Japanese Textbook Claims "Dokdo is Japanese Territory"... Ministry of Education Demands Immediate Correction of Historical Distortion

Passed Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Review... History Distortion Techniques
Includes Expressions Like 'Japan's Inherent Territory' and 'Illegal Occupation by Korea'
South Korea "Correct History Distortion and Convey Truth to Future Generations"

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Education immediately urged correction regarding the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s approval of middle school social studies textbooks that distort history with a Japan-centric and erroneous view of history and territory. This is because the new Japanese middle school textbooks contain numerous descriptions claiming Dokdo as 'Japan’s inherent territory' and fail to properly reflect the history of Japanese colonial aggression.

On that day, it was confirmed that the middle school social studies textbooks that passed the Japanese Ministry of Education’s review in the afternoon?8 history textbooks, 6 civics textbooks, and 4 geography textbooks?largely included expressions stating that Dokdo was 'illegally occupied by Korea.'

In particular, all four geography textbooks included descriptions of Dokdo as 'Japan’s inherent territory' or stated that 'Korea is illegally occupying it.' The six civics textbooks also described Dokdo with terms such as 'Japan’s inherent territory' and 'Korea’s illegal occupation.' Among the history textbooks, the phrase 'Japan’s inherent territory' appeared in six textbooks, 'Korea’s illegal occupation' in five, and 'incorporation into Shimane Prefecture' in eight.

In the eight history textbooks, terms like 'forcible mobilization' were not used to describe the mobilization of Korean laborers in the 1940s. Instead, the textbooks described Koreans as being 'taken to Japanese coal mines and mines to work excessively for low wages' and that 'some people worked under harsh conditions.' Regarding Japanese military comfort women, two history textbooks addressed the topic but used the term 'comfort women' instead of 'military comfort women.'

Until now, the Ministry of Education has expressed deep regret and demanded corrections whenever the Japanese government approved textbooks containing territorial sovereignty infringements and distorted history regarding Dokdo, which is clearly Korean territory historically, geographically, and under international law. However, regarding the repeated actions of the Japanese government, the Ministry of Education criticized, "In the case of these middle school social studies textbooks, despite demanding corrections when they first passed the review in 2020 due to unjust claims about Dokdo, our inherent territory, and the downplaying and concealment of historical facts such as the forcible mobilization of Koreans and Japanese military comfort women, these issues were not reflected in the recent review results."

Furthermore, the Ministry stated, "To untangle the knots between Korea and Japan and move toward a more constructive relationship, it must start with correcting the persistent territorial claims over Dokdo and historical distortions to inform future generations of the truth," and emphasized, "The Japanese government should voluntarily correct the content of the middle school social studies textbooks that contain unjust claims about our territory and history for the sake of a future-oriented Korea-Japan relationship."

The Ministry of Education added that it will continue to actively respond to rectify the infringement of territorial sovereignty over Dokdo and historical distortions in Japanese textbooks.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.