History is up to who the narrator is as Gerald Prince mentions in his article The Disnarrated that decoding of narratives are always based on its given context. [1] Japan has always been criticized in East Asia for Japanese war crimes during Pacific war and territorial disputes, which Japanese government, institutions, and media had made unnarratable. Controversy over how Japan “narrate” those historical events is always a big issue when Japan deals with countries such as China, South Korea, Taiwan, as well as Russia.
Some of those arguments are based on the description of those war crimes and territorial dispute in Japanese history textbook used in middle school as well as high school. At this moment, both Chinese and South Korean government made statement to ask Japanese government to change the description on which country islands such as Liancourt Rocks and Senkaku islands belong to. [2]
This controversy gets a lot of attention every year when history textbooks are edited and revised. However, from the perspective of Chinese and South Korean government in this case, it might be accurate to say that Japan has not covered the issue in a way both countries narrate in their contexts. There surely is problem lying on the policy of Japanese government. Nevertheless, it is important to note that this kind of phenomenon seems very universal, as narratives always include decoding process regardless of nation, society and culture.
[1]Prince, Gerald. “The Disnarrated”. Style,Vol. 22(Spring 1998), p.2.Print.
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