On Monday, Nov. 24, South Korea conducted its annual or biannual defensive military drill around the Dokdo/Takeshima islets, triggering diplomatic protests from Japan. Click here for Korea Times article announcing the drill: “Joint Drill Planned Near Dokdo” Click here for…
“A 17-year-old Korean girl tortured to death for opposing Japanese colonial rulers nearly a century ago has become the latest touchstone of the nationalism that is shadowing Asia’s economic rise… Textbooks have become part of the front line in East Asia’s…
Analysis of current “recrudescence of self-righteous nationalism under PM Abe Shinzo,” by Jeff Kingston (Director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan) and other scholars.
Ideas and Insights from Explorer Joseph Hincks: “Peace Boat was founded in 1983 as a civil society response to government censorship of Japan’s past military aggression in the Asia Pacific. Disenchanted with the education he and other students were receiving…
In response to two petitions, one urging and the other opposing U.S. pronouncement over option of taking island dispute between South Korea and Japan to the ICJ, the White House “reiterated that it does not take a position regarding the dispute” (Kyodo)
Analysis of diplomatic language contained in document released Nov. 7. The document was intended to “smooth the way” for an ice-breaking meeting that took place Nov. 10 between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (By Hayashi Nozomu.)
Exhibition on Taiwanese “comfort women” opening in Taipei, in conjunction with International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Article by Wakamiya Yoshibumi, former chief editor of the Asahi Shimbun: tri-national debate exercise within context of “Campus Asia” program at Dongseo University, Busan, fosters understanding of counterpart perspectives over key international relations issues between China, Korea and Japan.
Editorial from Taiwan-based branch of China Times: “Japan’s attempts to downplay or even deny its atrocities during World War II is the biggest obstacle in China-Japan relations. In this regard, the responsibility of improving bilateral ties between the two countries…
Article by SF teacher and writer Nicolas Gattig: “We mustn’t stand for actual denial, but should let others repent in the best way they can. This means graceful engagement — and humility about our own wrongs.”
Article from Kyodo News International: Japanese Foreign Ministry asks New York-based publisher McGraw-Hill Companies to change description of wartime comfort women in one of their world history textbooks
Article on prospect of trilateral foreign ministerial summit: “Japanese and South Korean leaders have proposed holding a trilateral summit with their Chinese counterpart for the first time since 2012, their deputies said…”
Article from People’s Daily, November 13, 2014: China adopts middle school textbooks devoted on Nanjing Massacre one month ahead of national day of remembrance
Article from Japan Times, November 11, 2014: “Japan maintains there is no territorial row over Senkakus”
Article from the New York Times, October 12, 2014: By Michael Fitzpatrick TOKYO — Japan’s simultaneous embrace of nationalism and cosmopolitanism is generating ambiguous signals from its education policy makers. They are rewriting textbooks along what they call “patriotic” lines, alienating…
Article from Asahi Shimbun, October 02, 2014 : Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated he has no plans to issue a new statement to replace a landmark 1993 apology to former “comfort women” forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese soldiers. “I am…
This article in the Japan Daily Press looks how textbooks will likely change to reflect the Japanese government’s position on territorial disputes.
Click here to view the official White House transcript of the April 24th, 2014 Joint Press Conference with President Obama and Prime Minister Abe. In this press conference, the two leaders commented on the issue of disputed territory and President Obama…
Japan’s social studies textbooks to include disputed territories reports the Japan Daily Press
Japan, Korea and Textbook History – This New York Times Opinion letter brings together reactions to the Time’s earlier piece (Jan 13, 2014) ‘Politicians and Textbooks’ which discusses efforts by Prime Minister Abe and President Park to alter the history in…
High school teaching manuals up for revision, to include Senkakus and Takeshima as Japanese territories – reports the Japan Daily Press
Politicians and Textbooks – A New York Times editorial that looks at Prime Minister Abe and President’s Parks attempts to alter history textbooks
History textbook wars cross borders – This opinion piece in The Japan Times explores how Japan, Germany, China, and the US have confronted their history in textbooks and whether or not any of them have truly escaped promoting a political…
Japanese history to be mandatory during high school years reports the Japan Daily Press