The World : Japan Textbooks Criticized

China’s Foreign Ministry said that the approved final version of a new Japanese history textbook deliberately covers up Japan’s role in starting the 1937-45 Sino-Japanese war. China had previously complained about Japanese textbooks concerning the war, and a Foreign Ministry spokesman noted “the removal or revision of a number of obviously erroneous narrations.” However, because it “covers up the basic fact that the Japanese militarists launched the war of aggression against neighboring countries,” the new version “is hardly satisfactory,” the spokesman said.