Learning History: Northeast Asia

There have been violent protests in China against the failure of Japanese history textbooks to recognize Japanese war crimes crimes such as the rape of Nanking.  Similarly in South Korea there have been protests against the failure of these textbooks to describe Japanese abuses when it controlled Korea. Since these protests were to no avail, South Korea's president  Roh Moo Hyun backed the preparation of a history textbook by scholars from the three countries. The 249-page book, published in the three languages, was issued in Seoul on May 26, 2005.  It devotes more than 60 pages to Japanese crimes in China and Korea. Noble as the project may be, it is unfortunately unlikely that the textbook will be adopted in Japan.