Studying In Japan

TOKYO, Jan. 8 (AP) - (Kyodo)—New high school history textbooks will keep describing the mass suicides during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa as ones in which people were "driven into suicides amid the Japanese military's involvement," rather than saying the military "forced" them to kill themselves, sources close to the matter said Thursday.

While some textbook authors and civic campaigners have demanded use of the expression "forced," it has become unlikely after five textbook publishers decided to leave the wording as instructed by the education ministry, feeling it would be difficult to seek permission for adopting more direct expression over the mass suicides, the sources said.

A senior official of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, said, "It must be proved that descriptions in textbooks impose troubles to study when we approve revisions...there is no problem in the description that the military was involved."

In March 2007, the education ministry advised history textbook publishers to delete or rewrite references to the Imperial Japanese Army's role in coercing civilians into committing the mass suicides, which were conducted so they would not be taken prisoner by U.S. forces.

Prior to that instruction, the expression "forced" had been approved.

The publishers revised the descriptions in line with the state's instruction to pass its screening, but it prompted a large protest rally in Okinawa, eventually leading the state to allow the publishers to refer to the military's "involvement" in the suicides.

Still, some authors and civic groups in Okinawa have sought the textbooks to include the word "forced."

But the publishers have said that "a certain achievement" has already been made as they can refer to the military's involvement.