Textbook cases, Chapter 10

IN EAST ASIA history textbooks are barometers of nationalism, and arguments over them are proxies for disputes between states. So it is hardly surprising—at a time when territorial disagreements are breaking out all round the South China Sea and East China Sea—that the region is seeing a new chapter in a long-running argument over how history is taught. This time, though, the bickering has spread beyond Japan and China, its usual homes. And, in addition to their international implications, the textbook disputes have taken on a strong domestic character.

The new round begins in Japan—inevitably since Japan’s imperial aggression leading to its defeat in 1945 has long provided the starting point for disputes. In its manifesto for the election of December 2012 the Liberal Democratic Party promised to restore “patriotic” values to education and called current textbooks “ideologically prejudiced expressions based on self-torturing views of history.” Many academics and teachers were disturbed.