is a professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of education at Tokyo University

University of Tokyo

, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...

 noted for his efforts at removing from Japanese textbooks

Japanese history textbook controversies

Japanese history textbook controversies refers to controversial content in government-approved history textbooks used in the secondary education of Japan...

 accounts of wartime atrocities committed by Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 during the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. He is considered to be a conservative

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

 and a nationalist, and has been quoted as saying that he "stand(s) for a viewpoint of history with an emphasis on national interest," http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/97/0314/nat3.html#nat4 and that the study of Japanese history is "subject to the ultimate moral imperative of whether or not it serves to inculcate a sense of pride in being Japanese."http://artsci.wustl.edu/~copeland/textbook.htm He has also said that to "write [a history] based only on verified historical truths makes...[it] insipid and dry. I had no choice but to write from my own imagination to a great extent."http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=17&ItemID=8414

In the early 1990s, Fujioka founded the so-called Liberal View of History Study Group, which advocated "correcting history" by promoting a "positive view" of Japanese history, and removing all references to what he referred to as "dark history." By 1995, he had created the Association for Advancement of Unbiased View of History (Jiyuu-Shugi-Shikan Kenkyuu-Kai)http://www.jiyuu-shikan.org/ehttp://www.jiyuu-shikan.org and the Committee to Write New History Textbooks. Among Japan's top ten bestsellers in 1997 were two volumes edited by Fujioka, History The Textbooks Do Not Teach and Shameful Modern History.

By early 2000, Fujioka and his followers had joined with others to form the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform (Tsukurukai, now headed by Nishio Kanji). This group authored The New History Textbook, which was one of eight junior high school history textbooks authorized by the Ministry of Education in April 2001. In December 2000, a draft textbook circulated by the Society and shown on national television elicited criticism by many Japanese historians and teachers.

Fujioka's textbook revisionist movement has created considerable controversy in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 (especially concerning denial of the Rape of Nanking), and South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 and the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 (especially concerning denial of Japanese responsibility for the so-called "comfort women

Comfort women

The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...

").

He is an assenter of "The Truth about Nanjing

The Truth about Nanjing

is a forthcoming film by Japanese filmmaker about the 1937 Nanking Massacre.The film, backed by nationalistic figures including Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara and public donation, is intended to expose alleged propaganda aspects of the Nanking Massacre...

."

External links

• Examining the Japanese History Textbook Controversies; Kathleen Woods Masalski National Clearinghouse for U.S.-Japan Studies; East Asian Studies Center; Indiana University
• The Textbook Controversy; Charles Cummins Washington University webpage
• 'Let's Stop Apologizing' A professor's battles outside the classroom Asiaweek magazine article
• The Politics of Amnesia: Reconstructing the Asia-Pacific War; Takeo Hymans Japan Watch article
• The 'Comfort Women' Controversy: History and Testimony; Nozaki Yoshiko Z Magazine article
• Asia battles over war history: The legacy of the Pacific War looms over Tokyo's plans for the future; David McNeill and Mark Selden