RICHARD WALKER / STAR-BULLETIN
Kay Yoon held a sign in front of the Japanese Consulate
on Nuuanu Avenue. Protesters gathered there to object
to Japanese textbooks that gloss over Japan's
atrocities in World War II.

Japanese textbook
denounced

Korean Americans and others
object to what they consider
a white-wash of history

---

By Lisa Asato
Star-Bulletin

International protest over a Japanese textbook that whitewashes Japanese atrocities during World War II and its occupation of Korea reached Hawaii yesterday.

About 75 Korean Americans converged outside the closed gates of the Japanese Consulate on Nuuanu Avenue to protest the middle-school textbook that they fear would misinform a generation of future leaders.

"The tone is that war is good," said Richard Lee, vice president of the Korean- American Society of Hawaii. "Future leaders of Japan might be taught by that mindset."

The book glorifies Japanese actions during its 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, saying its occupation benefited stability in the peninsula and led to modern rail and irrigation systems, Lee said.

He also said the book omitted significant historical events such as the plight of the more than 100,000 comfort women, mostly Koreans, who were forced to provide sex to Japanese troops during World War II. "The author even questions the validity of (comfort women) when the United Nations has already stated that it was a crime against humanity," he said.

Yesterday's protest was part of the International Campaign to Correct Distorted Japanese History Textbooks, in which Korean Americans in about 130 cities and 70 countries demanded Japan rewrite several texts.

In Honolulu, however, groups protested against one book and were asking that Japan remove the book from the selection pool, Lee said. The controversial text is among eight books approved by the Japanese Education Ministry and now under review by local school boards and principals for the school year that begins in April.

Protesters yesterday ranged from a local chapter of Korean War veterans to women from the Korean Senior Citizen College of Hawaii, who marched in the noon drizzle wearing han bok, the Korean formal dress. Their signs demanded, "Japan must not justify its colonial rule." Another sign, written in Korean, politely stated, "Please educate your children in an accurate manner."

Ikuhiko Ono, consul in charge of public affairs, declined to comment on yesterday's protest, saying the consulate is not in a decision-making position. The new administration wants to strengthen relations and understanding between Korea and other Asian countries, he said, and although nothing is concrete, Japanese politicians have publicly discussed ways to work with Korean scholars on the matter.