower House) election which allowed it to take power in the country, Japan is now facing the House of Councilors election on July 21.
With six months of consecutive leadership under their belts, the LDP have made some adjustments to their campaign promises from the previous elections but remain firm on their promise to re-evaluate Article 9, which prohibits Japan from having an army for offensive purposes.
They also will still look into the “Neighboring Countries Clause” which deals with how historical events are dealt with in education in order to foster good relations with other Asian countries. Some fear that such a review could lead to a whitewashing of certain events such as the Nanjing Massacre.
According to a Kyodo News report, the LDP has released its election promises which are largely similar to their Lower House promises but with a few modifications.
For example, in the previous election the party had vowed to make a strong tie with the U.S. the most important move in protecting the national interest. However, this time around a softer promise of “Strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance while striving to progress in relations with China and South Korea” was made.
Likewise, the campaign promise of making a national Takeshima Day event celebrating the disputed island between Japan and South Korea seems to have been removed.
While these moves indicate a softening on the Abe government’s stance regarding Japan’s Asian neighbors, no change has been made for the proposal to re-examine Japan’s military situation in Article 9 of the constitution.
The LDP also hasn’t flinched on its stance regarding the Neighboring Countries Clause. The party wants to investigate whether current textbooks have a “masochistic view of history”. However, undoing the clause could lead to the glossing over or complete removal of topics such as comfort women hired by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
Although those would be more extreme cases, the changes to the clauses could also lead to more euphemistic language such as changing the word "shinryaku" (invasion) to "shinshutsu" (foray).
Although these potentially harmful baby steps trouble many in the country, others also support the action. Particularly when this news hit Japanese websites where anti-other-Asian-country sentiments run rampant, several comments came out in support of the LDP’s promises.
In end, however, it’s a time-proven rule that politicians often “forget” the promises they made while campaigning in an effort to rally certain groups in the country. We may very well find after a few years pass that neither Article 9 nor the Neighboring Countries Clause will have even had the dust blown off them.
Source: Chosun Online
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4 Comments
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GW
Clearly invasion is more appropriate than foray...................especially when between 20-30million are killed dont'ya think!
smithinjapan
"Some fear that such a review could lead to a whitewashing of certain events such as the Nanjing Massacre."
They most certainly will. They'll stop being vague about their plans to whitewash history once they get the majority, then they'll just start calling history 'vague' instead, and continue to play the victim card. Abe will forget he was never there and that, like other former PMs with war criminals in their family history, will say that everyone who was there and claims atrocities were carried out by Imperial troops and that said troops engaged in sexual slavery are wrong, then turn around and seem baffled that the Asian neighbours Japan committed atrocities against are upset and won't accept the historical rewrites.
Once again, when everyone in the room is called crazy and/or wrong by one lone party... who is it that's truly crazy and incorrect? It's no wonder Japan is never taken seriously when it comes to addressing history.
Jimizo
A 'masochistic' view of history. I hate this kind of word choice and the dishonesty and evasiveness it looks to usher in. It's just as slimy, underhand and ugly as the idea of replacing 'invasion' with 'foray' or 'sex-slave' with 'comfort woman'. It ridicules and debases Japanese education here and inflames tensions with others. Japanese children deserve a proper education and not be on the end of policies designed to appeal to less intelligent members of the electorate.
Kazuaki Shimazaki
Here's what I think. Though the US never really learned to see it that way, a very great part of the role of History education is in effect indoctrination to ensure proper societal values in children. Though of course no one says to actually lie to them, but by changing what is taught and what is left out as unimportant, the interpretation you use and how you explain each event, you can still create a very different impression which the children bring with them into life.
Anyway, the present education does create, at least from where I'm sitting, a higher percentage of "doves" to "hawks" than is really good for Japan at a time when China especially is getting more Hawkish. Already, Japan has wasted 20 excellent years it could have spent preparing for China's rise because the doves are too dominant to allow anything else.
From that perspective, the current Japanese cirricula is indeed unhealthy and self-destructive. And if the way to making Japan a normal nation is to rewrite every shinryaku into shinshitsu, and kicking Nanking all the way to the dark corners of the room, I say so be it. The correct mental orientation of Japan's young adults to a correct balance between militarism and pacifism is more important than the subjective perceptions of other nations as to what is taught.
Every nation (with the possible exception of Germany) presents a variant of history in its classroom as it wishes. Of course, not everyone is happy with that variant but generally history education is accepted to be an internal affair. Frankly, I don't see why the Japanese should be allowed less.