A new textbook flap is brewing on Taiwan, this time over the omission of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre by one publishing house and other publishing companies making only brief references to the event. This latest incident, involving as it does the always sensitive issue of the Japanese atrocities at Nanjing, has added new energy to the recent storm over history education in the ROC.
In an op-ed piece for the Apple Daily (posted and translated by ESWN), history teacher Tsai Wei-chun writes:
The questions were basically these kinds: Do you feel that the textbook should eliminate the narrative on the Nanking massacre? Will the elimination of the description of the Nanking massacre affect the historical memories of the students? The logic behind these questions is: historical memory is related to history education, and history education can strengthen or weaken historical memories. To put it more explicitly, history education is linked to national self-identity. My thoughts were quite the opposite: it is the political positions, the national self-identity and the popular feelings that are influencing history education, instead of history education changing political positions, national self-identity, popular feelings or historical memories.
Although everybody says