No. 834 / Aug. 12, 2001
@Fight Against the Outrageous Selection of the Reactionary
Textbook!
Denounce Ishihara Shintaro and the Tokyo Board of Education
Against the Forced
Selection of the New Textbook for Schools for the Disabled
@The Program of the 2001 SWP Workers Seminar
@In Search of the Truth of History
Rally to Fight
Against the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform
@Editorial: The Attempt to
Artificially Lift the Stock Market
There is No Way that This Will Restore the Economy
@Series: The Privatization of the Postal Service
What Lies Behind This Scheme (#8)
@Series: Lies and Distortions
Criticism of the New Junior High School History Textbook (#7)
@Regional Reports: The Movement Against the New History
Textbook
(Ehime Prefecture)
@Book Review: Exposing the Parasitical Emperors
A Review of Nezu Masashi's Tenno no rekisihi [A History of the Emperors]
@The Beginning of
Next Year's Budget Compilation
Nothing But Stopgap Measures
Koizumi's
"Reforms" Give himself away
@Vile
Power Struggle Between Tanaka Makiko and the Foreign Ministry
@An
Armchair Theory for 5.3 Million People
The Government's Bogus Employment Policy
@Stop
the Introduction of the New History Textbook!
Open up a Struggle throughout the Country
The Appeal from the
August 5 Meeting in Kunitachi Ward (Tokyo)
@Force
Ishihara to Rescind the Selection of the Textbook
The August 7 Demonstration Against the Tokyo Board of Education
@Who
Really Benefited from the Earthquake Recovery in Kobe?
A Look at a Book About People Living in Kobe After the 1995 Earthqua
From the article of 'Petrel'
No.83S / Aug PQ, 2001
Please send us your opinion and the impression about this article without reservation.
Fight Against the Outrageous Selection of the Reactionary Textbook!
Denounce Ishihara Shintaro and the Tokyo Board of Education
Against the Forced Selection of the New Textbook for Schools for the Disabled
@
-------------------------
The Tokyo Board of Education has decided to use the
reactionary junior high school history textbook written by the Japanese Society for
History Textbook Reform in some of the Tokyo schools for disabled children. These are the
first public schools to accept the new history textbook. Ishihara Shintaro [governor of
Tokyo] has been exerting pressure on all of the boards of education within the Tokyo
metropolitan area. But after seeing that this was not going well, Ishihara decided to make
the municipal schools for the disabled under his direct jurisdiction use the disputed
textbook. In this way, he hopes that this will clear the path for other schools to also
use it. This is nothing but a dirty maneuver on the part of Ishihara and other
reactionaries to set a precedent for schools to use the new textbook.. The Socialist
Workers Party firmly denounce this underhanded tactic, and call for this decision to be
revoked!
-------------------------
There is absolutely no reason for the new textbook to be used in the schools for disabled children. This decision was mode for the sole reason of setting a precedent for public schools to use it. The Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform would have lost face had their textbook failed to be selected by any public schools after being authorized for use by the Ministry of Education. The unwillingness of the schools to use this reactionary textbook reveals how riddled by favoritism the Ministryfs authorization process is?i.e. the limitations and dishonesty of the authorization process. For this reason, the Society for Textbook Reform, and the reactionary camp in general, have more than sufficient cause to be worried.
Those involved in education for the disabled are outraged by the decision of the Tokyo Board of Education, and have said in unison that the education board did not make a serious decision on the basis of the needs of these schools. That is, although these schools for the disabled tend to use more concrete explanations than other schools, the textbook contains expressions that would be difficult for many high school students to understand. These teachers cannot understand how such a text could have been chosen considering that many of the students at the schools for the disabled have to take long breaks from school due to illness. [These comments are from the August 7 issue of Mainichi Newspaper.]
This entire episode starkly reveals the repulsive greediness of reactionaries in Japan. For them, the students at schools for the disabled (and students in general) are basically unimportant. Their only concern is to foist the new history textbook on as many schools as possible, and they are willing to use any means available to achieve this.
The head of the Tokyo metropolitan government's education bureau, Yokichi Yokoyama, said the textbook was selected because git is most true to the education ministry's teaching guidelines which emphasize love for the country's historyh [quoted from Japan Times August 8]. At the same time, the secretary-general of the gTextbook Reformh society, Takamori, gloated about the textbook gbeing chosen despite various obstacles and the organized pressure and preconceptions of the mass media.h And Hata Ikuhide, a professor of law at Nihon University who supports the gTextbook Reformh society, said that it was natural for the textbook to be selected since it had passed through the authorization process,h and that gthere was some talk of there being a problem with the content of the textbook, but if this were so it would not have been authorized in the first place.h
These statements above are nothing but the rotten logic of a rotten bunch of people, and are reminiscent of the complacent, self-satisfied reasoning of the prewar fascists and military clique.
Even putting aside the authorization of the educational guidelines themselves and the fact that they have been changed for the worse and become more reactionary in recent years, just consider the nerve of saying that this textbook is gmost trueh to the educational guidelines. Moreover, consider the vulgarity of the idea that if a textbook passes through the authorization process there can be no problem with its content. Clearly, if the authorization process itself is corrupt and reactionary, there is no way to say that a textbook that passes through this process can ghave no problem of content.h
Textbook writers who have experienced the authorization process of the Ministry of Education can attest to how terrible it is. However, the professor cited above pushes aside any thought of the stupidity of the authorization process, and tries to high-handedly force working people to submit to the authority of this authorization. It is truly repulsive to witness the swaggering of intellectuals who rely on the protection of state power.
Workers, however, can clearly respond that the authorization has already become rotten to its very core, and totally subservient to state power, and for this is the very reason that worthless textbooks like the new history textbook can be approved so quickly. The fact that this textbook was authorized so swiftly is a clear testament to its own reactionary nature.
The fact that the Ienaga textbook was not authorized should be a badge of honor rather than a source of shame. For this reason, there is absolutely no reason to be boast of receiving this authorization, or think that this somehow ensures a sound content. Are these professors unaware of the fact that nothing could be less deserving of trust than this authorization process.
Hata revealed the intentions of the reactionaries when he frankly said, gI think the new textbook should be approved by about 10% of all schools, and this [selection by schools for the disabled] can be a stimulus for increased selection.h This speaks to the nature of the reactionaries. The decision to use the new textbook in the schools for the disabled shows that the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform is concerned by the failure to get the textbook selected, and are now trying every sort of counterattack. The method of these reactionaries reveals just how barbaric, vulgar, and lowdown they truly are.
This new textbook has been rejected by most schools in Japan for the reason that it expresses clear nationalistic intentions, seeks to glorify past Japanese imperialism and militarism, nakedly supports Japanfs imperialist wars of invasion and the emperor system, and is chock full of twisted logic?in other words, the text has been rejected because of the extreme vulgarity of the society for textbook reform and their new textbook. The blame for the rejection of this text cannot be placed at any one elsefs doorstep. In a word, their textbook has no right to even bear the name gtextbook.h
This history textbook has been shunned because of its crudeness, not because of any sort of gorganized pressureh as the reactionaries claim. As for gorganized pressure,h this expression in fact aptly describes what the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform has been doing with the help of the government and educational boards.
This miserable bunch are well aware that the best way to cover up their own guilt and vices is the trick of loudly pinning the same blame on others.
The Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform and Ishihara Shintoro have taken the path of open, naked reaction. The fact that they are shamelessly making use of state power to push their reactionary line on working people, means that each use of force will further infuriate hundreds of thousands of workers, awaken their class consciousness, and reveal on which side the truth lies. This will be a fundamental moment in the development of the revolutionary class struggles.
(Translated by Roy)
In Search of the Truth of History
Rally to Fight Against the gJapanese Society for History Textbook ReformhThe new textbook written by the gJapanese Society for History Textbook Reformh has been rejected by most junior high schools throughout Japan. The fact that this textbook for the most part has not been selected, despite receiving the authorization of the Ministry of Education, exposes the ridiculous vulgarity of this book, as well as the reactionary uselessness of the authorization process itself.
However, this outcome does not mean that their maneuvers have come to and end. In fact, the reactionaries will continue to employ any scheme imaginable to foist their nationalist ideology on working people and their children. Workers must maintain a sense of caution, and be resolved to carry out a firm struggle to crush the reactionary interpretations of the textbook reform group and others.
This summer the SWP will hold a workersf seminar in the Tokyo and Osaka areas that will focus on criticism of the new reactionary history textbook. Here we have listed the two-day program for the seminar, including the topics and names of the presenters.
We are calling on as many workers and young people to participate in the summer seminar as possible. Today as the class conflict intensifies, we reaffirm the fact that having a correct theoretical orientation is an important and vital weapon in the struggle for socialism.
Topics and Presenters: @The Betrayal of the Prewar Kohza-ha Group: Calling the Meiji Restoration gA Complete Bourgeois Revolutionh (Akutsu Takayuki ) @The Rise of the Samurai and the Role of the Emperor: Looking at the gMiddle Ageshf in Japan (Machida Masaru) @The gMysteryh of the Asian Mode of Production: Was Antiquity in Japan One Archetype of Human History? (Hayashi Hiroyoshi) @The Logic of gPublich [service] Used for the Sake of State-Ism Exalting gImperial Subjectsh in the Name of the gPublic Citizensh (Yokoi Kunihiko)