China s Selective Memory
投稿者： prefgovernor 投稿日時： 2005/04/19 06:44 投稿番号： [201083 / 232612]
http://www.sankei.co.jp/news/050419/kok001.htm
１８日付の米紙ワシントン・ポストは中国での反日デモに関連し、歴史問題に正面から向き合おうとしていないのは中国であり、中国はアジアの指導権を握ろうとして日本を「悪者に仕立てている」とするフレッド・ハイアット論説委員長（元東京特派員）の署名評論を掲載した。
評論は「中国の都合のいい物忘れ」との見出しで、日本の教科書における南京大虐殺の扱いが問題なら、「毛沢東の狂気の大躍進」で起きた飢饉（ききん）で３０００万人が犠牲になったとされることや、「１９７９年のベトナム侵攻」などを教科書に記載しない中国に問題はないのかと批判した。
さらに、日本では歴史認識問題で「延々と開かれた論議」がなされ、靖国問題でも賛否両論があり、教科書も選択可能と指摘。中国では「歴史（叙述）は１種類しか許されず」、それは共産党が決めていると日本を擁護した。
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61708-2005Apr17.html
Compare this to the situation in Premier Wen's China. There is only one acceptable version of history, at least at any given time; history often changes, but only when the Communist Party decides to change it.
For example, according to a report by Howard W. French in the New York Times last December, many textbooks don't mention that anyone died at what the outside world knows as the 1989 massacre of student demonstrators near Tiananmen Square. One 1998 text notes only that "the Central Committee took action in time and restored calm." Anyone who challenges the official fiction is subject to harsh punishment, including beatings, house arrest or imprisonment.
And if the 300,000 victims of the Nanjing Massacre are slighted in some Japanese textbooks, what of the 30 million Chinese who died in famines created by Mao Zedong's lunatic Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1962? No mention in Chinese texts; didn't happen.
Well, you might say, how a nation treats its internal history is less relevant to its qualifications for the Security Council than whether it teaches its children honestly about its wars with other nations. A dubious proposition, but no matter; as the Times found in its review of textbooks, Chinese children do not learn of their nation's invasion of Tibet (1950) or aggression against Vietnam (1979). And they are taught that Japan was defeated in World War II by Chinese Communist guerrillas; Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima and Midway don't figure in.
"Facing up to history squarely" isn't easy for any country. Americans don't agree on how to remember the Confederacy. Russia can't yet admit to Soviet depredations in the Baltic republics. And, yes, Japan too often sees itself purely as a victim of World War II.
But in countries that permit open debate, historical interpretations can be constantly challenged, revised, maybe brought closer to the truth. In dictatorships that use history as one more tool to maintain power, there's no such hope.
China's Communists used to find it useful to vilify Russia in their history texts. These days, for reasons of China's aspirations to lead Asia, Japan makes a more convenient villain. Next year might be America's turn. The reasons may be complex, but none of them has much to do with facing history squarely.
１８日付の米紙ワシントン・ポストは中国での反日デモに関連し、歴史問題に正面から向き合おうとしていないのは中国であり、中国はアジアの指導権を握ろうとして日本を「悪者に仕立てている」とするフレッド・ハイアット論説委員長（元東京特派員）の署名評論を掲載した。
評論は「中国の都合のいい物忘れ」との見出しで、日本の教科書における南京大虐殺の扱いが問題なら、「毛沢東の狂気の大躍進」で起きた飢饉（ききん）で３０００万人が犠牲になったとされることや、「１９７９年のベトナム侵攻」などを教科書に記載しない中国に問題はないのかと批判した。
さらに、日本では歴史認識問題で「延々と開かれた論議」がなされ、靖国問題でも賛否両論があり、教科書も選択可能と指摘。中国では「歴史（叙述）は１種類しか許されず」、それは共産党が決めていると日本を擁護した。
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61708-2005Apr17.html
Compare this to the situation in Premier Wen's China. There is only one acceptable version of history, at least at any given time; history often changes, but only when the Communist Party decides to change it.
For example, according to a report by Howard W. French in the New York Times last December, many textbooks don't mention that anyone died at what the outside world knows as the 1989 massacre of student demonstrators near Tiananmen Square. One 1998 text notes only that "the Central Committee took action in time and restored calm." Anyone who challenges the official fiction is subject to harsh punishment, including beatings, house arrest or imprisonment.
And if the 300,000 victims of the Nanjing Massacre are slighted in some Japanese textbooks, what of the 30 million Chinese who died in famines created by Mao Zedong's lunatic Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1962? No mention in Chinese texts; didn't happen.
Well, you might say, how a nation treats its internal history is less relevant to its qualifications for the Security Council than whether it teaches its children honestly about its wars with other nations. A dubious proposition, but no matter; as the Times found in its review of textbooks, Chinese children do not learn of their nation's invasion of Tibet (1950) or aggression against Vietnam (1979). And they are taught that Japan was defeated in World War II by Chinese Communist guerrillas; Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima and Midway don't figure in.
"Facing up to history squarely" isn't easy for any country. Americans don't agree on how to remember the Confederacy. Russia can't yet admit to Soviet depredations in the Baltic republics. And, yes, Japan too often sees itself purely as a victim of World War II.
But in countries that permit open debate, historical interpretations can be constantly challenged, revised, maybe brought closer to the truth. In dictatorships that use history as one more tool to maintain power, there's no such hope.
China's Communists used to find it useful to vilify Russia in their history texts. These days, for reasons of China's aspirations to lead Asia, Japan makes a more convenient villain. Next year might be America's turn. The reasons may be complex, but none of them has much to do with facing history squarely.
これは メッセージ 201082 (prefgovernor さん)への返信です．