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JAPAN: Textbook approved for use in public schools for disabled

August 9, 2001

UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

Update on Urgent Appeal, 10 August 2001
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UP-28-2001 (RE: FA-04-2001: Re-writing history books)

JAPAN: Promotion of past invasion, imperialism in Asia-Pacific
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Dear Friends,

Regarding our earlier urgent appeal (14-05-2001) on the Japanese Ministry of Education¡¦s attempt to rewrite history, we are sending you this update to draw your continuous attention and support.

On 7 August, despite the drawn-out campaign for Japan to revise the textbook (after the Japanese government approved eight middle school textbooks including one written by nationalist scholars), the board of education in Tokyo voted to allow some schools to use the so-called "New History Textbook." The controversial textbook will be used to teach children in three of the city¡¦s 45 schools for physically and mentally disabled students from next April. The decision marked the first time the textbook has been approved for use in public schools.

This decision to use the textbook in public schools contrasted strikingly with the determined and yet rare move by some Japanese schools who rebelled over and rejected the textbooks. Recently, the district education board in Tochigi prefecture, some 100km north of Tokyo, has withdrawn its backing for the book. The board did recommend the controversial history textbook earlier in July, but it reversed its decision, as all 10 municipal authorities in the district rejected the recommendation including Fujioka city, one of the first to reject the book. However, the decision by the educational board of Fujioka city not to use the controversial textbook in at least 30 public junior high schools in the district on 16 July was unusual. Several private schools have already said they would use the textbook from the 2002 school year starting in April.

The decision also came in the midst of continuous and strenuous efforts by Japan¡¦s neighbors, South Korea and China, to have the textbook revised.

In June, South Korea asked Japan to revise 35 textbook passages that it believes gloss over atrocities committed during Japan¡¦s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945. South Korea was particularly upset by the failure of those textbooks to mention more than 100,000 Korean and other Asian women - so-called "comfort women" - who were forced to serve as sexual slaves for Japanese soldiers during the war. On 9 July, Japan responded that it could revise only two of the 35 disputed passages. The Japanese education ministry said in a statement: "Under the current textbook screening system, it is up to the authors to decide what historical facts to include in their books. We cannot force inclusion of certain points." In protest at Japan¡¦s refusal to make major changes to the textbook, South Korea froze military and cultural exchanges with Japan as retaliatory measures.

Beijing had asked for eight changes to the books, despite an earlier revision of one book that played down the scale of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which China says as many as 300,000 civilians were killed by Japanese troops. A Chinese foreign ministry statement described Japan¡¦s refusal as "unacceptable" and expressed "regrets and strong outrage."

Concerning the recent decision by the board of education in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, Japanese civic groups opposed to the use of the book immediately protested outside the educational board meeting. Even an incendiary device went off in a parking lot next to the central Tokyo building where the historians work, just hours after the city¡¦s board of education voted to allow the use of the book, which is suspected to have been an act of radicals opposed to the textbook. However, Japan has not acceded to the mounting pressure and has rejected all demands for further revisions. The decision by the educational board of Tokyo to allow the controversial textbook to be used in public schools for the first time seems to drive a wedge into the whole controversy.

SUGGESTED ACTION

We have deep concern and draw your attention to Japan¡¦s persistent backing of its distorted history textbook. We urge you to join the solidarity movement and to support the action by signing the on-line petition at: http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/japan/appeal.htm

Also, please note that August 15 marks the anniversary of Japan's surrender in the Second World War (also marking Korea's Independence Day). You may consider organising some kind of action at your Japanese embassy to help the Japanese government remember the history they are trying to deny.

Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
UP-28-2001
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.