Regarding the Oct. 4 article "Okinawa leaders press state to keep hands off textbooks": I agree that the books should not be changed. True history is a hard thing to find because it is always the victor that writes the history. Victors will exclude all things that make them look bad. And, again, each person's view may be different than that of a neighbor.
I am sure some Japanese who served in the war on Okinawa didn't see atrocities, so for them there weren't any. Same for young people today: If they didn't see it, it wasn't real. But those who survived the ordeal have a very different view. They remember watching family members being forced to take their own lives, and no matter what is argued in an article, they will remember. And so should the young.
Someone once said that war must be horrible so that people will remember and not wage it -- or something like that. So if you take out the horror from history, we will set up the young to repeat the same horrors as they won't be fully aware of what could come of their actions.
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