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Revision of history textbook sought

'Comfort women' a thorn in Japanese-Korean ties

The Columbian
Published: March 18, 2015, 12:00am

TOKYO — A group of Japanese historians will urge publisher McGraw-Hill Education Inc. to change a passage in a U.S. history textbook about women trafficked to Japan’s military brothels before and during World War II.

The 19 historians plan to send a booklet to the publisher this week specifying eight points they say should be corrected, group representative Ikuhiko Hata of Nihon University said Tuesday in Tokyo. The issue of “comfort women” is a thorn in ties between Japan and South Korea.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry had complained to the publisher and author, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in January he was “stunned” at the content of “Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past.” The book states that Japan forcibly recruited as many as 200,000 women from its colonies and occupied territories to serve in military brothels, and later massacred many of them to conceal the truth.

A group of U.S. historians expressed “dismay” this month at Japan’s attempts to suppress statements about the women.

Hata estimates the number of women involved at around 20,000, about 8,000 of them Japanese and 4,000 Korean, according to the booklet. The Japanese historians also say there was no evidence the women were massacred, and a reference to them as “a gift from the emperor” is “too impolite” a phrase for a textbook.

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