South Korean PM warns Japan over history textbooks

Just shut up South Korea and deal with your own problems at home.

Would love to see what they're angry about this time. Because Koreans won't agree that anything in Japan didn't come from Korea originally. Their own textbooks have to be quite interesting, too, filled with national propaganda about how hangul is the best writing system in the world, etc.

South Korean PM warns Japan over history textbooks

Fair enough too. Today's generation of Japanese are in way responsible for what happened in the war but the government has an obligation to make sure its people are properly educated about their history - warts and all. If Japanese people knew why Koreans and Chinese are peeved at them that would help defuse tensions

Korea has plenty of issues with their own textbooks:

http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/south-koreas-history-textbook-controversy/

On the other hand, Korea didn't colonise Japan for 35 years and then gloss over it. So any discrepancies that may or may not be in South Korea's textbook's pale into significance compared to Japan's historical record

What a sham, Korea was part of Japan during the war

Actually long before that. 35 years in fact.

many Koreans were soldiers some even being officers of IJA

Ah, you mean guards at concentration camps, where they had to be "brutal" to make an impression on their Japanese overlords, or labourers for the Japanese army?

WatchingStuff

Poland was invaded by the Germans and were condemned by the international society. On the other hand Korea was Annexed by Japan and was praised.

Basically SK is rewriting the history books to whitewash this unfortunate inconvenient fact.

On the other hand Korea was Annexed by Japan and was praised.

Jaapn got to hold onto Korea for the simple fact that they had just beaten the Russians in the 1904-1905 war, with the discreet approval of Britain. Besides which, they fought on the side of the allies in WW1. Clearly it was a different situation with Germany in 1939. Besides which, do you think the Koreans were happy about being colonised for 35 years?

A lot of selective memory I see. No wonder SK people argue about history. Basically Japan liberalized the Korean peninsula from it's vassal state situation by defeating the Qing dynasty. You know the reason why Koreans erected the Independence Gate. After that the Korean nobles went on a shopping spree well beyond their means and bankrupted the nation. Japan had to bail you people out and notified the global nations that Japan was going to handle all foreign relations to stop the money borrowing from other nation but the nobles tried to run to Russia which is like an addict running to a loan shark to borrow more money so they can easy their endless lust in spending money. Japan fought the Russians and won and annexed Korea so it won't inflict more pain to herself.

Basically Korea was broke and couldn't manage herself and Japan had to interact so it doesn't place Japan into tight spot.

And once again we have a right winger arguing that although the Japanese were controlling overlordss, they were benevolent controlling overlords.

Why don't you just explain to the Koreans that taking over their country for 35 years was helping them and was in their best interests? I'm sure they won't mind that you took over their country for 35 years if you just explain it that way.

So is the sea of japan really the sea of japan? Where i come from, southern CA, lobbyists fund billboards all along major highways. The billboards claim it is the sea of korea. These lobbyists are the same errecting statues of "comfort women".

Its all just a vicous cycle of mistrust & finger pointing. Neverending, but amusing.

Strangerland

Why don't Koreans just admit and accept their own mistake in the past and stop bother Japan which did the obvious thing protect themselves?

No matter how you spin the bottle, there is not way Koreans can evade their own mistake and have to live with it.

Why don't Koreans just admit and accept their own mistake in the past and stop bother Japan which did the obvious thing protect themselves?

What do their mistakes have to do with Japan invading their country for 35 years? Whether or not they made mistakes is irrelevant to the fact that Japan took over their country for 35 years.

Bingo ! !

South Korea, in outright denial of it's own involvement in WWII on the side of Imperial Japan, is in no position to criticize any other countries' textbooks.

Bingo ! !

I didn't think it would be so easy to get you to agree with me!

"Spring cleaning of the mods."

Ha! Sounds like the title of a section of "The Waste Land."

But let's hope it doesn't happen. We all love our moderators deep down. Right? : )