Californian Educators Pressed To Change Textbooks

The subject of history when taught in schools can be a touchy issue. It gets worse when what is written in the books puts the country or its people in a negative light. Faced with a bitter but truthful past, it can stir patriotic sentiments that drive people to protect their national identity.

The guidelines that educators in California have released concerning how history will be written has been both applauded and denounced internationally for relating the occurrences of a period in the past that was marked by viciousness and brutality.

The point in question concerns two sentences that discuss the issue of "comfort women" for Japanese soldiers during the World War II. They are described in some theory as the Korean women who were abducted from their homes, turned into sex slaves and forced into prostitution in military brothels frequented by the Japanese military. It is said that the women number around 200,000, with most of them coming from what is now South Korea. It is the South Korean government and South Korean-Americans who recommended the use of this terminology.

As might be expected, the South Koreans are rejoicing. Finally, they are getting the justice they deserve because a U.S. world history textbook has acknowledged the barbarity that Korean women suffered at the hands of the Japanese. The government and people of Japan, however, are dismayed, especially because the truth about what happened during that time has been uncovered.

A South Korean University Professor has written a book based on her findings after intensive research and interviews with surviving persons and first-hand witnesses. Her book belies the generally held perception of the "comfort women" issue and reveals that there is no evidence of sexual slavery of Korean women by the Japanese forces. And an official report of investigation by the U.S. troops was found, which described these women were nothing more than prostitutes or "professional camp followers" attached to the Japanese Army for the benefit of the soldiers.

The matter has brought to light a developing concern among academics and historians: if politics and delicate sensibilities are factors in the writing of history, how can the students be assured of unbiased education and acceptance of the past with all its burdens? Further, it becomes doubtful if there is a need for secondary school history textbooks to be so comprehensive. It is a challenging issue that scholars cannot agree upon, because, unlike mathematics and science, objectivity is arguable in history and there are no universal standards for its teaching.

Elizabeth, a High School educator, says, "There are so many events in history that are glossed over or are ignored outright... What we did to Native Americans was genocide. While textbooks now admit that westward expansion had negative outcomes, they are still focusing on the outcomes for the pioneers, not so much the horror of what we inflicted on Natives." Her observation is accurate. Historical events that are disturbing to a nation are played down, and it's not just the "comfort women" that are affected.

The people of Vietnam were tortured and killed in numerous massacres that occurred during the Vietnam War. On February 12, 1968, unarmed and defenseless, Vietnamese civilians were slaughtered by South Korean forces, and their women and children assaulted and raped. Although happening during a war, it does not justify the killings and rapes of civilians by the thousands. But South Korea has never acknowledged, apologized, or offered compensation for its crimes against the Vietnamese people.

The Voices of Vietnam is an organization that is committed to "bearing witness to and recording the testimony of the thousands of Vietnamese women who were victims of systematic rape and sexual assault at the hands of South Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War." The organization is seeking justice for its people by arousing public awareness of the victims and ensuring that these types of acts will not happen again.

History textbooks used in schools can be tools for education about triumphs and adversities. The characters and actions of great human beings are extolled to serve as examples and inspiration to the youth but the cruelties and atrocities perpetrated by other human beings should also be given exposure, if only to teach the students not to repeat the same acts and develop in them compassion and mercy. Hiding them is folly. We must remember the old adage that will always ring true: those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.