Seoul, March 29 (Prensa Latina) South Korea today launched a strong protest against Japan over its new school textbooks, which removed words showing the coercive nature of its World War II atrocities against Koreans.
In a statement, Seoul’s foreign ministry expressed “deep regret” and urged Tokyo to address the issue, describing the move as a distortion of historical truths.
Director-General of the Ministry of Asia-Pacific Affairs Lee Sang-ryeol called on Naoki Kumagai, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Japan in Seoul, to also deliver a formal protest message.
The move came shortly after an announcement by Japan’s Ministry of Education on the results of its evaluation of high school and junior textbooks across the country from 2023.
The term “forced mobilization” in reference to Koreans forced to do forced labor in Japan’s mines and industrial plants has been changed to “mobilization” or “recruitment” in state-censored educational materials.
Regarding the Korean women sexually enslaved by the Imperial Japanese Army, many of the ministry-approved textbooks have omitted the phrase “wartime comfort women” or minimized the historical facts associated with it.
On the other hand, the books further elaborate on Japan’s claims that Dokdo, a cluster of rocky islands in the East Sea, belongs to it and that South Korea is illegally occupying the territory.
South Korea’s foreign ministry asked Tokyo to provide proper education based on the “spirit of apology” practiced by some of its leaders in the past regarding their atrocities during the occupation (1910-1945).
In the Dokdo question, he clarified that none of the claims made by the Japanese authorities were acceptable.
Seoul officials stressed that the archipelago is an integral part of South Korean territory historically, geographically and under international law.
memory/lp