ABSTRACT
In July 1982, the treatment of the war in school education exploded into a major political uproar both domestically and internationally. Textbook authors in the social studies field, which included history and politics, formed a Social Studies Textbook Authors Forum as a focus for counter-lobbying. The initial reports were conveyed to China by the Xinhua press agency, but there was no reaction until 20 July, when the authorities decided to utilize them for political leverage. Japanese right wing revisionists and occasionally government politicians go further than this to assert that its late revival as an issue demonstrated that the massacre, at least on the scale claimed, was a fabrication. The prosecution’s summing up had included demands for the trial of Ishii and others responsible, including the Emperor, all of whom the United States was accused of protecting.
