"Kokumin no Rekishi," published last year, has been touted as the first major attempt to rewrite Japanese history. I've acquired and read it because I've been asked to comment on Japanese nationalism next month, in Chicago. The author of the book, Kanji Nishio, has been prominent in the movement known as the Atarashii Rekishi Kyokasho o Tsukuru Kai, The Japanese Society for Textbook Reform.
Nishio caught my eye several years ago when he spoke of Helen Mears with no small dose of I-told-you-so. Mears, the American writer resurrected for the 50th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II, had argued, back in 1948, that the premises on which the Occupation policy rested were wrong. The Allied powers' condemnation of Japan for having waged wars of imperialistic aggression was, she said, "a perfect illustration of respectable people smashing their own glasshouses."
The supreme commander for the Allied powers, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, personally wrote to proscribe the publication of the Japanese translation of her book, "Mirror for Americans: Japan."