S. Korean group seeks injunction against Japan's controversial textbooks

SEOUL, June 20 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean civic group said Saturday it plans to file for an injunction with a Japanese court to stop a Japanese prefecture from adopting two controversial history textbooks which critics accuse of glossing over Tokyo's wartime aggression.

The Seoul-based Coalition for Asia Peace and History Education said it will take
the legal action against the Japanese prefecture of Ehime on July 21.
The group said the two textbooks, including the Fusosha textbook for
middle-school students, distort history by whitewashing Japan's World War II
atrocities.
The group will invite plaintiffs from South Korea to file the legal action by the
end of this year, it said.
For decades, Japanese textbooks have been criticized by its neighbors, including
South Korea and China, for glossing over its atrocities in 1930s and 1940s. Japan
occupied the Korean peninsula from 1910 to the end of the World War II.
Despite the potentially explosive issues of territorial and historical disputes,
relations between South Korea and Japan have been relatively warm since South
Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office early last year.
This year, Lee and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso revived the so-called
"shuttle" diplomacy between the two neighboring countries that had been suspended
for three years over political and territorial tensions.
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