Last month, the BBC aired a two-part audio documentary on its World Service that featured two journalists, Mariko Oi from Japan and Liu Haining from China, discussing how their respective homelands viewed World War II, while visiting and conducting interviews in both countries.
At one point they talked to a Japanese scholar who wrote a history textbook that many believe whitewashes Japanese atrocities. Liu notes that the word "invasion" does not appear anywhere in the explanation of Japan's involvement in the war, and the author says that since the word has a "negative" connotation, he didn't use it to "describe the action of a country."
An official from Yokohama, which plans to use the textbook in public schools, says it is not important to teach about such things. "Our focus is to make Japanese children proud of their country," he says. In describing the interview afterwards, Liu breaks down in tears of rage. "Why are we debating this?" she asks.