Japan’s absurd assertions

The Japanese government’s preposterous assertion that “Korea is illegally occupying Dokdo” will likely appear in most of that country’s middle school textbooks to be used next year. Tokyo’s absurd territorial claim over the volcanic outcroppings in the East Sea is not exactly news but is getting stronger with every passing year.

According to the Japanese media, most of the 17 middle school textbooks in the three social studies — history, geography and civic studies — contain such a description concerning Dokdo, which reflects the Japanese government’s viewpoint. These schoolbooks commonly say these islets are “Japan’s indigenous territory,” and they are “illegally occupied by South Korea.”

In prior editions, at least one civic studies textbook did not even make mention of the Senkaku Islands — or Diaoyu as China calls them. Still, all schoolbooks, without exception this time around, feature the subject. Even before that, the number of textbooks bearing Tokyo’s assertion that Korea was illegally occupying Dokdo jumped three times from 2011 to 2015. The phenomenon is the result of the Shinzo Abe administration’s unabashed intervention in public education, under the slogan of enhancing territorial awareness and overcoming the so-called self-disparaging view of history.

From next year on, all Japanese middle school students will be educated to accept their government’s assertions as facts. These teenagers, who are in the process of forming consciousness about history and geography, will all but certainly believe Tokyo’s claims, sowing the seeds for severe rows between the two countries in the future.

The ultra-right Japanese government has been distorting historical facts with intensifying lunacy. No amount of its lunacy can change the facts, however.