米歴史教科書の慰安婦歪曲問題 |
産経 2015.2.10
【歴史戦】日本総領事館が米教科書執筆者に「事実誤認」指摘 「言論の自由侵害された」ハワイ大准教授主張
【ワシントン=加納宏幸】米国の公立高校で使用されている世界史の教科書に「旧日本軍による慰安婦強制連行」など事実と異なる記述がある問題で、ハワイ州ホノルルの日本総領事館は9日、教科書の共著者のハーバート・ジーグラー・ハワイ大学准教授に対し、事実誤認を指摘するなどの申し入れを昨年12月に行ったことを明らかにした。
申し入れについて報じた9日の米紙ワシントン・ポスト（電子版）によると、ジーグラー氏は日本政府から接触を受けたことを明かし、「私の言論と学問の自由を侵害した」と批判した。昨年暮れに日本総領事館の職員から教科書の記述について協議したいとの申し出があり、これを断ったが、2人の職員が大学を訪れ、教科書の文章を削除するよう求めたとしている。
一方、日本総領事館は9日、産経新聞の取材に対し、ジーグラー氏とのやり取りの詳細は明かせないとしながらも「昨年12月に慰安婦問題に関して執筆者に申し入れを行い、事実誤認や、わが国の立場と相いれない部分が存在することを指摘した」と述べた。
米歴史学者19人が発表した、教科書に関する「いかなる修正にも応じない」との声明をまとめたコネティカット大のアレクシス・ダデン教授もポスト紙に「声明は日本たたきではなく、日本の仲間を支援するためのものだ」と述べた。
記事は、慰安婦問題で日本政府の責任を追及する吉見義明・中央大教授の研究が声明の根拠になっていると紹介。教科書を出版した米大手教育出版社マグロウヒルが「記述は史的事実に基づく」として修正を拒否したことも伝えている。
Washington Post
Americanacademics condemn Japanese efforts to revise history of "comfortwomen"
ByAnna Fifield
February 9
TOKYO — A group of American historians is issuinga call to their Japanese counterparts to remain steadfast in the face ofpressure from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to play down the army’suse of “comfort women” during World War II.
As it prepares to mark the 70th anniversaryof the end of the war, Abe’s conservative government is pushing to put a glosson Japan’s wartime history and, in turn, to loosen some of the postwarconstraints on its military.
“We stand with the many historians inJapan and elsewhere who have worked to bring to light the facts about this andother atrocities of World War II,” says a letter signed by 19 academics fromAmerican University as well as Princeton, Columbia and others, referring to the“comfort women” who were coerced into working in Japanese military brothelsduring the 1930s and 1940s.
“As historians, we express our dismay at recent attempts by theJapanese government to suppress statements in history textbooks both in Japanand elsewhere about the euphemistically named ‘comfort women,’ ” says theletter to be published in the March issue of the American HistoricalAssociation’s magazine, Perspectives on History.
The comfort women, many of whom wereKorean, have become a major source of contention between the Japanese and SouthKorean governments. Many Japanese conservatives say the women were simplyprostitutes, while Seoul accuses Tokyo of trying to whitewash history.
Both governments have turned up the volumein their efforts to sway international opinion, most recently with a Japaneseattempt to get McGraw Hill, the American publishing house, to remove twoparagraphs about comfort women from a college textbook.
The book, “Traditions and Encounters: AGlobal Perspective on the Past,” says the Japanese army “forcibly recruited, conscripted, and dragooned as many as 200,000women aged 14 to 20 to serve in military brothels, called ‘comfort houses.’ ”It also says that the Japanese imperial army “massacred large numbers ofcomfort women to cover up the operation.”
A key part of the dispute over comfortwomen revolves around the number of women forced into sexual slavery and theprecise role the military played in their procurement.
Work by academics, especially Japanesehistorian Yoshiaki Yoshimi, has “rendered beyond dispute the essential featuresof a system that amounted to state-sponsored sexual slavery,” the historians’letter says.
McGraw Hill refused to change the textbook,saying that “scholars are aligned behind the historical fact of ‘comfort women’” and that it “unequivocally” stands behind the book.
“When you start targeting history, then goacross borders, then we as historians have to stand up in solidarity for whatwe do,” said Alexis Dudden, aUniversity of Connecticut professor who was one of the organizers of theletter.
“We do not want this to be seen as Japan-bashing,” she said. “It’sthe opposite of Japan-bashing. It’s a statement in support of our Japanesecolleagues.”
Herbert Ziegler, an associate professor atthe University of Hawaii and co-author of the textbook, said the Japaneserequest to remove the paragraphs was “an infringement of my freedom of speechand my academic freedom.”
Ziegler said that he received an e-mailfrom an official in the Japanese Consulate in Hawaii late last year, requestinga meeting to discuss the passages in the book. He declined.
Then, Ziegler said, two officials showed upin his university office during office hours, when the door was open, and “justcame in and sat down and started telling me how wrong I was.”
“It’s a very strange game that they’replaying here,” he said.
Takako Ito, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman,said the Japanese government “respects and values [the] freedom of expression”of the publisher and authors but that the textbook “includes some factualinaccuracies.”
“What Japan is asking for is to be givenproper evaluations by the international community on what Japan has done, basedon the understanding of accurate facts. Japan should be given a fairopportunity to present its concerns,” she said. “From this perspective, thegovernment of Japan explained to the publisher and to the author, through itsoverseas diplomatic missions, Japan’s understandings and what Japan has done.”
Abe has signaled that in a speech on the70th anniversary of the war’s end this summer, he will not repudiate anofficial apology issued in 1993. Still, he recently said in parliament that hewas “shocked” by the textbook and that the government must step up its effortsto disseminate the “correct” view abroad.
Katsuto Momii, the president of theJapanese broadcast company NHK, said Friday that it would have to “considervery carefully whether it’s truly appropriate” to pick up the issue of comfortwomen while the government policy remains unclear.
Critics attacked the comment as proof thatthe broadcaster, which is supervised by the government but insists that it iseditorially independent, was toeing the government line.
“There’s no change in the way we stick toindependence, autonomy, fairness, equity and political neutrality whilecreating shows,” NHK spokesman Shoji Motooka said.
South Koreans also have been assiduouslypushing their case in the United States, erecting memorials to “comfort women”in Virginia and California, where there are large Korean American communities.They also have been lobbying some states to change their school textbooks touse South Korean names for disputed waters and territories.
Anna Fifield is The Post’s bureau chief inTokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for theFinancial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across theMiddle East.
