Teachers and parents meet in protest against a rightist textbook

More than 300 parents, teachers, and citizens on July 20 held an urgent meeting in Tokyo in opposition to Tokyo's plan to adopt an ultra-conservative history textbook in a 6-year high school that will open next spring.

The "New History Textbook" edited by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform causes controversy over distortions of history glossing over Japan's war of aggression.

Komori Yoichi, professor at Tokyo University, said that history education would be used to induce the Japanese people to support making Japan into a "war-fighting nation".

A teacher, who received punishment for not singing "Kimigayo" at school ceremonies, pointed out that the board of education wants to force teachers to plant a particular ideology in children's minds and keep children from thinking with a critical mind.

A young Korean living in Japan said, "Many Korean residents go to Japanese schools. The 'New History Textbook' will implant anti-foreign sentiment, a climate of discrimination, and prejudice in Japanese children."

The new high school will open next spring with an emphasis on education in "Japanese traditional culture" as its characteristic. To promote this feature, an advisory body has been established consisting of Tokyo's Board of Education members who support forcing the "Hinomaru" flag and "Kimigayo" on teachers and students. (end)