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TOKYO ﾂ― The government ordered changes Friday to seven history textbooks describing how the Japanese army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II, the country's latest effort to soften brutal accounts of its wartime conduct.
The high school textbooks...
I have a single and simple question which I've now asked twice. Why have so many Okinawan survivors of WWII said that Imperial Japanese Army soldiers and officers told them to kill themselves?
And bonus question would be: Do the opinions and first hand experiences of these people "not count" in your little argument? And finally, are you suggesting that these people are wrong, or even worse, lying?
Why have so many Okinawan survivors of WWII said that Imperial Japanese Army soldiers and officers told them to kill themselves?
it is easy.
some ppl also think we were victims of Japanese army.
then we were burnt and killed . ......even my city's nikkyoso says we were forced and orderd to fight for WW2
Thank for agreeing that the suicides committed during WWII were due to the orders of the Japanese Imperial Army and government.
NoPe i dont agree with you at all
Beause it is not the fact.
Well then from now on you and I are going to have to agree to disagree because I know for a fact that it was according to the orders of the Japanese Military and Government at the time that people, civilians and soldiers, airmen, and sailor's alike commit suicide and die for their country and Emperor rather than surrender.
However...
it was not orderd and foeced to commit suicide by Japanese Military and Government at the time.
even today, commit suicide by the order and forced is the shame.
we want to decide our last ourselves even though I choose sucide as a result. it is human dignity
People who commit suicide to me are cowards.
I dont agree, suicide is a cop out, running away, fear of facing up to one's own mistakes, among a host of other things as well.
Caster this is not "samurai" Japan, nor the Japan of WWII, the Emperor is no long viewed of as being a god.
Today suicide, even here, is a form of cowardice.
Nop, more than 60% of committing sucide are reason of their health of old guys.
it is not said they are coward..
it is the same ...Euthanasia or mercy killing is a different subject, technically speaking one could call it "suicide". I dont put them in the same category
OK I disagree, they had other options, they could have surrendered and lived.were they coward?
I dont think so
I've read it, and been to where he made his last stand with his men and been in the caves where numerous men committed suicide by pulling pins on their hand grenades, the holes are still left in the walls of the cave.that is why oota said it in his last teregram" okinawan had fought bravely
it is the same ...
they were corner and death was approaching by enemy.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Okinawa slams history text rewrite
Assembly tells state to retract order to downplay mass suicides
Compiled from Kyodo, AP
The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly demanded Friday that the central government retract its instruction to high school history textbook publishers to downplay the military's role in ordering mass civilian suicides during the Battle of Okinawa.
Protesters demand Friday in Naha that the government retract its instruction to revise history textbooks to downplay the military's role in ordering mass suicides in the prefecture during the war. KYODO PHOTO
The assembly issued the call in a unanimously adopted statement after 36 out of the 41 municipal assemblies in the prefecture adopted similar statements and civic groups collected 100,000 signatures opposing the government move.
In the statement, the assembly said, "It is an undeniable fact that mass suicides could not have occurred without the involvement of the Japanese military.
"We strongly call on the government to retract the instruction and to immediately restore the description in the textbooks so the truth of the Battle of Okinawa will be handed down correctly and a tragic war will never happen again."
Okinawa was the only inhabited part of Japan where ground fighting took place in the closing days of World War II. During the battle, a quarter of Okinawa's civilian population died. More than 200,000 Japanese and Americans died in the bloody battle.
Many survivors say Japanese soldiers, on the brink of defeat, told them to kill themselves and their loved ones. But some military-related people deny that mass suicides and murder-suicides were ordered.
In March, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry advised publishers of the textbooks to be used in the next school year to reword descriptions that the embattled Imperial Japanese Army forced civilians to kill themselves in the war so they would not be taken prisoner by the U.S. military.
Textbooks for Japanese schools must be screened and approved by a government-appointed expert panel, which can order corrections of perceived historical inaccuracies.
According to the results of the screening, one textbook initially stated that "the Japanese army gave hand grenades to residents, making them commit mass suicide and kill each other."
But after the screeners took issue with the description, saying it could result in misunderstanding, the textbook was revised to state, "Mass suicides and killings took place among the residents using hand grenades given to them by the Japanese army."
Other textbooks simply deleted the words "by the Japanese army."
Two assembly members were traveling to Tokyo to hand deliver the statement to the education ministry, Assemblyman Akira Nakasone said.
Accounts of forced group suicides and murder-suicides in Okinawa are backed up by historical research, and by testimonies from victims' relatives.
Historians also say government propaganda induced civilians to believe U.S. soldiers would commit horrible atrocities, leading many to kill themselves and their loved ones to avoid capture.
But in recent years, some academics have questioned whether the suicides were forced — part of a general push by Japanese conservatives to soften criticism of Tokyo's wartime conduct.
Obeika, you might want to reconsider your statement about suicide being the "cowards way out" when talking in relation to other cultures and other times. In Japan at that time, suicide was considered the most noble way to right your wrongs. Considering this culture, I can understand why it would be a fact that the soldiers gave the civilians grenades to suicide with.
You should watch some of the actual footage taken by US soldiers and Marines at the time of women throwing their babies over cliffs and then jumping in after them. It is heart wrenching to say the least, and was totally preventable. It is unfortunate that these people believed the propaganda that the government at the time fed them
On Sakhalin, Soviet forces moving southwards from August 10 encountered the Japanese 88th Division along the line of fortifications near the border with the Soviet sector of the island. The defenders' objective was to buy time for civilians to flee by ship to Hokkaido. Six thousand residents of Maoka (now Kholmsk) on the western coast had already been evacuated when the Soviet attack commenced before dawn on August 20. Soviet warships entered the harbor, firing on the town and the 18,000 refugees waiting to be evacuated. Civilians were machine-gunned as they ran towards the hills in an attempt to escape the Soviet troops pouring off the warships. Japanese records suggest that approximately 1,000 people were killed that morning. After reporting the happenings of the previous few hours, the final message from the last of nine young telephonists at the exchange at Maoka, 22 year-old Itoh Chie, ended with these poignant words.[11]
To everyone back in Naichi [Japanese mainland]…. To our friends at the Wakkanai Exchange... Soviet soldiers have just entered the building here in the Maoka Exchange. This will probably be the last message from Karafuto [Sakhalin]. The nine of us have stayed at our posts right through to the end, and it won't be long before all nine of us will have departed for the next world.
The people in many cases before jumping were told by Japanese translators attached to the US units that they would not be harmed.it was a just hindsight-based opinion.
most ppl understand the bottom and Top later
The people in many cases before jumping were told by Japanese translators attached to the US units that they would not be harmed.
Plus it isnt an opinion it is a fact.
Here is a link to some movies that have been produced using actual footage from the battle itself.
My father-in-law's cousin was one of the supervisors in one of the films refered to as Ichi feet undou, it is a sobering movie, I will be buying it with in the next few days to show my kids about the horrors of the battle here and to teach them about the value of peace.
The real tragedy in this case was the soldier was local boueitai whom the survivors also knew and survivors could be survived because they were not killed by their families or neighbours....
Considering this culture, I can understand why it would be a fact that the soldiers gave the civilians grenades to suicide with.
Wow, its sad that you two have to get personal as well as give meaningless responses to get anywhere in this thread.
diceke - wrong book. I don't even know what the #%@! you are on about now. This topic is about one thing, and one thing alone - lets go back to the start.
It is about these high school textbooks, books for children who are in high school.
And pipokun, stay on topic will you.
I have a single and simple question which I've now asked twice. Why have so many Okinawan survivors of WWII said that Imperial Japanese Army soldiers and officers told them to kill themselves?
And bonus question would be: Do the opinions and first hand experiences of these people "not count" in your little argument? And finally, are you suggesting that these people are wrong, or even worse, lying?
No matther how much demonized Japanese or the local boueitai, it was the naval gunfire that killed millions of people in the islands.