nuclear-news

In Japan, radiation being tactfully left out of school textbooks

without the appropriate study materials, how well … Japan’s school children will understand how their lives have been and will continue to be impacted by the nuclear disaster is unknown.

Japanese textbooks whitewashing nuclear disaster Asian Correspondent By Anna Watanabe Mar 29, 2012 There are many of things Japan has done in the past that it tries to erase from public memory by downplaying their events in school textbooks: the Nanking Massacre, medical testing on POWs during WWII, comfort women and territorial disputes.

But all these are atrocities that have happened outside of Japan, to other nationalities and they occurred generations ago. As inexcusable as it is to claim their non-existence, the logic is somehow more understandable.

But now Japan is trying to rewrite its own, modern-history. The barely 12-month old events of the March 11 disaster are now being whitewashed out of “concern got people’s feelings and uncertainly about the
effects of radiation,” the Yomiuri Shimbun reports….. Only one in
ten textbooks produced for Japan’s schools have covered the issue of
radiation and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant.

One editor defended this decision saying they were in two minds about
how to include content but were considering those affected by the
event….
One teacher told the newspaper that from a scientific viewpoint, the
information offered in the textbooks was inefficient…..
In contrast, Bannai and his students have spend between 30 and 40
hours in the last year alone, with the aid of a colourful picture book
he created on his own and distributed free of charge to his students.
“We will not lose to radiation” uses red lines to show how radiation
accumulates in materials and foods and helps children understand the
difference between internal and external exposure.
However, without the appropriate study materials, how well the rest of
Japan’s school children will understand how their lives have been and
will continue to be impacted by the nuclear disaster is unknown.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/79216/japanese-textbooks-whitewashing-nuclear-disaster/

March 29, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties