A new twist on the textbook wars! Some of Japan’s historians are complaining that McGraw-Hill published a history textbook which “contains a number of ‘factual errors’ on the ‘comfort women’ issue,” and are therefore requesting that the textbook be rewritten to their specifications. They are not content with distorting their own history within Japan, they want to make the rest of the world complicit in their nationalist agenda to deny their WWII crimes. I’m certain that McGraw-Hill won’t cave into this demand, but it does show how desperate the nationalists are. If they want to restore pride and respect to their nation, as they claim, they would do better to admit their past wrongs and learn from them. Trying to deny the past is what is bringing them shame.

Japanese historians seek revision of U.S. textbook over ‘comfort women’ depiction | The Japan Times.

Credit Robert G. Fresson, The New York Times (November 14, 2014)