Published: 30, 2007 at 1:08 PMNAHA, , 30 (UPI) -- Nearly 110,000 people gathered in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture this weekend to ensure a disturbing part of their nation's history remains in textbooks.
The rally came after the education ministry attempted to have information removed from history textbooks detailing the military's role in mass suicides that occurred during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, Kyodo news agency reported Sunday.
A resolution adopted by the protesters Saturday said the attempt to eliminate any mention of the military's actions was an unfair distortion of history.
"It is an undeniable fact that the 'mass suicides' would not have occurred without the involvement of the Japanese military and any deletion of, or revision to, the description is a denial and distortion of the many testimonies by those people who survived the incidents," the resolution read.
Five publishers have already instituted the controversial changes and those altered textbooks are expected to be used during the 2008 academic year, Kyodo said.
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