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Date: April 6, 2005 THE ARTICLEJapan’s relations with its neighbours worsened yesterday over the Japanese Ministry of Education’s approval of some new school history textbooks. China and South Korea are incensed at the books, which they say gloss over or glorify Japanese militaristic actions during World War Two. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said some of the textbooks “still include contents that justify and beautify [Japan's] past wrongdoing”. China has expressed equally strong indignation, saying the books will “cause severe harm to people from all Asian countries and poison Japanese juveniles”. A spokesman stated: “The textbooks will be vehemently condemned by people from all Asian countries that were victimized by Japan, including the Chinese.…We strongly urge the Japanese government to honor its commitment of expressing remorse for its militaristic history.” A textbook from the nationalist Fushosha Company has attracted greatest concern over its historical perspective. It describes the Nanking Massacre, in which 300,000 people were killed by Japanese troops in the Chinese city of Nanjing in six weeks, as an “incident” in which “many people” died. Fushosha avoids the word “invasion” when referring to Japan's military occupation of Asia; it describes the invasion of Southeast Asia as an “opportunity” for those countries to gain independence. South Korea is also angry over the textbook describing it as “illegally occupying” a small island chain, known as Takeshima in Japan. South Korea has claimed control over the territory it calls Dokdo Islands for 1,500 years. The book does state that “no single country steered completely clear of killing or abusing unarmed people”, and admitted Japan committed “unfair murder and abuse”. WARM UPS1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about Japan / China / South Korea / World War Two / correct history / Nanking Massacre / invasion, liberation and occupation. To encourage more conversation, try telling your students they only have a short time on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. 2. HISTORY BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “history”. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them. 3. MY COUNTRY’S HISTORY: In pairs / groups, talk about what you learnt in school about the history of your country. Is what you leant true? Are you proud of your country’s history? Are there any regrettable parts of your country’s history? 4. OPINIONS: Look at this list of opinions about the above text. Tell your partner/group what you think of each opinion:
PRE-READING IDEAS1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘school’ and ‘history’. 2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:
3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING ACTIVITIES1. GAP-FILL: Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps. Asian anger at Japanese school history books
2. TRUE/FALSE: Students check their answers to the T/F exercise. 3. SYNONYMS: Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise. 4. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise. 5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article. 6. VOCABULARY: Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings. POST READING IDEAS1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise. 2. QUESTIONS: Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share. 3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above. 4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: In pairs/groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Each student surveys class members independently and reports back to their original partner/ group to compare their findings. 5. ‘SCHOOL’ / ‘HISTORY’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1. 6. DISCUSSION:
HOMEWORK1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on the Nanking Massacre. Share your findings with your class next lesson. 3. MY COUNTRY’S HISTORY: Make a poster about an event in your country’s past you are not proud of. Show your poster to your classmates in your next class. 4. LETTER TO JAPAN: Write a letter to the Japanese Ministry of Education expressing your feelings about the new history schoolbooks. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Asian anger at Japanese school history booksJapan’s relations with its neighbours worsened yesterday over the Japanese Ministry of Education’s approval of some new school history textbooks. China and South Korea are incensed at the books, which they say gloss over or glorify Japanese militaristic actions during World War Two. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said some of the textbooks “still include contents that justify and beautify [Japan's] past wrongdoing”. China has expressed equally strong indignation, saying the books will “cause severe harm to people from all Asian countries and poison Japanese juveniles”. A spokesman stated: “The textbooks will be vehemently condemned by people from all Asian countries that were victimized by Japan, including the Chinese.…We strongly urge the Japanese government to honor its commitment of expressing remorse for its militaristic history.” A textbook from the nationalist Fushosha Company has attracted greatest concern over its historical perspective. It describes the Nanking Massacre, in which 300,000 people were killed by Japanese troops in the Chinese city of Nanjing in six weeks, as an “incident” in which “many people” died. Fushosha avoids the word “invasion” when referring to Japan's military occupation of Asia; it describes the invasion of Southeast Asia as an “opportunity” for those countries to gain independence. South Korea is also angry over the textbook describing it as “illegally occupying” a small island chain, known as Takeshima in Japan. South Korea has claimed control over the territory it calls the Dokdo Islands for 1,500 years. The book does state that “no single country steered completely clear of killing or abusing unarmed people”, and admitted Japan committed “unfair murder and abuse”.
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