Japan on Thursday stood firm against pressure from China and South Korea, saying it would make no revisions to history textbooks that neighbors charge glosses over its wartime atrocities.
China stepped up the war of words by calling in a senior Japanese diplomat on Wednesday and demanding extensive changes to a textbook Tokyo approved this year and which Chinese state media said "advocates imperialism, and whitewashes and denies Japan's history of aggression."
It follows a similar move by South Korea last week in which Seoul asked that 25 passages of the textbook be revised saying that they were clearly inaccurate.
"While we cannot make revisions, we will listen sincerely to such criticism and respond sincerely," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.
"I would like to come up with wisdom to find a way to understand and respect each other's positions so as to improve ties between Japan and China," he added.
Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka echoed that later in the day when she pledged to resolve the outstanding contentious issues with Japan's two powerful and angry neighbors.
"A number of issues are outstanding, such as the textbook issue, but I will make utmost efforts to ensure they have little impact on Japan's relations with both countries," she told a parliamentary committee.
Seoul decided to postpone joint military exercises with Tokyo in protest, and a group of South Korean lawmakers have applied for a court injunction in Japan to halt the sale of the book, to be circulated next year for use by children aged 13 to 15 -- TOKYO (Reuters)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
