South Korea recently announced plans for a revisionist textbook that will whitewash that country's history and has the academic community outraged over political meddling. At least the move gives South Korean President Park Geun-hye something in common with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Park has often admonished Abe to embrace a "correct view" of history, but it was never clear what that entailed. As of 2017, however, South Korean schools will ditch privately published textbooks and replace them with a single state-produced tome conveniently titled "The Correct Textbook of History." So Abe will now know where to look.
Park clearly rejects "Abenesia," which downplays the suffering and indignities Japanese colonial authorities inflicted on her nation between 1910 and 1945. This year, Japan's education ministry began imposing strict "Big Brother" guidelines that require textbook publishers to conform to the government's views on historical and territorial controversies, alienating East Asian neighbors. But following Japan down this Orwellian road relinquishes any advantage South Korea might have enjoyed from Abe's promotion of patriotic education.
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