China and South Korea have both blasted Japan over a newly approved series school textbooks on social studies.
The 18 books, which will be used by junior high school students starting next year, emphatically state that disputed islands such as the Senkaku/Diaoyu and Takeshima/Dakdo islets belong to Japan and denies the existence of "comfort women" abducted from Korea and China and forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers.
READ: A brief history of Japanese officials making offensive statements about WWII sex slaves
When it comes to the Nanking Massacre - the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians following the capture of the Chinese capital - the new textbooks merely state that "captives and civilians were involved in the tragedy and casualties were exposed," removing all Japanese agency from the atrocity.
South Korea's foreign ministry accused the new content of containing "unjustifiable claims" and describing "hard historical facts in a way that they are distorted, understated and/or omitted." The country's education ministry also said that Japan is "denying its past and avoiding judgments on its history.”
Seoul also summoned the Japanese ambassador to complain, an action which Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga described as unacceptable.
From Beijing, state-run Xinhua News Agency published an editorial denouncing the new textbooks while Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Japan should "adopt a responsible attitude toward history" and "educate the next young generation with correct historical views."
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