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News Archive |
LAST UPDATE
February 6, 2010
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| November 25, 2009 |
Forum: "Recognition of History and Peace in East Asia" in Tokyo
-- The Strength to Build the Possibility of East Asia History and Peace -- |
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The 8th Forum of "Recognition of History and Peace in East Asia" was held in Tokyo from November 21-23, 2009. The purpose of this forum, co-organized by scholars and activists from Japan, China and Korea since 2002, is to promote peace in East Asia by stabilizing relations among the three countries through developing a common recognition of history.
A key factor in this is opposition to distorted descriptions of history, particularly those which have commonly appeared in Japanese textbooks. Such books have aimed to instill in young people through history education a “pride in Japan”, however are in reality enthnocentric and xenophobic, as well as in denial over Japan's past. The creation of such textbooks demonstrates that the Japanese government is yet to make a profound apology and reflection to the international society in regards to its wartime invasion and aggression to the extent that the people in Asia in particular would be able to accept. |
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Peace Boat is a member of the forum's organizing committee, and Peace Boat executive committee member Nohira Shinsaku acted as moderator for the first session, on “International Tensions of East Asia and Peace Movements.” This session's focus was on political issues affecting the region including territorial disputes, nuclear issues, the Obama administration's foreign policy, and the media in Asia. The theme of the second session was “The Potential of East Asian World History,” focusing on the recognition of history and history education. The third session focused on movements relating to issues such as victims of the atomic bombs and air strikes, military sex slaves (commonly referred to as “comfort women”, and the deployment of Japan's Self-Defense Force to Iraq, under the title of “East Asia's War Damage and Recovering Human Rights.” |
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This year's forum in Tokyo also discussed the present situations of both governmental and nongovernmental activities in each country, and efforts to resolve the issue of history recognition in order to build a peaceful community in East Asia. Continuing on from the 2008 History Forum, Prof. Dr. Eckhardt Fuchs, Deputy Director of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI), also participated in the forum and made valuable inputs from the perspective of Europe's experience in developing common textbooks for over half a century, providing a link between Asia and Europe in the field of history recognition. |
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