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This is a transcript of PM broadcast at
1800 AEST on local radio.

Japanese history revision
likely to anger China

PM - Monday, February  10,
2003 18:40

MARK COLVIN: Still in North Asia, the Japanese
Government has again rased serious questions about the country's
preparedness to come to terms with its conduct in the Second World
War.

Already this year Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has
infuriated China and Korea by visiting the Yasukuni shrine, which houses
memorials to convicted war criminals.

Now the Government's approved
controversial revisions to a school history book.

It'll delete a
reference to the number of civilians killed in the infamous Nanjing
Massacre.

The move is likely to infuriate China further.

In
2001, when the government approved a book that allegedly whitewashed the
Nanjing massacre altogether, there was outrage from Beijing.

Tokyo
correspondent Mark Simkin reports.

MARK SIMKIN: The Nanjing
Massacre was one of the bloodiest crimes of the Second World War. After
taking the city, the Japanese troops went on an orgy of murder, pillage
and rape. Newsreel footage shows piles of bodies being shovelled into
makeshift graves.

“I have never been to hell,” a Japanese
journalist wrote in a dispatch from the site, “but there is a hell – it
was in this city.”

No one is sure exactly how many civilians were
killed. Some historians believe 140,000 people were slaughtered. China
contends it was more like 300,000.

"We like to think of history as
an objective science, but it’s nothing of the sort. It very much depends
on your perspective."

In Japan, students are taught virtually
nothing about the massacre. Some text books leave it out all together, the
others give it very cursory coverage.

Now, the Japanese Government
has agreed that academics can revise one of the high school textbooks that
does refer to the event.

The text in question, “Comprehensive
Japanese History” will be published in April. It originally included this
sentence.

INTERPRETER: "The number of victims is estimated in a
range between tens of thousands and 400,000.”

That will now be
replaced with a much more vague sentence.

INTERPRETER: “Many
Chinese people were killed”.

The Education Ministry has defended
the revision by saying the original explanation might have “obstructed
students’ proper understanding.”

Right-wing groups are happy with
the decision, although some believe it doesn’t go far enough. They’d
prefer it if references to the Nanjing Massacre were omitted
altogether.

Hiroshi Kawahara is a member of an ultra-nationalist
group, and he agreed to talk to the ABC.

HIROSHI KAWAHRA
[translation]: "The fact that Japan committed acts of harm is entirely
false," he says. “The so-called Nanjing Massacre never
happened.”

“I wish they would write the truth about the Second
World War in history textbooks,” Kawahara san adds. “It was a Holy War.
Japan did not do bad things; we did not invade Asia, we were simply
constructing a new world order. We have nothing to apologise
for.”

MARK SIMKIN: There are libraries of historical material that
say otherwise, not to mention millions of witness accounts, but Kawahara
san says it’s all lies.

HIROSHI KAWAHRA [translation]: “Yes, it is
true that there are interviews with people who say they disgraced Japan,
or were forced to do some terrible thing,” concedes. “But these interviews
were set up and made up.”

MARK SIMKIN: It all reflects a bitter and
on-going debate about Japan’s responsibility for the past. Many people in
China believe Tokyo is yet to come to terms with the crimes that were
committed during the War, even though more than half a century has passed.
Some in Japan counter that they should not be forced to teach what they
call “a masochistic view” of history.

The debate comes just weeks
after the Japanese Prime Minister provoked outrage by paying another visit
to the Yasakuni Shrine.

The Shrine is part place of worship, part
war memorial. It honours the two and a half million Japanese who have died
for their country, including convicted war criminals.

MARK COLVIN:
Mark Simkin reporting from Tokyo.

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