By Lee Chi-dong
Staff Reporter

SEOUL - Local civic groups April 9 launched a nationwide campaign to boycott Japanese goods in protest against Tokyo’s authorization of history textbooks that whitewash Japan wartime atrocities.

The Citizen Movement Center of Anti-Over-Consumption (CMCAOC) said that it staged a large-scale movement to tackle the ever-increasing domestic consumption of Japanese products jointly with other grass-roots groups.

"We should not remain mere spectators on the issue. It is a matter involving us. The boycott drive will be the most efficient way to express our resolutions," said Park Chan-sung, 46, director-general of CMCAOC, a coalition of some 40 civic and religious groups.

The purchase of goods imported from Japan is tantamount to tacit consent to that country’s impudent move, he added.

Park went on to say that "Japan is only interested in glossing over its past wrongdoings and selling its products to neighboring countries, many of which suffered from Japan’s past atrocities. In fact, Korea’s annual trade deficit with Japan reaches more than $10 billion.

Pledging to fight to the end against Japan’s distortion of history, the coalition burned piles of Japanese goods, including packs of cigarettes, at Tapkol Park in downtown Seoul.

The organization also urged the government to recall the Korean ambassador to Japan and suspend cultural exchanges, which have increased sharply since President Kim Dae-jung’s visit to Japan in 1998.

At the same time, it launched a signature-collecting campaign to resolve not to buy anything from Japan.

In a related development, the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association, known as "kyochong," their Korean acronym, April 9 started a week-long special program at elementary, middle and high schools around the nation.

Titled "Japan’s history distortion and desirable relationships between Korea and Japan," the special classes are intended to provide students with an understanding of true history.

The teachers’ group vowed to join the nationwide boycott and to continue a drive to collect 10 million signatures denouncing Japan’s attempt to whitewash its past atrocities.