By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

South Korea’s top diplomat on Wednesday criticized Japan for repeated attempts to distort history in its textbooks, affirming there cannot be dual truths in historical facts.

``Japan should face history as it is and develop future-oriented relations with South Korea based on a correct recognition of history,’’ Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon said in his weekly media briefing.

He was responding to a question from a Japanese newspaper’s Seoul correspondent, who argued he saw no problem with the recently endorsed Japanese textbook, which many historians have accused of glossing over wartime atrocities by imperial Japan.

``Views can differ according to social factors or others, but I believe there is only a single truth in historical facts,’’ Ban said. ``And if they are described based on subjective interpretations, that’s what we call distortion.’’

Authored by a group of right-wing scholars, the history book has been a source of diplomatic friction between Japan and its Asian neighbors for the past several years. It is called the ``Fusosha textbook’’ after the name of its publisher, Fuso Publishing Co.

The textbook fails to mention the Korean women forced by Japan to serve as sex slaves for its military and includes many controversial descriptions of past events, including those of the Nanjing Massacre _ the mass killing and rape of Chinese from December 1937 to January 1938 after Japan captured the city.

Its earlier version, published in 2001, sparked criticism in neighboring nations, including South Korea and China, though it was adopted by only 0.04 percent _ much less than Fusosha’s target of 10 percent _ of Japanese junior high schools at the time.

The 2001 version, for example, said: ``The Tokyo Court admitted that when the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, large numbers of Chinese civilians were killed.’’ But the new revision has deleted this acknowledgement. One of its authors said the Nanjing event was ``a lie that was fabricated to condemn Japan.’’

In addition, the revised version alleged that the occupation of Korea helped its modernization and stabilized East Asia, deliberately avoiding any mention of the suffering of the so-called comfort women.

Japanese civic groups, as well as activists in Korea and other Asian nations, have staged a signature-collection campaign and submitted 29,000 signatures to the education commission earlier this year to prevent the controversial book from being adopted.

The middle-high school, which is scheduled to open in April next year, will offer a combined curricula for middle and high school.

Many Koreans still harbor deep resentment against Japan for its harsh colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 when many young Korean men and women were forced to serve the Japanese army or provide sexual services to it. Several million Koreans were also forcibly taken to Japan as laborers during the period.

The Seoul-Tokyo relations, which have showed some signs of improvement from time to time, have often been strained by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that commemorates Japanese war dead and other politicians’ remarks justifying their past wrongdoings.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr