Textbooks: A Telling Quote

In Norimitsu Onishi's April 18th International Herald Tribune story "Asia history that won't go away," Acting Secretary-General of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Abe Shinzo was quoted as saying:

"There would be a problem if the textbooks state something that the government does not assert, or if they go beyond the bounds of what the government asserts. It's natural that the textbooks follow the government line (italics mine.)"

The LDP needs better press agents or something, because in the midst of this dispute with the authoritarian Chinese (who are equally egregious textbook editors), Abe is whining about the fear of his nation's centralized historical education not following the party line. Shouldn't they at least pretend that their version of history is the "real one" as justification for their actions? They are just coming out and admitting their belief that the LDP - not the government in total - has the sole right to control the state-mandated educational curriculum. If Abe says there were no comfort women, how dare they teach that there were!

Posted by marxy at April 19, 2005 2:08 AM