Funny how I'm studying China history at the moment too :p

Honestly, is anyone else as baffled as I am over this whole issue? China is upset with Japan because they are not including their WW2 issues in textbooks BUT China is doing the exact same thing! (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/04/13/china.japan.ap/index.html). Ironic to the max, really. :rolleyes:

They are holding mass protests, boycotting Japan goods... nevermind that. But they are also attacking Japan-owned buildings/companies/shops and attacking Japaneses in China. This is completely absurd.

And even though Japan is wrong (and then again so is China!), they CANNOT bow down to China's demands. They should not. This will only encourage those Chinese to hold protests and attack people the next time they are unhappy with certain things.

This whole thing is ridiculous. I'm glad my country isn't making a big ridiculous fuss over this (we suffered greatly during WW2 under the Japanese too!). But that is the past... what can undo it? Move on, China. Japan already paid their price for their deeds at war. Move on, move on... and move on.

So... any opinions?

I think they should include it in their textbooks because if we can include Hitler and Stalin (he is responsible for more deaths than Hitler) in our own textbooks others should too. We include our own losses and wins as well. We even wrote about Pearl Harbor =/

I was really surprised about it too, it is pretty ludicrous. Like you said the past stays there and will always stay there. It's not like we don't know what they did anyways :P

I think they should include it in their textbooks because if we can include Hitler and Stalin (he is responsible for more deaths than Hitler) in our own textbooks others should too. We include our own losses and wins as well. We even wrote about Pearl Harbor =/

I was really surprised about it too, it is pretty ludicrous. Like you said the past stays there and will always stay there. It's not like we don't know what they did anyways :P

We were never directly attacked, on our own soil, by Hitler or Stalin. We write (or at least, we have until recently) about Pearl Habor in this "Oh, poor us, the Japanese came and attacked us on a SUNDAY!!" manner. The issue here is writing about atrocities committed during a war by your own side. Until recently, if a bunch of US soldiers went and butchered a bunch of Native American women and children, it was called a "battle" in textbooks, but if a bunch of native americans killed two or three Americans, it was a "massacre." We're just as guilty as the Japanese are. And it is ludicrous. You can't deny that it happened. Because it did. And one day, someone is going to have to tell these children that would end up using these books that, hey, their country really screwed up.

all I have to say is, every country has commited horrific crimes and has tried to lie/hide and/or understate it. no country is an exception

^ Very true.

There's more to it than the "military past".

1) Japan doesn't agree with China on the Taiwan issue.
2) They're fighting over certain seas for natural resources.
3) Japan wants to become a permanent Security Council member of the U.N., but China doesn't want them to.

This is only the surface. ;)