“History” texts have been “edited” for political and religious reasons since records have been kept - orally and on stone tablets!

This is precisely why, in my view, anyone who believes that what is written in the Bible or any other religious or historical texts is a FACTUAL record of events, is a simpleton.

“History” as it is taught in today’s schools is certainly sprinkled with some FACTS - mostly dates, names, etc. But great license is taken when reporting EVENTS and why they occurred. It all depends on the point of view of the author and of his/her superiors. In some cases, telling it “like it was” will get you shot!

The Japanese have every right to be outraged but that outrage isn’t going to accomplish much I don’t think.

#114238 by Outraged

Outraged…

This is excellent. I had the same experience in my own K-12 education. Not even a WHIMPER about the Native Americans, aside from a Turkey Dinner with the Pilgrims. And, I’m still pissed off that it took me as long as it did, to find out the truth in all of its bloody horror. Matter of fact, I’m reliving it now, just studying the old legal systems.

I’m equally horrified by the books and exercises for your NINE year old!!! Does this happen all of the time? I mean my God!!! This would give one the impression that as a parent, you have to be the teacher as well. I mean certainly, we all expect (as parents and teachers) that parents will stay on top of their childrens’ homework, as much as they can, so that they know what they’re doing and learning. (unfortunately, not many do, but that’s another story). STILL, this would make me very, very angry, because of the age. How do we call this ‘critical thinking’?

And, is this why I read an article the other day claiming that the U.S. was like down around number 15 in the general grouping of countries that are monitored on educational achievements? The piece was in Common Dreams I think, and mentioned that most Americans would be very surprised at this. Well, not me, and not for the past 2 decades at least.

And the employment evaluations? I did the same thing, every year, for 25 of them. VERY SAME THING!! It was ALL corporate politics and bullshit. (which didn’t keep me from arguing the point - each and every time). I never won of course, since it was already pre-determined how many people could fall into each level of the scale.

Not to worry though, I eventually worked it out.

The Japanese attitude toward occupied peoples was heinous, stories of their troops throwing Chinese Babies in the air and catching them on their bayonets comes to mind. Prisoners of the Japanese, the best hope would be to die, they treated military prisoners with actions to exceed horror movies.
Not to admit ones heinous actions is a weakness, and the wrong way to heal wounds and live a lie.

The Japanese attitude toward occupied peoples was heinous, stories of their troops throwing Chinese Babies in the air and catching them on their bayonets comes to mind. Prisoners of the Japanese, the best hope would be to die, they treated military prisoners with actions to exceedl horror movies.
Not to admit ones heinous actions is a weakness, and the wrong way to heal wounds and live a lie.

I can’t recall ever hearing an explanation for the Japanese military’s sinister scheme.  The only logical reason I can thing of was in order to stiffen resistance to the invasion of Japan’s home islands.

As Amerian forces were moving into Okinawa, elements of a top-secret U.S. Army unit were crucial in trying to convince civilians and Japanese Army hold-outs to surrender peacefully and come out of caves where they were hiding.

The U.S. Army “Military Intelligence Service (MIS)” consisted of Japanese-Americans who knew the Japanese language and culture.

In many cases, they convinced Okinawan civilians and Japanese troops that they would be treated decently if they surrendered, saving many lives.

The story of the MIS is worth knowing about. An overview on this unit and the circumstances surrounding it are contained in the two articles noted below ...

“Eastwood, Spielberg have one more angle to cover in Iwo Jima films”

American Chronicle
February 23, 2007

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=21191

——-

“Secret WWII Army Intelligence Unit Has Lessons for Us Now”

American Chronicle
October 28, 2005

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=3312

NOTE THAT in the previous posting, the words “okinawa” and “rape” caused the CNN link to be denied…... just add “rape” to the link below, uhh!!!

Action Denied: Blacklisted Item Found
http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9603/okinawa_....

Quote BBC: “Mitsuoko Oshiro recalls how she was given a grenade by a soldier, who told her that if she failed to use it to kill herself and her family, she would be raped and tortured by the Americans….”

How does that describe the more recent fact that so many young women on Okinawa have indeed been raped by US troops so unnecessarily still stationed there??? http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=2974 Sentences lighter than expected.

#114242 by farmertx on 11/17 at 10:18 pm: “...I also remember a few years ago when the Japanese Government tried to deny that Korean women had been forced to ‘service’ the Japanese troops….”

Then there is the US in postwar Japan:-

Quote: “American authorities allowed the operation of an official brothel system for GIs occupying Japan in the aftermath of World War II….” http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/04/america/NA-GEN-US-Japan-Comfort-Women.php

Supposedly “set up and sanctioned by the Japanese government and armed forces” but, in reality, by coercion from the USA! After all, what “armed forces” existed in Japan after 1945?!?!

I remember reading books about the Marines on Okinawa, horrified at the women and children jumping off cliffs onto jagged rocks, rather than allow the Marines to get close to them.
I also remember a few years ago when the Japanese Government tried to deny that Korean women had been forced to ‘service’ the Japanese troops.
And, as a student, I never read of the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Calvary, never knew that Blacks had any role in the West, other than cooks or menials. Nor was I aware of the broken treaties that all but wiped the Indian Tribes out.
But for a real rewrite of History, visit the Shrubs’ Library once it opens. That’s assuming they will let anyone in the Library, due to National Security concerns.

It’s absolutely terrible, that an army would ask it countrymen to do something so sinister.  I’ve never heard this story before.  It is awful.

The textbook issue is not unlike the Native American Museum omitting the genocide of the Native Americans.  In my K-12 school years I NEVER once HEARD about the genocide of the Native Americans.  Much of the atrocities committed by America are also either casually discussed, glossed over or omitted entirely.  As a child/adolescent/teen you don’t realize much of this, and why would you?  The evildoers always want to rewrite history.

Recently I had an issue with my son’s textbook.  His teacher didn’t quite understand initially why I was so adamant about it.  They had to read a story, then answer the questions.  Sounds simple, right?  My issue was with the questions which implied an answer, which was not in the story, but were supposed to be answered.  This type of question is supposed to “promote critical thinking” and inference skills.  But they didn’t, there truly was only one “right” answer and it was drawn from common propaganda “truths”.  They are specifically worded to allude to the “correct” conclusion.  No critical reasoning involved, other than that’s “bull”.  These questions are manipulative and sometimes promote stereotypes.  They tend to provide flippant blanket answers to complex issues.  When I read them, it’s as if in order to answer them “correctly” I would have to lie, make inferences so many times that my conclusion is utter bullshit or just accept propaganda as “true and right”.

It’s like teaching children to lie, embellish half-truths or just plain accept propaganda while FEELING that “you reasoned it out on your own”.  Obviously not all textbooks use this type of manipulation.  But many do.

Some texts also use a “you can’t get them all right” tactic.  My son’s reader had a story about baseball set in the 1920’s or something like that.  He needed to find two facts in the story which showed WHEN the story took place.  One was easy, as a date was listed.  There wasn’t another one in the story, unless you had PRIOR knowledge of “stick-ball”(assuming they don’t play that anymore, I haven’t a clue), baseball history (they mentioned Babe Ruth and some other past baseball player) or according to his teacher, a “reasonable” answer would have been because the character in the story lived in a rural area and then went to the city (Huh..), or because he rode a train. ( which I would have accepted if they had SHOWN the train so that one could say it was an OLD-FASHIONED TRAIN…maybe ).  This was directed at NINE YEAR OLDS. (most of these kids were BORN in 1998, I don’t think MOST have heard of Babe Ruth, that’s almost 90 yrs. ago!)  Anyway, using the story, the average NINE YEAR OLD wouldn’t have a clue.(I could not QUALIFY the second fact either USING THE BOOK) Most of the questions, in this particular book, used at the end of each story were along these same lines.  The question “answers”, FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES, are “not there” if you’re NINE years old.

This same type of tactic is implemented in many workplaces in order to “knock you down a notch” come evaluation time.  It works like this:  No one can be a perfect employee, therefore on a 1-5 scale you can only get mainly 4’s and a couple of 5’s when you are a GREAT employee.  If in order to attain a 5 one must be perfect, then the scale is skewed since we do not have “perfect human beings” at least none were aware of….a “perfect” 5 SHOULD BE REASONABLY ATTAINABLE by a conscientious employee.  Supervisors are taught and sometimes REQUIRED to give low marks, where’s the check and balance there?  (They “prepped” you to accept this when you were nine.)  I argue it EVERY time (shocking, isn’t it).  They’ll say, “Well, your not perfect….!!!” and I say “precisely my point…”  Oooh..they hate that….

Governments like to whitewash history.