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Newstip: Anti-Japanese Protests in China Reflect Unresolved Issues

Textbooks influence few students, but express common sentiment about WWII

Anger about the presentation of World War II history in Japanese textbooks may partly be a pretext for the Chinese government to stage anti-Japanese demonstrations, but it also reflects real anxieties about Japan's past and future role in the region, a DukeUniversity historian says.

"Even though I question the motives of the Chinese government, I think it's a very real issue all the same," said Simon Partner, a scholar of modern Japanese history.

Partner said the textbook in question, though overtly revisionist, has very little impact on the education of Japanese children. It is just one of hundreds of textbooks approved by the Japanese government every year and is a revision of a book that was first approved several years ago. "Its actual use is miniscule, I would think," he said.

The massive protests sparked by the textbook are more closely linked to issues such as China's opposition to Japan's bid to join the United Nations Security Council, and tensions over China's growing economic and military power in the region, he said.

But that doesn't mean the question of Japan's role during World War II isn't an important topic, he said.

"This does pinpoint some very real currents in Japanese public culture," said Partner, whose latest book is titled "Toshie: A Story of Rural Life in Twentieth Century Japan."

He noted there are many popular history books and comics - “ called "manga" “- that seek to justify Japan's aggression during World War II as an effort to liberate Asia. Some of the fictional accounts of the war even depict the Japanese as winning, he said.

"This has become an enormous industry," he said. "There are real unresolved issues of the tragedies of the war."