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Home , Comfort women, Japanese war crimes, Looting, Nanjing Massacre, World War II

Social Education 70(7), pp. 424–430 ©2006 National Council for the Social Studies

Countering Textbook Distortion: Atrocities in , 1937–1945 Yali Zhao and John D. Hoge

The of industry, culture, and has brought increasing Reactions to the New Japanese on all societies, in the face of international scrutiny, to address their Textbook more honestly. Despite these trends, American history textbooks and history teaching In May 2005, presidents from more continue to neglect an important part of II history: the atrocities such than 60 nations attended a ceremony in as the , “,” and experiments ’s to mark the sixtieth committed by Japanese troops from 1937 to 1945 during ’s occupation of parts anniversary of the Allied victory over of Asia. Nazi in World War II. Then, in August, the world (in particular Asian In the early months of 2005, much of patriotism.”2 As a result, history text- countries) celebrated the sixtieth anni- the world celebrated the 60th anniver- book writers usually “… leave out any- versary of victory over Imperial Japanese. sary of the World War II Allied victory thing that might reflect badly upon our However, on , 2005, right before over and Imperial Japan. national character.”3 One example of these celebrations, the Japanese Ministry Around the same time, protests erupted this in American history textbooks is of Education approved a new edition of a in Asia against a revised Japanese history coverage of the War, which is history textbook for use in middle schools textbook, The New History Textbook, treated cautiously, despite widespread starting April 2006. The authorization which critics said covered up Japanese criticism of among Americans. of this new history textbook triggered World War II atrocities.1 The contrast of This type of sanitized history makes it immediate criticism and protests from these two events should inspire teachers hard to discuss important issues related neighboring countries in Asia, includ- to teach about the Asian war crimes, the to the , and it insulates high ing , North and South , the effects of which are still felt by millions of school students from the strong feelings , and . Still carry- people in China, Korea, the Philippines, and wounds associated with this aspect ing the scars of World War II Japanese and Malaysia, and which negatively of American and world history.4 To help aggression, and believing that the war impact Japan’s relationship with these students better understand the past, and should be fairly presented in Japanese countries. Studying the Asian war crimes its direct impact on current events, text- history textbooks, governments in both and the Japanese history textbook con- books and classroom teaching should North and demanded an troversy together illustrates for students accommodate multiple perspectives of apology and that Japan rewrite the his- how past events continue to have a strong important historical events, and inform tory textbook. In China, nationwide impact on current events and that his- students of both the Western and non- demonstrations continued for weeks, tory textbooks sometimes distort history; Western perspectives. condemning Japan for glossing over the the exposure to different perspectives is In this article, we will delve into the World War II atrocities it committed necessary to develop students’ critical tension between Japan and some Asian against the Chinese.6 Many protest- and historical thinking skills. countries regarding the aforementioned ers boycotted Japanese products, and History textbooks often have political Japanese history textbook and discuss millions of Chinese, both at home and and cultural biases intending to instill the three principal — abroad, signed online petitions against national pride and patriotism; as Laura which together are increasingly referred Japan’s bid for a permanent seat on the Hein and Mark Selden state, “History to as the “Asian .”5 We also sug- UN Security Council. Within days, rela- and civics textbooks in most societies gest resources to support further learning tions between China and Japan dropped present an ‘official’ story highlighting on World War II history in American to its lowest point since 1972, when the narratives that shape contemporary social studies classes. two countries had abandoned resent-

S o c i a l E d u c a t i o n 424 ments to establish formal diplomatic relations. The tension worsened after the Japanese prime minister insisted on visiting the in , which commemorates Japan’s war dead, but which is viewed by many in Asia as a symbol of Japanese .7 Though protests in China and Korea were widely reported in the world news media, these events received little cover- age in the . CNN Online, however, did offer some coverage nearly a week into the dispute.8

The Issues Behind the Controversy History textbooks are a major source of cultural and social information that shape young people’s learning. As Takashi Yoshida states, history textbooks often mirror current social and political contexts, and the presentation of histori- cal events, especially war-related events, greatly influences the interpretation of contemporary thought, opinion, and .9 Textbooks have an enor- mous aura of authority, and young people tend to believe what they read in them. As a result, they are left with an incomplete view of the past. In this case, the new history textbook not only transmitted incorrect information to students about Japan’s of Asia in World War II, but also reignited the hurt of war victims, and damaged regional relations. Chinese students and soldiers throw flowers into the River to mourn the The controversial textbook was victims of the 1937 during a memorial ceremony in Nanjing, compiled by the Japanese Society for , 2001. REUTERS/China Photo ASW/DL History Textbook Reform, a of right- nationalists, who sought to portray a positive view of Japan’s past by removing negative depictions of Japanese scholars (including many Japanese and poisonous gas buried in northeast China aggression.10 The Japanese Ministry of ) wrote articles argu- by the Japanese in World War II.13 Education’s approval of the first version ing that wartime history should be fairly of the textbook in 2001 raised tensions presented in textbooks.12 Despite these The Nanjing Massacre with China and Korea. The 2001 ver- objections, the 2005 edition also glosses From to February sion portrays the Japanese invasion over Japanese wartime atrocities, refer- 1938, the Japanese army carried out of Asia as an attempt to liberate Asia, ring to the Nanjing Massacre, in which systematic , raping, and killing denies the Nanjing Massacre, denies the Japanese army slaughtered 300,000 of civilians in Nanjing (then the capi- biological experiments on live Chinese civilians in two months, as an tal of China, called Nanking), in what beings in China, and ignores the sexual “incident,” de-emphasizing the subject of became know as the Nanjing Massacre, of tens of thousands of mostly comfort women, ignoring the biological the Nanjing Holocaust, or the Korean women for the Japanese mili- experiments committed on the of Nanking. Testimonies of Japanese tary (“comfort women”).11 Following the Chinese, or the fact that soldiers who participated in the event, textbook’s original approval, critics and are still frequently injured or killed by recordings of American

N o v e b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 425 women who were forced to be sex slaves by the Japanese during World War II, and their supporters, stage a protest outside Japan’s rep- resentative office in , Taiwan, , 2005. A placard reads, “Build a comfort women ” in Chinese.

Reuters/Richard Chung TW/DY

residing in Nanjing, official documents from Korea, but a significant number . It had four bases in of the German Embassy in Nanjing, also came from China, the Philippines, northern and one at photographs taken by Japanese soldiers , Vietnam, Malaysia, and in the south. As war progressed, Unit and Westerners living in Nanjing, as . Estimates put the number 731 established branches all over China, well as the verdict of the Tokyo War of comfort women during the war at a and later in and in Crimes Trial (The International minimum of 50,000 and possibly as high . All of these bases were Tribunal for the ) backed esti- as 200,000.16 The International Military engaged in human experiments.18 Some mates that 300,000 Chinese civilians Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) was of these experiments included perform- were killed in those two months.14 At set up after World War II by the Allies to ing invasive surgery on living beings least 20,000 to 80,000 women were prosecute Japan’s war criminals; however, to remove and study organs (vivisect- raped by the Japanese army, according the issue of military comfort women was ing), using as bacteriological to testimonies of Westerners in Nanjing not addressed at the time.17 In recent experiments, and infesting populated at the time, and the verdict of the Tokyo years, the Japanese government has begun areas with -ridden fleas. Although Trial.15 The Nanjing Holocaust Memorial, to pay some “consolation money” to some large amounts of evidence exist about located in Nanjing, displays evidence of Korean victims, but not yet to victims Unit 731’s biochemical warfare experi- the massacre. To this day, the massacre from other nations. ments, precise estimates on the number continues to stir Chinese anger because of Chinese, , Mongolians, Allied some Japanese deny its occurrence, the Unit 731 Biochemical Warfare civilians and prisoners of war (especially government refuses to make a sincere Experiments Russian POWs) who were directly or apology to China, and the prime minister Unit 731 was a secret military medical indirectly killed by Unit 731’s experi- continues to make annual visits to the of the that ments are difficult to establish (ranging Yasukuni Shrine. researched biological warfare through from several thousand to 200,000).19 human experiments during its occupa- Sheldon Harris, author of Factories of Comfort Women tion of China and other Asian coun- : Japanese Biological Warfare 1932- The term “comfort women” refers to tries (1932-1945). It was first started at 45 and the American Cover-up, estimated the women forced to serve as sex slaves Harbin in northern Manchuria (China) the from human experimentation in Japanese- countries during in 1932 by the order of Japan’s highest at 20,000 in East and Southeast Asia. No World War II. Most comfort women were military command, with the approval of state other than Nazi Germany has ever

S o c i a l E d u c a t i o n 426 engaged in such broad scale, inhumane, Holocaust, but very few know about the pseudo-scientific experimentation on Nanjing Massacre, the enslavement of humans. comfort women, and Unit 731’s warfare Resources experiments, as well as their impacts on American Textbook Coverage of current events. These events are critical Teaching about World War II in aspects of World War II history and Instruction on Japanese atrocities will give students a more complete World War II committed in Asia during World understanding of the war, the horrors of War II has been largely absent in which expanded beyond Nazi carnage in Asia American social studies classrooms. in to engulf Asian countries as Yali Zhao, one of the authors of this well. Nanjing Massacre article, examined eight American and Social studies researchers and edu- There are numerous primary and world history textbooks commonly cators have long argued that teaching secondary sources available about the Nanjing Massacre. Perhaps the most used in middle and high school social should expose students to multiple notable source for students is The Rape studies classrooms: United States perspectives of historical events, and of Nanking: the Forgotten Holocaust of History (Prentice Hall); Discover Our that history textbooks should include World War II by Chinese American writer Heritage (Houghton Mifflin); Boyer’s different voices to promote students’ . The commonly used term The American Nation (BL Harcourt/ critical thinking skills. Despite these “Rape of Nanking” came from this title. Holt); History of the World (Houghton arguments, American history textbooks, The book describes the horrific massacre in great detail and includes extensive Mifflin); World History: The Human in , present a white, middle-class, evidence: (1) personal journals kept by Experience (McGraw-Hill/Glencoe); Eurocentric view of the world.20 The two Westerners in Nanjing; (2) official Japanese The World: Past and Present recurring topics in social studies books military communiqués; (3) testimonies of (Harcourt/Holt); Journey across and the media about World War II, as former Japanese soldiers who took part Time (McGraw-Hill/Glencoe); and it relates to Asia is that Japan bombed in the events; (4) reports from American journalists in the area; (5) video footage World Cultures (Pearson/Prentice). , and the United States taken by Americans; (6) photographs taken 21 Review of World War II contents in bombed and . by Japanese soldiers; (7) records from the these textbooks revealed no mention If history classes covered World War German Embassy in Nanjing; (8) the war of any of the three major war crimes II more comprehensively, Americans crimes trials in which more than 1,000 committed by Japanese troops. Zhao would have better understood the ten- people testified about the atrocity, with also conducted an informal survey sions between Japan and other Asian over 460 specific reports of murder, rape, , and looting; (9) clippings with 55 social studies teachers, which countries, and understood the signifi- from Japanese publications; and (10) the indicated that only 7 out of 55 knew cance of Chinese and Korean protests physical evidence of bodies left in burial about the Nanjing Massacre. Some against Japanese attempts to censor his- pits throughout Nanjing.1 had learned of it through Iris Chang’s tory in the revised textbook. book, The Rape of Nanking: The The following websites also provide information, including primary source Forgotten Holocaust of World War Future Collaborative Efforts documents and photographs, about the II, and others heard of it from friends Needed Nanjing Massacre: who had read the book. None of History textbooks are young people’s them had ever taught about these war principal source of history. These 1. WWW Memorial Hall of the Victims crimes in their history classrooms. textbooks not only tell about the past, in the Nanjing Massacre (1937-1938), There could be a variety of compli- but they present the political views of humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/NanjingMassacre/ NM.html (in Chinese and English). cated social and political reasons for their government, as well as its relation- An actual memorial, located in Nanjing— the absence of these atrocities from and conflicts with other countries. where countless bones of those killed American textbooks: the There are many controversial historical were excavated—was built in 1985 to between the United States and the for- events, and it is a daunting task for commemorate the victims. Many primary mer ; the establishment both textbook authors and teachers documents and photographs are exhibited on this online memorial that counter of a communist regime in China; the to provide instruction when they are Japanese denial of the massacre. Students in 1950; and the Vietnam confronted with conflicting or distorted can have a virtual tour of this memorial War in 1960s. While these are all accounts.22 It is not the place of teachers and read all the documents in English. important events and deserve to be to resolve all the disputes over con- studied, the Asian war atrocities must troversial issues. However, primary 2. The Chinese Holocaust Museum of the not be omitted. source documents can be used to pro- United States tells about the temporary Chinese Holocaust Museum built in Almost every American knows vide a more accurate picture of history. about Nazi Germany and the Jewish Friendly and constructive dialogues continues on page 428

N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 427 Oakland, , to commemorate should be established as to how to respective nations’ textbook contents the tens of millions of Chinese who died present certain historical events in for biases or distortions. As Kathleen during Japan’s invasion and occupation of textbooks. Masalski has suggested, teachers China (1931–1945).2 A permanent museum For this purpose, joint efforts are should teach both master narratives is planned for D.C. This necessary to counter biased texts. and counter narratives, and they need website provides information on Japanese war atrocities, including the Nanjing Serious efforts were made in 1989 to help students realize that “history is Massacre, comfort women slavery, and when the Japan-South Korea Joint not what’s in the textbook, but a process warfare experiments. More information Study Group on History Textbooks of argument that is shaped by who is on the museum is available at www. was created in response to criticisms of making the argument and when and sunsetbeacon.com/archives/richmondreview/ Japanese textbooks. The joint research where.”26 2005editions/Apr05/holocaustmuseum.html. The museum’s own website was under by Japanese and Korean scholars was Exposure to the dark side of one’s construction at press time. able to offer new perspectives on cer- own nation’s history does not necessar- tain historical issues related to Japan ily lead to contempt or disillusionment, 3. Online Documentary: the Nanking and Korea, but had difficulty achieving but may inspire young people to think Atrocities historical consensus.23 Since the pro- about their history seriously and take www.geocities.com/nankingatrocities tests in Asia against the 2005 release actions that prevent injustices. Again, This website provides a systematic and detailed account of what happened before, of Japan’s history textbook, scholars a good example is Germany, where during, and after the Nanking Massacre, have renewed efforts to create a com- despite existing controversies over including a substantial amount of primary mon textbook. According to The Korea German history and the identifica- sources. This website has been listed as an Times, Korean and Japanese women’s tion of the nation in the public arena, essential academic reference by a number rights organizations are planning to school textbooks in general reflects of international educational institutions. publish a joint women’s history text- a consensus in condemning the Nazi Comfort Women book in both countries to counter the past and excluding references to the Teachers may feel uncomfortable teaching distortion in Japan’s official textbook.24 past glories and power of the German young people about this issue. However, also reports that an nation. This has helped to it is necessary to let students know that unofficial supplementary textbook on break from the past, and to assume more such violations occurred. the modern , China, European and global responsibilities.27 Exploration of the following sources will help students learn about this issue. and South Korea has recently been It is necessary for textbooks to deal with compiled by people from all three history frankly. The world has become 1. Voices of “Comfort Women,” www.library. countries.25 This textbook, called The increasingly interdependent, and it is american.edu/about/exhibits/comfort_women. History that Opens the Future, was our responsibility to face history and html written by 53 scholars, teachers, and advance toward a better society. This website was developed by the Library Exhibits Team members of citizen groups who have The Japanese history textbook con- in cooperation with the Washington been concerned about the impact of troversy should serve as a lesson for Coalition of Comfort Women, Society for the contentious history text ever since America, China, and other countries. As Studies of Japanese Aggression against its first version was approved by the Masalski remarked, American students China, AU Chinese Students and Scholars government in 2001. Most of the book and teachers “might examine American Association, and AU Taiwanese Student is about Japan’s World War II atrocities textbook narratives while imagining Association, to give former comfort women, silenced by shame and trauma, back their in China and the Korean Peninsula, that Mexican, Japanese, Vietnamese, or voices. This is an excellent website with and the ensuing political fallout over Middle Eastern scholars and students background information, personal stories the years. The textbook, published in are over their shoulders as they teach of former comfort women, the exhibit Japanese, Chinese, and Korea, went and learn about American interpreta- at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial on sale in these three countries in June tions of the war with , the war in Library installed in September 2002. 2005. , in Southeast Asia, or in the 28 2. Comfort-Women.org, www.comfort- Of course, supplementary textbooks .” There are, no doubt, women.org/v2 will not solve the dispute about how the different narratives and interpretations Developed by the Washington Coalition war is represented in history textbooks. regarding the same events in the history for Comfort Women Issues, Inc., this German government officials have textbooks of different countries, but website is one of the most comprehensive acknowledged their war crimes, and both history textbook writers and his- on comfort women. It provides detailed information about the history of comfort taken action regarding international tory teachers must move toward a more women, photos of comfort women, reports criticism of their textbooks. Scholars, open discussion of the past. to the , legal documents, teachers, and concerned citizens from news articles and much more. Notes different countries should continue to 1. These events were widely reported in April 2005. continues on page 430 work collaboratively to examine their BBC News reports are available at news..

S o c i a l E d u c a t i o n 428 co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4411771.stm, and more information, see www.japan-guide.com/e/e2321. occupation. The judgment concluded that some news reports are available at www.chinadaily.com. html. 190,000 were executed on a massive scale at various cn/english/doc/2005-04/06/content_431575.htm. 8. See CNN online news, “Long History of Friction,” execution sites and 150,000 were individually - 2. Laura Hein and Mark Selden, “The Lessons of War, , 2005, edition..com/2005/WORLD/ sacred. That number was based on burial records Global Power, and Social Change,” in Censoring asiapcf/04/11/china.japan.background/index.html. submitted by two charitable organizations (the Red History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, 9. Takashi Yoshida, “History Textbooks: For Whom Society and the Chung Shan Tang), other and the United States, eds. L. Hein and M. Selden and for What Purpose?” in Viewpoints, the burial societies, and eyewitness accounts. (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2000), 3. Association of Asian Studies, Ann Arbor, , At the Nanking War Crimes Tribunal in 1947, the 3. James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything December 2000, www.aasianst.org/Viewpoints/ verdict on Lieutenant General Tani Hisao, who com- Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (New yoshida.htm. manded a of the Japanese army implicated : Simon and Schuster, 1995), 3. 10. Yoshiko Nozaki, “Japanese and the History in the Nanking Massacre, quoted the figure of more 4. Hein and Selden, 3-50; Loewen. Textbook Controversy, 1982-2001,” International than 300,000 victims. In Nanjing, China, 300,000 Journal of Educational Research 37 (2002): 603- is the official estimate engraved on the stone wall at 5. Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten the entrance of the Memorial Hall for Compatriot Holocaust of World War II (, 1998); 622; Kathleen Woods Masalski, “Examining the Japanese History Textbook Controversies,” ERIC Victims of the Japanese Military’s Nanjing Massacre. Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, Silence Broken: Korean Comfort However, it was impossible to establish the exact Women (Ho-ho-Kus, N.J.: Dai Sil Productions, Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education (ERIC: ED464010, 2002). number of deaths, because of the ongoing Japanese 1999); Greg Smith, “Jewish Holocaust and Asian occupation in Nanking and other parts of China. —Humanity Education in School,” (Speech 11. Nishio and Atarashii Rekishi Kyokasho, following website provides detailed information at International Citizen’s Forum on War Crimes and “Information Concerning New History Textbook about the early and current controversy over the death Redress: Seeking Reconciliation and Peace for the 2001,” Center for Research and Documentation on toll of the Nanking Massacre: www.geocities.com/ 21st , Tokyo, Japan, December 12, 1999) Japan’s War Responsibility (JWRC), www.jca.apc. nankingatrocities/Table/table.htm. www.vcn.bc.ca/alpha/speech/GregSmith.htm; United org/JWRC/center/english/appeal2.htm. See other 15. The numbers 20,000 to 80,000, determined by Nations Commission on Human Rights, “Japan’s research articles on the JWRC website at www.jca.apc. Chinese historians, have also long been used by World War II Slaves,” 56th Session, Agenda Item 14, org/JWRC/center/english/index-english.htm. retrieved from website of the Humanitarian Law China’s government and in Chinese history textbooks. 12. Ibid; Tim Beal, Yoshiko Nozaki, and Jian Yang, The same figures became widely cited in the West Project, hlp.home.igc.org/docs/56_14.html. “Ghosts of the Past: the Japanese History Textbook after Iris Chang published The Rape of Nanking. 6. The Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform Controversy,” New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies Chang established this estimate from missionaries prepared and translated controversial chapters four 3, no. 2 (December 2001): 177-188. and Westerners who had resided in Nanking, par- and five of the 2005New History Textbook (Atarashii 13. Maciamo, “Sino-Japanese Relations,” Japanese © ticularly (a member of the ), Rekishi Kyokasho, published by Fusosha, Tokyo ), Reference (, 2005), www.jref.com/society/sino- who saved hundreds of thousands of Chinese lives. www.tsukurukai.com/05_rekisi_text/rekishi_English/ japanese-relations.shtml. Rabe recorded his observations, people’s accounts, English.pdf. 14. The total number of victims in the Nanking Massacre experiences, letters, diaries, pictures, and oral affir- 7. The Yasukuni Shrine, located in Tokyo, commemo- has long been controversial. The International mations. See Ignatius Ding, “Rabe’s Records of ‘The rates Japan’s war dead, however some of those buried Military Tribunal for the Far East stated in its 1947 Rape of Nanjing’ Discovered,” (1996) WWW there were convicted of war crimes by the International judgment that “over 200,000” civilians and prisoners Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Military Tribunal for the Far East after World War of war were murdered in Nanking and its immediate Massacre, humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Nanjing II, including wartime prime minister . For vicinity during the first six weeks of the Japanese Massacre/NMNR.html.

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N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 429 16. It is hard to determine the exact number of comfort (July-August 1996); Jankowski, “This Spin-Off women as many documents about them were Book Focuses on the Evolution of the West,” The destroyed. The estimate of 100,000 to 200,000 Textbook Letter (January-February, 1999); Loewen, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 3. Comfort Women, was cited by Ustinia Dolgopol and Snehal Paranjape Lies My Teacher Told Me. Comfort_women in their report “Comfort Women—The Unfinished 21. Thomas Holmes, “The Dropping of Atomic Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, is a Ordeal (Final Mission Report),” published by the on Japan,” Social Education 69, no. 4 popular website for current events. This -based International Commission of Jurists (2005): 209-213; Frans Doppen, “Teaching and specific website provides a large amount (UN Consultative NGO, 1994), item 10, p.205; Learning Multiple Perspectives: The Atomic Dolgopol and Paranjape adopted this figure from of information about comfort women. ,” The Social Studies 91, no. 4 (2000): 159- the findings of Japanese researchers, principally 169; Donna Nesbitt, “Hiroshima: A with It links to academic research, Japanese Yoshimi Yoshiaki and Saburo Lenaga, both repu- Peace as Its Purpose,” Social Studies and the Young documents, and tons of other resources table historians and scholars. In 1992, Yoshiaki Learner 10, no. 3 (1998): 21-23; Karen Schill, not only about comfort women, but unearthed official documents concerning the estab- “Multiple Perspectives on Hiroshima,” Social also the Nanjing Massacre and warfare lishment and control of “comfort stations” that had Studies and the Young Learner 10, no. 3 (2000): been preserved in the Defense Agency’s National 5-6; Masato Ogawa, “Sixth Grade Students’ experiments. Institute of Defense Studies; in his book Comfort Development of Historical Perspective: World War Women: in the Japanese Military II and the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and During World War II, Yoshimi Yoshiaki provides Nagasaki” (ERIC Document 449 098). Retrieved Warfare Experiments: 731 Unit a wealth of documentation and testimony, and , 2005, from www.eric.ed.gov. estimates the total number of comfort women to 22. Hein and Selden, 3-50. The following websites provide detailed have been at least about 50,000 and possibly as information about the Japanese high as 200,000; see also Comfort-Women.org, at 23. Kimijima Kazuhiko, “The Continuing Legacy of biochemical weapon experiments on www.comfort-women.org/Unfinished.htm. Bonnie Japanese : The Japan-South Korea Joint Study Group on History Textbooks,” in living human beings. Oh in Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II, eds, also presents the same estimate. Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Margaret Stetz and Bonnie B.C. Oh (East Gate Japan, Germany, and the United States, 203- 1. Unearthing the Crimes of Unit 731, www. Books, 2001). 225. china.org.cn/english/2004/Oct/108634.htm 17. “Still Waiting after 60 Years: Justice for Survivors 24. Chung Ah-Young, “Japan to Publish Joint History Japan had always denied carrying out of Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery System,” Amnesty Textbook,” The Korea Times (April 7, 2005), times.hankooki.com/lpage/200504/ International Report (2005) web.amnesty.org/ biochemical experiments in China during kt2005040716524968040.htm. World War II, until 180 Chinese victims, library/Index/ENGASA220122005?open&of=ENG- JPN. 25. Eriko Arita, “Tri-nation History Text Aims to who were injured from canisters of 18. Hung, “Integrating the Sino-Japanese War Counter Whitewash,” The Japan Times (, poisonous gas buried by the Japanese in (1932-1945) into the World War II History 2005), www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle. northeast China, sought compensation Curriculum in High School,” retrieved on April pl5?nn20050525f1.htm. from Japan in August 2002. The China 15, 2005 from www.chineseholocaust.org/edu1. 26. Masalski, “Teaching , Teaching War: html. American and Japanese Educators Teach the Pacific Internet Information Center provides War,” in Censoring History, 285. history and evidence of Unit 731’s germ 19. It is extremely difficult to determine the precise number of casualties because the experiment 27. Yasemin Nuhoglu Soysal, “Identity and warfare and reveals how the World War research sites and military documents were largely Transnationalization in German School Textbooks,” II chemical still injure Chinese destroyed by the Japanese authorities after the war. in Censoring History, 127-149. people today. Three thousand civilians were killed in the exper- 28. Masalski, “Examining the Japanese History iment field at Ping Fan, headquarters of Unit 731. Textbook Controversies,” ERIC Clearinghouse for The number of Chinese civilians killed directly or Social Studies/Social Science Education (ERIC: 2. Photos on 731 www.howardwfrench.com/ indirectly by the warfare experiment is generally ED464010, 2002). photos/Manchuria-Unit-731 put at 200,000. This number included civilians This website, which belongs to senior and POWs killed directly in the experiment field New York Times correspondent Howard and indirectly by -infected animals released French, provides pictures of Unit 731 by the Japanese as the war was ending. For more information, see People’s Daily Online, “Archives headquarters, where the Japanese army Give Up Secrets of Japan’s Unit 731” (, conducted biological and chemical 2005) english.people.com.cn/200508/03/eng2005 warfare experiments on Chinese and 0803_200004.html; China Daily, “China Recalls Korean prisoners. Germ Warfare Experiments” (, 2006) www. chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-05/06/con- tent_439768.htm; Gary Reynolds, “U.S. Prisoners 3. History Undercover, Unit 731: Nightmare of War and Civilian American Citizens Captured in Manchuria www.history.com/classroom/ and Interned by Japan in World War II,” www. admin/study_guide/archives/thc_guide.0566. aiipowmia.com/wwii/rl30606ww2.html; Sheldon html Harris, The Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 and the American Cover Up This site is developed by the History (N.Y.:, 2002); Yuki Tanaka and Toshiyuki Channel and it includes a study guide. It Tanaka, Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in is a great resource for teaching about World War II (Westview Press, 1998); and Daniel Japanese World War II biochemical weapon Barenblatt, A Plague upon Humanity: The Secret experiments. of Axis Japan’s Germ Warfare Operation (U.K.: HarperCollins, 2004). Sheldon Harris, “Japanese Biomedical Experimentation during the Notes World-War-II Era,” in Textbooks of Military 1. Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Medicine, eds. Dave E. Lounsbury and Ronald F. Holocaust of World War II (Penguin Group, 1998). Bellamy (United States Office of the Surgeon Yali Zhao is an assistant professor of social General Department of the Army, 2003), www. studies and multicultural education at Geor- 2. Some Chinese historians estimate that 35 million bordeninstitute.army.mil/ethicsbook_files/Ethics2/ gia State University in , Ga. She can be Chinese died, while Western historians put the figure Ethics-ch-16.pdf. reached at [email protected]. John D. Hoge is at 20 million. 20. James Jankowski, “Clearly Written Textbooks with an associate professor of social science education a Eurocentric Thrust,” The Textbook Letter (May- June, 1995); Jankowski, “Elaborate Presentation, at the in . He can Conventional Approach,” The Textbook Letter be reached at [email protected].

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