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Sep 29 08:02 AM US/Eastern
NAHA, Japan, Sept. 29 (AP) - (Kyodo) — About 110,000 people staged a rally in Okinawa on Saturday demanding that the education ministry retract its instruction to history textbook publishers to remove references to the Japanese military's forcing of civilians to commit mass suicide during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.
The rally was the largest in Okinawa since its reversion to Japan from the United States in 1972, with the number of participants exceeding a 1995 rally in which around 85,000 people protested against the rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen and the huge presence of U.S. military forces, organizers said.
The gathering in Ginowan, just northeast of the prefectural capital of Naha, was organized by a committee comprising of members of all blocs in the Okinawa prefectural assembly, including Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as well as local governments, local teachers' unions and citizens' groups in the prefecture.
The protestors adopted a resolution urging the central government to rescind its instruction to history textbook publishers to rewrite or delete descriptions on the mass suicides. Five publishers have already complied with the ministry's instruction.
"It is an undeniable fact that the 'mass suicides' would not have occurred without the involvement of the Japanese military and any deletion or revision of (the description) is a denial and distortion of the many testimonies by people who survived the incidents," the resolution said.
Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said in his speech at the rally, "The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has yet to respond sincerely to the repeated calls and deep feelings for peace of the people of Okinawa and has not accepted our request to retract the instruction."
"The ministry's attitude is extremely regrettable. As a representative of the people of Okinawa, I strongly protest to the ministry," he added.
The rally was attended by many lawmakers from the prefecture, members of local assemblies as well as local government chiefs from all over the prefecture.
Toshinobu Nakazato, chairman of the prefectural assembly and the director general of the rally committee, said, "It is totally unacceptable for the people of Okinawa, who were forced to make heavy sacrifices and saw the historical facts distorted."
One of the survivors of a mass suicide told the participants how his family and neighbors were driven to kill themselves by grenades supplied by the Japanese military, while two high school students read out a message that said, "However hideous the war was, we would like to know the truth, learn the truth and relay the truth to future generations."
The committee is planning to organize a large-scale delegation in mid- October to visit the education ministry to demand the retraction of the instruction.
In March, the ministry told publishers of high school history textbooks to rewrite sections suggesting that the embattled Japanese Imperial Army forced or told civilians to kill themselves with hand grenades supplied by the military during the battle fought in the closing stages of World War II.
The instruction has angered many in the southwestern Japan prefecture, leading all of the local assemblies in the prefecture and some assemblies elsewhere in the country to adopt resolutions protesting against the ministry order and demanding that it be retracted.
In particular, the anger and frustration among survivors of the mass suicides have prompted them to relate their "untold testimonies" about the incidents, pro [sic]
More than 110,000 people protested in Okinawa against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II.
Publishers of history textbooks were ordered in December to modify sections that said the Japanese army -- faced with an impending U.S. invasion in 1945 -- handed out grenades to residents on Okinawa and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to the Americans.
The amendment order came amid moves by Tokyo to soften brutal accounts of Japanese wartime conduct, but triggered immediate condemnation from residents and academics.
"We cannot bury the fact that the Japanese military was involved in the mass suicide, taking into account of the general background and testimonies that hand grenades were delivered," Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima told a crowd gathered at a park in Ginowan City.
About 110,000 people -- residents and politicians -- attended the rally, and a total of 5,000 others took part in two other meetings on the nearby islands of Miyako and Ishigaki -- both part of Okinawa Prefecture -- Saturday, said Yoshino Uetsu, one of the organizers.
Saturday's rally was the largest in Okinawa since the island was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, Kyodo News agency said. In 1995, 85,000 people took part in a rally following the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl there by three American servicemen, according to the agency.
New textbooks for use in Japanese schools must be screened and approved by a government-appointed panel, which can order corrections of perceived historical inaccuracies.
The publishers of seven textbooks, slated for use in high schools next year, had been asked to make relevant changes and submit them for approval.
An official of the Education Ministry said Saturday that the ministry has no immediate plans concerning the amendment. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.
Accounts of forced group suicides on Okinawa are backed by historical research, as well as testimonies from victims' relatives. Historians also say civilians were induced by government propaganda to believe U.S. soldiers would commit horrible atrocities and therefore killed themselves and their families to avoid capture.
About 500 people committed suicide, according to civic group and media reports.
In recent years, some academics have questioned whether the suicides were forced _ part of a general push by Japanese conservatives to soften criticism of Tokyo's wartime conduct.
The bloody battle in Okinawa raged from late March through June 1945, leaving more than 200,000 civilians and soldiers dead, and speeding the collapse of Japan's defenses. The U.S. occupied Okinawa from the end of World War II until 1972.
September 30, 2007 - Mainichi
In Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, about 110,000 people staged a rally on Saturday to protest the central government stance on the mass suicides that occurred there during World War Two.
The demonstrators who gathered in Ginowan city demanded that the Education Ministry retract its instruction to history textbook publishers to remove references that the Japanese military forced local people to commit mass suicide during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.
The rally, organized by members of the prefectural assembly, was the largest in Okinawa, exceeding a 1995 gathering when 85,000 people protested against the rape of a schoolgirl by US servicemen.
Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima expressed strong dissatisfaction about the central government, saying it is an undeniable fact that the Japanese military was involved in the incident given that many survivors testified that grenades were supplied by the military.
One of survivors also confirmed the military's involvement.
The protesters plan to hand to the central government in October a resolution urging it to retract its textbook instruction.
Updated at 14:00(JST) Sep. 30
Published: 30, 2007 at 1:08 PM
NAHA, , 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.
Sep 29, 10:31 PM EDT
By CHISAKI WATANABE
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) -- More than 100,000 people protested Saturday in southern Japan against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II.
Publishers of history textbooks were ordered in December to modify sections that said the Japanese army - faced with an impending U.S. invasion in 1945 - handed out grenades to residents in Okinawa and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to the Americans.
Photo: A crowd of Okinawan islanders gather at Kaihin Park in Ginowan City in Japan's southern prefecture (state) of Okinawa on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007. More than 110,000 people protested against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II. The sign reads,"Let's validate historical facts fairly."
The amendment order came amid moves by Tokyo to soften brutal accounts of Japanese wartime conduct, but triggered immediate condemnation from residents and academics.
About 110,000 residents and politicians attended Saturday's rallies in the prefecture (state) of Okinawa, said Yoshino Uetsu, one of the organizers.
"We cannot bury the fact that the Japanese military was involved in the mass suicide, taking into account of the general background and testimonies that hand grenades were delivered," Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima told a crowd gathered at a park in Ginowan City.
Accounts of forced group suicides on Okinawa are backed by historical research, as well as testimonies from victims' relatives. Historians also say civilians were induced by government propaganda to believe U.S. soldiers would commit horrible atrocities and therefore killed themselves and their families to avoid capture.
About 500 people committed suicide, according to civic group and media reports.
In recent years, some academics have questioned whether the suicides were forced - part of a general push by Japanese conservatives to soften criticism of Tokyo's wartime conduct.
The bloody battle in Okinawa raged from late March through June 1945, leaving more than 200,000 civilians and soldiers dead, and speeding the collapse of Japan's defenses. The U.S. occupied Okinawa from the end of World War II until 1972.
New textbooks for use in Japanese schools must be screened and approved by a government-appointed panel, which can order corrections of perceived historical inaccuracies. The publishers of seven textbooks slated for use in high schools next year had been asked to make relevant changes and submit them for approval.
An official of the Education Ministry said Saturday that the ministry has no immediate plans concerning the amendment. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.
Saturday's rally was the largest in Okinawa since the island was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, Kyodo News agency said. In 1995, 85,000 people took part in a rally following the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl there by three American servicemen, according to the agency.
Latest News
Hilversum, Sunday 30 September 2007 02:25 UTC
Over 100,000 people have demonstrated on the island of Okinawa in Japan against a government order to cut certain passages in a history textbook used in secondary schools. Publishers were ordered to delete references to the Japanese army forcing the inhabitants of Okinawa to commit suicide at the end of the Second World War when US troops attempted to occupy the island.
Around 200,000 people were killed in the Battle of Okinawa, including 10,000 civilians. Entire families committed suicide rather than surrender to the Americans. Some eyewitness accounts claim they were forced to kill themselves on the orders of Japanese soldiers, but nationalist historians claim they did so out of patriotism.
The demonstrators are angry that the nationalist version of events has been made compulsory in the school textbooks. They say that the brutality against the wartime generation should be a lesson for the future.
Translated by Babel Fish:
116000 human concentration official approval withdrawal requests
In Okinawa game with high school historical screening of school textbooks of the education scientific ministry, "group suicide" (forced group death) with the problem where description of the Japanese military forcing was deleted & was corrected, 29th from 3 o'clock in the afternoon were held with the Ginowan seaside park of Ginowan city "the prefectural people conference which requests screening of school textbooks opinion withdrawal" (the same Executive Committee sponsorship) 110000 to participate, when it includes also the Miyako and Yaeyama Gun people conference, 116000 people (sponsor announcement) concentrated from inside and outside the prefecture. The prefectural people conference which protests to the girl rough incident by the American soldier 1995 October 21st (it included Miyako and Yaeyama and 90000 people) it became largest protest meeting after the returning which is exceeded. Adopting official approval opinion withdrawal and the resolution which requests description recovery in full house agreement. Voice of the prefectural people to tail wind, Executive Committee goes up to the capital on October 15th, the intention which request to Prime Minister and crossing the sea period three bright literature course phases and others Yasuo Fukuda.
Photo: Participant = 2007 September 29th 110000 it meets in the prefectural people conference around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the Ginowan seaside park (from the head office charter plane Hiroaki Yamashiro)
Multi Governors Hiro Nakaima with the direction which participates in the request conduct to the country, enter into schedule adjustment in the week opening.
All the 36 mayors, town managers, and village headmen who exclude 5 mayors, town managers, and village headmen of Miyako and Yaeyama conference participation participate in the conference. With the stage other than mayors, town managers, and village headmen, prefectural election graduate member of the Diet, prefectural discussion, municipalities national assembly chairmen lining up, it sat down.
It follows to "the appeal to the prefectural people" of prefectural PTA combined Chairman Hiromi Moromisato, interest trust conference execution Chairman Nakazato (prefectural national assembly chairman), Governor Nakaima greets. As for Governor Nakaima "it is the fact which cannot hide from the comprehensive background of the age circumstance which includes the education of that time ' group suicide ' concerning the participation of the Japanese military, and testimony such that the hand high-explosive shell is distributed", that it emphasizes. "Quite regrettable" you criticize the literature course ministry which does not accept the request of the prefectural people, "you protest strongly as the person who represents the prefectural people, vis-a-vis the official approval opinion of the latest literature course ministry, state the mind of regrettable as, official approval opinion was withdrawn rapidly, appealed that you demand that you can do the revival of description strongly".
After that, prefectural education Chairman and the high school student Isao Nakayama, the woman and each group, youth representation greeted. Shrine flat spring shiitake of village education Chairman �� victory Tokashiki Yoshikawa of the survivor "of group suicide" of the Tokashiki island and "the group suicide" testimony person of the Zamami island (reading by proxy) you spoke. Also each conference as for end, you aimed toward official approval opinion withdrawal, 116000 people rounded off with Ganba low three singing/stating.
In press conference of after the conference execution Chairman Nakazato "means that 1 person participated in 10 people of the prefectural people. It is the number which it cannot connive at all in the country. Aiming toward the withdrawal of official approval opinion strongly on the basis of this, we would like to keep persevering ", that conference success was verified.
The prefectural people conference held 247 groups of 22 groups and the cosponsor group of the Executive Committee constitution group.
Click for original article in Japanese.
１１万６０００人結集 検定撤回要求
県民大会に集った１１万人の参加者＝２００７年９月２９日午後４時ごろ、宜野湾海浜公園（本社チャーター機から山城博明）
文部科学省の高校歴史教科書検定で沖縄戦における「集団自決」（強制集団死）の日本軍強制の記述が削除・修正された問題で、２９日午後３時から宜野湾市の宜野湾海浜公園で開催された「教科書検定意見撤回を求める県民大会」（同実行委員会主催）には１１万人が参加、宮古、八重山の郡民大会も含めると、県内外から１１万６千人（主催者発表）が結集した。１９９５年１０月２１日の米兵による少女乱暴事件に抗議する県民大会（宮古、八重山を含め９万人）を上回る復帰後最大の抗議集会となった。検定意見撤回と記述回復を求める決議を満場一致で採択。県民の声を追い風に、実行委員会は１０月１５日に上京し、福田康夫首相や渡海紀三朗文科相らに要請する意向。
仲井真弘多知事は国への要請行動に参加する方向で、週明けに日程調整に入る。
宮古、八重山大会参加の５市町村長を除く全３６市町村長が大会に参加。舞台では市町村長のほか、県選出・出身国会議員、県議、市町村議会議長らが並んで座った。
諸見里宏美県ＰＴＡ連合会長の「県民へのアピール」に続き、仲里利信大会実行委員長（県議会議長）、仲井真知事があいさつ。仲井真知事は「『集団自決』の日本軍の関与については、当時の教育を含む時代状況の総合的な背景や手りゅう弾が配られるなどの証言から覆い隠すことのできない事実である」と強調。県民の要請を受け入れない文科省を「極めて遺憾」と批判し、「県民を代表する者として、今回の文科省の検定意見に対して強く抗議し、遺憾の意を表明するとともに、検定意見が速やかに撤回され、記述の復活がなされることを強く要望する」と訴えた。
その後、中山勲県教育委員長や高校生、女性、各団体、青年代表があいさつした。渡嘉敷島の「集団自決」の生き残りの吉川嘉勝渡嘉敷村教育委員長、座間味島の「集団自決」証言者の宮平春子さん（代読）が発言した。各大会とも最後は、検定意見撤回を目指し、１１万６千人がガンバロー三唱で締めくくった。
大会後の記者会見で仲里実行委員長は「県民の１０人に１人が参加したことになる。国にとっても看過できない数字だ。これをもとに力強く検定意見の撤回を目指して頑張っていきたい」と大会成功を確認した。
県民大会は実行委員会構成団体の２２団体と、共催団体の２４７団体が開催した。
Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007
OKINAWANS RALLY OVER ARMY-SUICIDE LINK
NAHA (Kyodo) About 110,000 people held a rally in Okinawa on Saturday to demand that the education ministry retract an instruction pressuring publishers of history textbooks to remove references to the military's involvement in forcing civilians to commit mass suicide during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.
News photo: Students light the "fire of peace" at a park in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, during a rally Saturday to protest a central government directive requiring publishers of history textbooks to alter their descriptions of the Japanese military's involvement in ordering mass suicides of civilians during the Battle of Okinawa.
The rally was the largest in Okinawa since the island was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, organizers said.
The gathering in Ginowan, just northeast of the capital of Naha, was organized by a committee made up of members from all the blocs in the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly, including Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party and local governments, teachers' unions and citizens' groups.
The protesters adopted a resolution urging the central government to rescind the instruction, which requires publishers to rewrite or delete descriptions suggesting the Japanese military induced local civilians into committing mass suicide in Okinawa.
Five publishers have already complied with the education ministry's instruction.
"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 descriptions) is a denial and distortion of the many testimonies by those people who survived the incidents," the resolution said.
In a speech at the rally, Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said: "The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has yet to respond sincerely to the repeated calls and deep feelings for peace of the people of Okinawa and has not accepted our request to retract the instruction."
"The ministry's attitude is extremely regrettable. As a representative of the people of Okinawa, I strongly protest to the ministry," he added.
Toshinobu Nakazato, chairman of the prefectural assembly and the director general of the rally committee, said it is an undeniable truth that mass suicides resulted from military orders, enforcement and inducement.
"It is our duty to hand this down as a historical fact to generations to come and to make sure that such a brutal war never occurs again," he said.
The committee is expected to organize a large delegation in mid-October to visit the education ministry to demand that it retract the instruction.
In March, the ministry told publishers of high school history textbooks to rewrite the phrases suggesting the embattled Imperial Japanese Army forced or told civilians to kill themselves with hand grenades they distributed during the battle in the closing days of World War II.
The instruction has angered many in Okinawa, including survivors of the battle, leading all the local assemblies in the prefecture and assemblies elsewhere in the nation to adopt a resolution protesting the ministry's order and demanding it be retracted.
But the ministry has rejected the request and instead supported the decision of the seldom-named experts on the ministry's textbook screening panel.
The new versions of the textbooks subject to the order are to be used in the 2008 academic year, which starts next April.
Many of the survivors say the Imperial Japanese Army induced locals to commit suicide to prevent intelligence leaks, but some former military personnel deny the claim.
Okinawa was the only inhabited part of Japan where ground fighting took place during the war.
Last Updated: Saturday, 29 September 2007, 21:49 GMT 22:49 UK
More than 100,000 people in Japan have rallied against changes to school books detailing Japanese military involvement in mass suicides during World War II.
The protest, in Okinawa, was against moves to modify and tone down passages that say the army ordered Okinawans to kill themselves rather than surrender.
Okinawa's governor told crowds they could not ignore army involvement.
Some conservatives in Japan have in recent years questioned accounts of the country's brutal wartime past.
Saturday's rally was the biggest staged on the southern island since it was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, according to the Kyodo News agency.
Grenades
When US soldiers invaded Okinawa at the end of World War II, more than 200,000 people died.
Hundreds of them were Japanese civilians who killed themselves.
The textbooks, intended for use in high schools next year, currently say that as the Americans prepared to invade, the Japanese army handed out grenades to Okinawa residents and ordered them to kill themselves.
Many survivors insist the military told people to commit suicide, partly due to fears over what they might tell the invaders and because being taken prisoner was considered shameful.
The governor of Okinawa, Hirokazu Nakaima, told crowds the episode should not be forgotten.
"We cannot bury the fact that the Japanese military was involved in the mass suicide, taking into account of the general background and testimonies that hand grenades were delivered," he said.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said Saturday's rally was the biggest staged on the southern island since it was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972.
Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:36pm BST
TOKYO (Reuters) - More than 100,000 people gathered in Okinawa on Saturday to urge the government to retract its order that publishers cut schoolbook references to the Japanese army forcing civilians to commit suicide during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.
The rally was the largest held on the southern island since it was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, Kyodo News quoted the organizers as saying.
The Battle of Okinawa left some 200,000 dead including many Okinawan civilians, often entire families, who committed suicide rather than surrender to Americans.
Some eyewitness accounts say they did so on the orders of Japanese soldiers, but conservative historians have called into question those accounts, arguing that the suicides were voluntary.
In March, the education ministry ordered publishers of high school textbooks to modify their descriptions of the suicides, a move that outraged many Okinawans and prompted local assemblies as well as prefectural lawmakers to adopt resolutions blasting the education ministry move.
"It is an undeniable truth that mass suicides resulted from military orders. It is our duty to hand this down as a historical fact to generations to come and to make sure that such a brutal war never occurs again," Kyodo quoted the chairman of the prefectural assembly and head of the rally committee as saying on Saturday.
The gathering was organized by a committee comprising members of all the blocs in the Okinawa prefectural assembly, including Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as well as local governments, teachers unions and citizens groups in the prefecture, Kyodo said.
Five publishers have so far complied with the government's instruction, and the new versions of their textbooks are to be used in the academic year starting next April, Kyodo reported.
The Associated Press
Published: September 29, 2007
TOKYO: More than 110,000 people on Japan's southern island of Okinawa demonstrated Saturday against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II.
Publishers of history textbooks were ordered in December to modify sections that said the Japanese army — faced with an impending U.S. invasion in 1945 — handed out grenades to residents on Okinawa and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to the Americans.
The amendment order came amid moves by Tokyo to soften brutal accounts of Japanese wartime conduct, but triggered immediate condemnation from residents and academics.
"We cannot bury the fact that the Japanese military was involved in the mass suicide, taking into account of the general background and testimonies that hand grenades were delivered," Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima told a crowd gathered at a park in Ginowan City.
About 110,000 people — residents and politicians — attended the rally, and a total of 5,000 others took part in two other demonstrations on the island Saturday, said Yoshino Uetsu, one of the organizers.
Saturday's rally was the largest in Okinawa since the island was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, Kyodo News agency said. In 1995, 85,000 demonstrators took to the streets in Okinawa following the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl there by three American servicemen, according to the agency.
New textbooks for use in Japanese schools must be screened and approved by a government-appointed panel, which can order corrections of perceived historical inaccuracies.
The publishers of seven textbooks, slated for use in high schools next year, had been asked to make relevant changes and submit them for approval.
An official of the Education Ministry said Saturday that the ministry has no immediate plans concerning the amendment. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.
Accounts of forced group suicides on Okinawa are backed by historical research, as well as testimonies from victims' relatives. Historians also say civilians were induced by government propaganda to believe U.S. soldiers would commit horrible atrocities and therefore killed themselves and their families to avoid capture.
About 500 people committed suicide, according to civic group and media reports.
In recent years, some academics have questioned whether the suicides were forced — part of a general push by Japanese conservatives to soften criticism of Tokyo's wartime conduct.
The bloody battle in Okinawa raged from late March through June 1945, leaving more than 200,000 civilians and soldiers dead, and speeding the collapse of Japan's defenses. The U.S. occupied Okinawa from the end of World War II until 1972.
September 30, 2007
About 110,000 people staged a rally in Okinawa against the Government's move to instruct publishers to delete references to Japanese troops forcing islanders to commit suicide during World War II.
The rally was the largest in the southern Japanese island since it was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, Kyodo News said.
The rally was held in Ginowan, north-east of Naha, drawing local residents, government officials, teachers and labour unions as well as local politicians from both the ruling and opposition camps.
The protesters adopted a resolution urging the Education Ministry to retract its controversial instruction to history textbook publishers to delete the references, organisers said.
Representatives of the demonstrators plan to visit Tokyo next week to deliver the resolution to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda who took office on Tuesday, the organisers said.
"The Ministry's attitude is extremely regrettable," Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima told the rally, according to Kyodo.
"As a representative of the people of Okinawa, I strongly protest to the Ministry."
Okinawa islanders were angered by the Ministry's instruction in March to publishers that they rewrite the phrases, suggesting Japan's Imperial Army forced civilians to kill themselves in the closing stages of World War II.
The 83-day Battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest in the Pacific war, left 190,000 Japanese dead, half of them Okinawan civilians.
The US death toll reached 12,520 due to die-hard resistance by home troops on the southern Japanese island chain.
While many civilians perished in the all-out US bombardment, local accounts say Japanese troops forced residents of Okinawa - an independent kingdom until the 19th century - to commit suicide rather than surrender to US forces.
One of the draft textbooks read: "There were people who were forced by Japanese troops to commit group suicides."
But after a regular screening the Ministry demanded a change to: "There were people who were driven into group suicides."
- AFP Posted Sat Sep 29, 2007 11:47pm AEST
Sep 29, 7:50 AM EDT
By CHISAKI WATANABE
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) -- More than 110,000 people on Japan's southern island of Okinawa demonstrated Saturday against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II.
Publishers of history textbooks were ordered in December to modify sections that said the Japanese army - faced with an impending U.S. invasion in 1945 - handed out grenades to residents on Okinawa and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to the Americans.
The amendment order came amid moves by Tokyo to soften brutal accounts of Japanese wartime conduct, but triggered immediate condemnation from residents and academics.
"We cannot bury the fact that the Japanese military was involved in the mass suicide, taking into account of the general background and testimonies that hand grenades were delivered," Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima told a crowd gathered at a park in Ginowan City.
About 110,000 people - residents and politicians - attended the rally, and a total of 5,000 others took part in two other demonstrations on the island Saturday, said Yoshino Uetsu, one of the organizers.
Saturday's rally was the largest in Okinawa since the island was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, Kyodo News agency said. In 1995, 85,000 demonstrators took to the streets in Okinawa following the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl there by three American servicemen, according to the agency.
New textbooks for use in Japanese schools must be screened and approved by a government-appointed panel, which can order corrections of perceived historical inaccuracies.
The publishers of seven textbooks, slated for use in high schools next year, had been asked to make relevant changes and submit them for approval.
An official of the Education Ministry said Saturday that the ministry has no immediate plans concerning the amendment. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.
Accounts of forced group suicides on Okinawa are backed by historical research, as well as testimonies from victims' relatives. Historians also say civilians were induced by government propaganda to believe U.S. soldiers would commit horrible atrocities and therefore killed themselves and their families to avoid capture.
About 500 people committed suicide, according to civic group and media reports.
In recent years, some academics have questioned whether the suicides were forced - part of a general push by Japanese conservatives to soften criticism of Tokyo's wartime conduct.
The bloody battle in Okinawa raged from late March through June 1945, leaving more than 200,000 civilians and soldiers dead, and speeding the collapse of Japan's defenses. The U.S. occupied Okinawa from the end of World War II until 1972.
By David McNeill in Tokyo
Published: 29 September 2007
Nobuaki Kinjo was 16 when he murdered his mother, six-year-old brother and four-year-old sister. Then he went looking for Americans to kill. "We went insane," he told a court recently. "We were told by the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army that we should commit suicide rather than be captured."
More than six decades after those horrific events, Mr Kinjo is fighting another war against government censorship. Now a 78-year-old Baptist missionary, he will be one of about 50,000 people marching today in the tiny Pacific island of Okinawa, whose population has been angered by plans to censor school textbooks.
Mr Kinjo's experience, and others like it, is woven into the history of Okinawa, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War. Locals still remember receiving grenades – known as gifts of love from the Emperor – to save bullets in mass suicides. But this year, Tokyo in effect declared that such events never took place.
In March, Japan's Education Ministry ordered publishers of secondary school history textbooks to delete references to coercion by Japanese troops. "There are divergent views of whether or not the suicides were ordered by the army and no proof to say either way," a ministry official told the Stars and Stripes, the US military's daily newspaper.
One passage in a textbook was changed from: "Japanese forces made [residents] commit mass suicide and kill one another using hand grenades that [the Japanese forces] had distributed." To: "Using hand grenades that Japanese forces had distributed, mass suicide and the killing of one another took place."
"It's an Orwellian move," says Doug Lummis, a local academic and former American soldier. "This is an attempt to send these peoples' memories down the plughole of history. They're not going to stand for it."
The Battle of Okinawa raged for three months in 1945 and took 200,000 Japanese and American lives, including about a quarter of the local population. Japanese troops were ordered to stall a full-scale invasion of the mainland. Mass suicides of families indoctrinated by military propaganda, including mothers and their babies, have been well documented.
The American invasion, and the presence of thousands of US troops as part of the US-Japan military alliance has had a deep impact on the area. Dozens of peace monuments dot the island and resentment at what many locals see as Tokyo's arrogance runs deep.
Okinawa's local government has reacted with fury to the Education Ministry directive, issuing an unprecedented unanimous statement in June demanding that the government reverse its decision. "It is an undeniable fact that mass suicides could not have occurred without the involvement of the Japanese military," said the statement.
More than 100,000 signatures have been collected against the directive and Hirokazu Nakaima, the island's governor and a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is taking part in today's demonstration, an embarrassing snub to the central government. School children will tell the protesters why they will not use the censored textbooks and witnesses of the battle will recount their stories.
"We need to bring together at least 50,000 people. Otherwise, the central government probably won't take our request very seriously," said Toshinobu Nakazato, the chairman of the Okinawa government assembly, last week.
Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister, has backed the revisionist moves on Japan's war history. He was said to have been taken aback by the anger when he visited Okinawa in June as part of war anniversary commemorations. "There are a lot of divergent views on what happened during the war," he said.
The island rarely makes news. The last time the world paid attention to this tiny speck in the Pacific Ocean was 1995 when three US marines kidnapped and raped a 12-year-old girl, sparking a huge anti-American demonstration in Ginowan Park, the same venue as today's protest. "I think this rally could be as big as that," said Lummis. "People are that angry."
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, September 29, 2007
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — The commander of U.S. Forces Japan took center stage at the Keystone Theater here Thursday to remind senior noncommissioned enlisted leaders and field grade officers just why this base is called the “Keystone of the Pacific.”
“You’ve never been more important,” Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright told the more than 100 in attendance.
With China rising economically and militarily, and North Korea “continuing to be problematic,” the Japan-U.S. alliance is more important than ever, Wright said, adding that Russia’s recent activation of its long-range bombers complicates the picture.
“(And) we’ve also got a tough fight right now in the Philippines — radical Islam,” he said.
That’s why recent agreements with Japan that involve building closer cooperation and interoperability with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are so important, he said.
In touching upon the agreement signed in May 2006 to realign U.S. forces in Japan, Wright emphasized that the idea of the U.S. military being a “burden” on Okinawa “is losing its popularity,” partly because the planned move of Marine air operations to Camp Schwab will enable the closing of most of the U.S. base property in central and southern Okinawa.
By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, September 29, 2007
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — Servicemembers will be restricted from areas near Camp Casey in anticipation of a large anti-U.S. military protest Saturday, 2nd Infantry Division officials said Thursday.
The Bosandong entertainment district, also known as “The Ville,” outside Camp Casey’s main gate, and the New Town neighborhood are off-limits to personnel stationed at Dongducheon-area 2nd Infantry Division installations beginning at noon Saturday, an Army spokeswoman said.
The subway between Uijeongbu and Dongducheon also has been placed off-limits.
Each restriction will remain until further notice, officials said.
Camp Casey Gate 2 will close at 2 p.m., while the main gate will close on order, depending on conditions outside the gate.
As many as 1,000 protesters are expected at the demonstration, which is expected to last from 4 to 6:40 p.m., Yangju police confirmed Thursday.
The Hanchongryon umbrella group, which held a smaller protest in August, includes the local Northern Kyeonggi Progressive Solidarity group. Hanchongryon has become violent in the past, although August’s protest was relatively peaceful, military and South Korean police officials said.
As many as 200 people from the pro-military Dongducheon Merchants Association are expected to hold a counter-demonstration, Yangju police said.
The anti-U.S. military protesters are calling for actions ranging from a full pullout of U.S. troops from South Korea to revisions to the Status of Forces Agreement because of servicemember-related crimes.
They have directed their ire specifically at the handling of a May 19 fire at a beauty shop outside Camp Hovey in Dongducheon.
Pvt. Dustin T. Roper likely faces property destruction and breaking and entering charges in the incident, but he will not be charged with starting the fire due to lack of evidence, prosecutors said last week.
Yangju police say Roper was caught on a convenience store video camera breaking flower pots outside the shop, but wasn’t seen starting the fire. The shop owner, who lived upstairs, was treated for smoke inhalation.
Sept. 28, 2007; Submitted on: 09/28/2007 04:02:18 AM ;
Story ID#: 20079284218
By Lance Cpl. Tyler J. Hlavac, MCB Camp Butler
Photo: CAMP COURTNEY, OKINAWA, Japan — Maj. Gen. Robert Neller, commanding general of 3rd Marine Division, speaks during the Division’s 65th birthday ceremony on Camp Courtney Sept. 24.
CAMP COURTNEY, OKINAWA, Japan (Sept. 28, 2007) -- 3rd Marine Division personnel gathered in front of their headquarters building on Camp Courtney Sept. 24 to celebrate the unit’s 65th birthday.
The Marine Corps formed the Division in September 1942 in San Diego. Since that time, Marines and sailors from the “Fighting Third” have participated in many major U.S. military campaigns.
During the ceremony, leaders with the division spoke about the unit’s prominent history, such as battles in Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima.
Okinawa first became home to the Division in 1956. Nine years later, the Division moved to Da Nang Air Base, Vietnam, and later received the Meritorious Unit Commendation for its combat operations there.
In 1969, the unit moved to Camp Courtney, where it has remained since.
Since returning, 3rd MarDiv has continually participated in international training exercises and deploys its units to operations worldwide.
Currently, the Division plays a large role in the Global War on Terrorism with battalions rotating in and out of Iraq, while Embedded Training Teams strengthen Afghanistan’s developing security forces.
Additionally, the Division supports humanitarian operations throughout the Pacific.
Closing the ceremony, Maj. Gen. Robert Neller, commanding general of the 3rd MarDiv, spoke about where the Division is headed.
“Our future priorities are to continue to conduct humanitarian and high intensity operations,” said Neller. “With our deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and other theaters in the Pacific, I would match the operational tempo of this unit against any in the Marine Corps.
“For Marines who want to get into the fight, the 3rd MarDiv is the place to be. By conducting ourselves in this manner, I believe there is no question that today’s Marines are living up to those who have gone before them.”
Friday, Sept. 28, 2007
By AKEMI NAKAMURA
Staff writer
CABINET INTERVIEW
EDUCATION REBUILDING COUNCIL TO STAY
Reforming the education system, a focus of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration, remains a goal for new education minister Kisaburo Tokai.
"I was told by Prime Minister (Yasuo) Fukuda to rebuild the education system," the 59-year-old Lower House member from Hyogo Prefecture said Wednesday. "As education is a pillar supporting a nation, I support this direction." The ministerial post, which Tokai assumed on Tuesday, is the lawmaker's first in a 21-year career.
Begun under Abe, the Education Rebuilding Council has emerged as a major force behind the push to reform the public education system. Among other things, the 17-member panel has proposed increasing class hours by 10 percent at public elementary and junior high schools and augmenting ethics education. The council will continue to discuss further reform measures under Fukuda.
Tokai also said he wants to bolster the number of teachers.
"It's important for teachers to have more time to spend with students. Now teachers are burdened with paperwork. By increasing their numbers, we can create an environment where teachers concentrate on education activities," he said in an interview in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Having more teachers will also help identify signs of bullying in the classroom, he said.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry is requesting an allocation of ¥50.4 billion from the Finance Ministry over three years starting in fiscal 2008 to hire 21,362 new teachers — or about 7,000 each year.
"I'll endeavor to secure the budget," in spite of government attempts to trim fiscal spending, Tokai said.
Although a supporter of the ERC's plan to boost ethics education, Tokai is less enamored of the voucher system expected to be proposed by the panel in its third report in December. Under that plan, the government would provide coupons to help students pay for a private education. Critics say the system would intensify the already excessive competition between public and private schools.
"The government has to secure equal compulsory education opportunities for children," Tokai said. "Children in (rural) areas have little freedom to select schools (because of the scarcity of private institutions). So I'm not entirely supportive of introducing a voucher system without first solving this problem."
Tokai has taken a cautious line on the contentious subject of textbook screening.
In March, the education ministry caused a stir in Okinawa when it asked publishers of high school history textbooks to remove references to the Imperial Japanese Army's role in forcing civilians to commit mass suicide during the Battle of Okinawa in the closing days of the war.
"(Ministers) shouldn't say anything" about the screening process because the panel, which is made up of academics and schoolteachers, checks textbook drafts and judges whether the drafts have errors and inappropriate descriptions, he said at a news conference Tuesday.
"I think (the screening) should be done more carefully in dealing with (the descriptions), taking into account the feelings of the people in Okinawa," he said.
News photo: Kisaburo Tokai, the new minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, discusses his policy goals in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Friday, Sept. 28, 2007
By KEIJI HIRANO
Kyodo News
A digital museum was recently launched on the Internet to document the activities of a disbanded semiofficial relief organization for former World War II sex slaves, who were euphemistically called "comfort women."
The virtual museum, called The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund, aims to keep a record "of our awareness of the comfort women issue and of our atonement project so that people can learn a lesson from history" even after the organization's disbandment in March, former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, president of the Asian Women's Fund, says on the Web page.
The site at www.awf.or.jp is in both Japanese and English.
News photo: A virtual museum recently opened on the Internet that documents the activities of the Asian Women's Fund, a disbanded semiofficial organization that disbursed funds to former World War II sex slaves.
The first section, titled "Japanese Military and Comfort Women," provides descriptions of how women were forced to provide sexual services to Japanese officers and soldiers during the war and how they have lived since then.
"Women at comfort stations were forced to render sexual services to many officers and men, their human dignity trampled upon," the section says. The text is accompanied by numerous photographs, maps and illustrations.
Many comfort women chose not to return home after the war ended in 1945 "out of a feeling of shame and remained in a foreign land, staying there for the rest of their days," it says.
Those who did go home "suffered from physical disabilities and venereal disease . . . (and) have lived for more than half a century after the war, suffering practically as much as they did during the several years they spent in military comfort stations," it says.
The museum also preserves the testimony of several former comfort women.
Born to a Korean father and a Japanese mother in Tokyo in 1921, Kimiko Kaneda went to Seoul for better employment and then moved to China, where she was forced to be a comfort woman.
According to her testimony, the desire to forget her pain drove her to opium, and she had to have a hysterectomy in her 20s because "as many as 20 men would come to my room from early morning."
Maria Rosa Henson, born in a Manila suburb in 1927, joined an anti-Japanese guerrilla group after being raped by three Japanese soldiers in 1942, but was arrested and forced to become a comfort woman.
"There was no rest, they (Japanese soldiers) had sex with me every minute. That's why we were very tired," she is quoted as saying. "They would allow you to rest only when all of them had already finished.
"Telling my story has made it easier for me to be reconciled with the past," she adds. "But I am still hoping to see justice done before I die."
Both Kaneda and Henson have passed away.
Other sections present how the comfort women issue came to light and the process of the establishment of the Asian Women's Fund as well as the history of its activities.
"Those who went to war knew, at least to some extent," about the comfort women, but "there was almost no awareness of the issue as a social problem," the site notes. "The victims were thought of only as people who were part of history."
However, "the decisive moment came when one victim, Kim Hak Sun, came forward in Seoul in the summer of 1991" under her own name to demand that Japan take responsibility, prompting a campaign in Japan mainly among women to support former comfort women and denounce Japan's wartime acts.
The campaign eventually led the government to launch research on comfort women and issue a 1993 statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono acknowledging the military's involvement "in the establishment and management of the comfort stations and the transfer of comfort women."
The full text of the historic document is available both in Japanese and English on the site.
Given the growing public awareness over the comfort women issue, the government under Socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who later assumed the presidency of the Asian Women's Fund, decided to "promote projects expressing the atonement of the government and people to the former comfort women, and promote other projects aimed at the resolution of contemporary problems faced by women," leading to the launch of the Asian Women's Fund in 1995, the site says.
09/28/2007
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
NAHA--Tens of thousands of Okinawans are expected to turn out Saturday to protest Tokyo's decision to drop references in high school textbooks to the Imperial Japanese Army's role behind wartime civilian suicides in Okinawa Prefecture.
Organizers hope to mobilize at least 50,000 people in what would be the largest such rally in this southernmost prefecture since 1995, when 85,000 people gathered at a park in Ginowan to vent their anger at the huge U.S. military presence after a 12-year-old girl was raped by three U.S. servicemen.
"Whatever we do, we need to bring together at least 50,000 people. Otherwise, the central government probably won't take our request very seriously," Toshinobu Nakazato, chairman of the Okinawa prefectural assembly, told member groups of the rally's organizing committee in a preparatory meeting last week.
The committee consists of 22 groups, including labor unions and an association of bereaved families of the war dead.
Saturday's rally, to be held in the same Ginowan park, is expected to adopt a resolution calling for a retraction of the government's decision on textbook screening. It will be submitted to the education ministry and other entities on Oct. 16.
Among those scheduled to give speeches on Saturday are Yoshikatsu Yoshikawa, 68, who will give an account of a mass civilian suicide he witnessed on Tokashikijima island during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.
Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima will also address the crowd.
Two local high school students will present their opinions on behalf of classmates who will be forced to use the history textbooks starting next spring.
Similar rallies will also be held Saturday on Miyakojima and Ishigakijima islands, where combined, some 5,000 people are expected to participate.
In its latest screening of textbooks, the education ministry instructed publishers to rewrite passages that referred to Imperial Japanese Army soldiers ordering islanders to commit mass suicides in 1945.
The education ministry cited conflicting documents on the army's role as a reason for making the change.
An estimated 120,000 islanders, about one-quarter of Okinawa's population at the time, perished in the only ground battle fought on Japanese soil that involved civilians during World War II.
Witnesses say many people took their lives because they were instructed to blow themselves up with hand grenades provided by Japanese soldiers rather than becoming POWs.
Calls to rescind the government's decision mushroomed after the Tomigusuku municipal assembly passed a statement in May. Forty other municipal assemblies in Okinawa Prefecture eventually followed suit.
Despite reservations among some ruling Liberal Democratic Party members, the prefectural assembly unanimously adopted a statement on June 22, on the eve of the anniversary of the end of organized fighting by Japanese in the Battle of Okinawa.
Okinawan political leaders, from the vice prefectural governor to heads of local governments and assemblies, called on the government to retract the decision.
So far, the government has refused to budge on the issue.(IHT/Asahi: September 28,2007)
09/28/2007
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
For a change, Okinawa Prefecture is finding it is not alone when it comes to battling policies drawn up in mainland Japan.
It is not only Okinawa's assemblies, but their counterparts on the main islands, that are joining a growing chorus of calls for the central government to rescind its decision to rewrite the story of mass civilian suicides during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa in high school textbooks.
The Kochi municipal assembly on Thursday became the latest entity to adopt a statement calling on Tokyo to reinstate references to the Imperial Japanese Army's involvement in mass suicides in Okinawa during the closing months of the war.
In Kochi Prefecture, three other municipal assemblies, including the city of Konan, have adopted similar statements.
Masao Nomura, a Konan municipal assembly member belonging to a conservative caucus who submitted the draft statement, had harsh words for the education ministry's decision.
"I have visited Okinawa many times and talked with many local residents, but I have found no inconsistencies in their accounts," he said. "The education ministry's decision is not right."
The education ministry instructed textbook publishers to rewrite passages touching on accounts of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers forcing islanders to commit mass suicides toward the end of the so-called Typhoon of Steel that raged from March through June 1945.
It was the first time the ministry had issued such instructions.
The Kunitachi municipal assembly in Tokyo adopted a statement last week that says "(mass suicides of Okinawans) would have never occurred without the involvement of the Imperial Japanese Army" and that "(passages of mass suicides) have been carried in school textbooks because there are many witnesses and accounts backing them."
"We should pass on historical facts accurately," said Hiromi Ogawa, a Kunitachi assembly member who sponsored the draft statement calling on the ministry to retract its decision.
On June 22, when the Okinawa prefectural assembly passed its first call for a retraction, the Zama municipal assembly in Kanagawa Prefecture adopted a similar statement.
Zama, home to a U.S. Army base, has taken on renewed importance amid the global realignment of U.S. forces engineered by former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Akihisa Okinaga, an assembly member who submitted the draft statement, said Japanese living in the main islands should extend moral support to Okinawans.
"There is a gap between Okinawa and the mainland in how seriously people think of the U.S. bases issue," he said. "People on the mainland should be the first to raise their voices." Toshinobu Nakazato, chairman of the Okinawa prefectural assembly, said he was encouraged by the support his prefecture has received.(IHT/Asahi: September 28,2007)
Sep 29 08:02 AM US/Eastern
The rally was the largest in Okinawa since its reversion to Japan from the United States in 1972, with the number of participants exceeding a 1995 rally in which around 85,000 people protested against the rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen and the huge presence of U.S. military forces, organizers said.
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