Board of education officials in Japan have received letters from South Korean teachers and students urging them not to adopt contentious textbooks written by nationalist scholars for junior high schools, board sources said Monday.

The letters were delivered in June and July to the heads and members of municipal boards of education in Saga and Iwate prefectures.

Most of the letters sent to Saga bore the names of principals, teachers and students of schools in Kwangju and some bore the names of school principals in Seoul, the sources said.