Japan Press Weekly

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2013 August 21 - 27 [EDUCATION]

JCP assembly members demand retraction of access restrictions on ‘Barefoot Gen’

Japanese Communist Party Matsue City Assembly members made representations on August 20 to the City Education Board that the authorities withdraw their request for public schools in the city to place restrictions on free access to “Barefoot Gen”.

The Matsue Municipal Board of Education in Shimane Prefecture made a request last December to principals of city-run elementary and junior high schools to put restrictions on student access to the 10-part manga series depicting the tragedy of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

In the representations, the JCP assembly members strongly criticized the educational authorities for trying to keep students from learning about the horrors of war and the atomic bombing as well as the importance of peace, demanding the withdrawal of its request to school principals.

They also called on the board to explain why it gave the instruction while the city assembly in December last year unanimously dismissed a petition for the removal of the work from municipal school libraries.

One of the JCP representatives said to a deputy chair of the education board, “Preventing students from reading the book because of its realistic depiction amounts hiding the truth of war from them.”