TOKYO — Nearly all Japan's school districts have rejected a controversial history textbook written by nationalist scholars, officials said Wednesday, the deadline for schools to make their book selections.
The "New History Textbook," penned by nationalist scholars, has angered many Asian countries, particularly China and South Korea, for deleting major events in Tokyo's aggressive march through Asia before and during World War II.
The text is one of the eight middle school history books the government approved in April. Japan's government does not write textbooks, but it screens proposed books for use in public schools.
So far the book will be used by 70 handicapped students at four schools in Tokyo and five other students at three schools in Ehime state in the south.
Based on their own survey results, the publisher, Fusosha, and textbook opponents said that the "New History Textbook" has yet to make it into any other public schools. And only two private schools have approved its use for the next academic year beginning April 1, 2002.
Critics say it glosses over Japanese brutality as the book omits, for example, Japan's germ warfare in China and the 200,000 women forced to work as prostitutes for its wartime military.
"We have gained nationwide support to say 'no' to the textbook," said Ayako Okino, a member of the civic group Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21. "And it's the conscience of the Japanese public."
The final results from all the nation's 542 municipal school districts, as well as 76 state-run and 686 private schools, won't be available until the end of August, when local governments are required to notify the Education Ministry of the name of the publishers and number of textbooks they will use, ministry official Tadakazu Miki said.
Each national and private school makes its own textbook selection and provides them to students. There are about 10,430 municipal and state schools in Japan.
As Wednesday's deadline neared, local school authorities began to voice concerns about the book and its impact on Japan's relations with its neighbors.
Last month, the authors and the publisher made minor revisions, but the government has rejected demands by South Korea and China for corrections, refusing to impose changes in what it calls historical "interpretation."
A Fusosha spokesman said the text has been largely avoided by schools, partly because of negative media coverage. Shinichiro Heki said it would be impossible to make the company's initial target of use by 10 percent of an estimated 1.2 million potential students.