Chinese and S.Koreans sue over Japan textbook

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http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5639847

TOKYO (Reuters) - A group of Chinese and South Koreans have sued a Japanese regional government over a textbook that critics say
whitewashes Japan's militaristic past at a time of frayed ties between Japan and its two neighbours.

Japan's Education Ministry approved the textbook, written by nationalist scholars for junior high schools, in 2001 despite strong protests from China and South Korea and a new version is expected to be approved early next month.

"(The textbook) justifies and hides the facts of ... Japan's invasion in Asia and the Pacific Ocean region and distorts history," the
plaintiffs said in the lawsuit on Wednesday . snip

Critics have attacked the history text for downplaying the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China, the sexual slavery of women by the
Japanese military, and for depicting World War Two as a war aimed at liberating other Asian countries.

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History does repeat itself.