BY ANNA MISTUGI

Doesn't it bother you when other countries complain about Japan in World War Two? It has nothing to do with my generation. It ended fifty-five long years ago. Who cares. We are one of a few pacifist countries entering the new century. Besides, we were the only country to suffer nuclear attacks. We are one of the few countries to have renounced and outlawed war. We don't even have a military, we have "Self Defense Forces". We now have the moral high ground. Or do we?

Having the moral high ground means we have faced the darkest moments in our history with open eyes and we have learned something. Have you ever heard of Unit 731? Do you know what happened in Nanking, China in 1937? Do you know what the term comfort women really means? Don't feel bad if you can't answer these questions. I couldn't either. You see, our history books don't really explain these things.

I learned about some of these issues the hard way. I was living in Canada with my family, and I was going to an elementary school where I was the only Japanese. There were a lot of Chinese and Koreans in my class. They pointed fingers at me and they made fun of me. I didn't know what was going on because I didn't do anything to them. I felt very lonely. One day during lunch break, the Chinese and Korean girls surrounded me and told me the things that Japanese did to their relatives. I had no idea what they were talking about. They told me to apologize. I was really confused, but since then, the war became a bit closer to me. I started to study about it. I couldn't understand why our school history textbooks didn't explain what the Japanese actually did. The Chinese and Korean kids knew about the war quite well. They learned about it in school. In school I was taught that Japan was a victim of atomic bombs and that many young men needlessly died. I wasn't taught anything about the victims of Japanese aggression. I felt embarrassed because I didn't know the details of my own history. We shouldn't hide it. We have an obligation to learn all of the details and to vow to never do any of these things again. Wouldn't you like a fresh and clean start to the new era?

I looked up these issues in the current second year, high school history text and its illustrated companion book. Students throughout Japan use these. I first tried to find information about Unit 731. In the main text, there was no mention of this unit. In the photo book, on page 229, under an aerial photograph of a Chinese city, there is the caption, "The unit was placed at the suburbs of Harbin. Japanese promoted their biological weapons development there, and more than 3000 people who were Chinese, Russian and Korean, died from being experimented on." This barely hints at the horrors of these experiments. Victims were infected with deadly diseases on purpose, and they were then dissected alive and awake. Even live babies were experimented on. Victims were exposed to extreme cold to see how long it took them to die. The horrors go on and on. Even with so shocking a history, Unit 731 doesn't even appear in the main textbook. Next, I tried to find something about Nanking and the comfort women. Again, there was very little or no information. If you want to know about these things, I will give you a little homework. Go on-line and search. You can start at skycitygallery.com/japan/japan. It's a page titled, "The Other Holocaust". You can find shocking photos at nanking.org. You can start the century as an informed Japanese.

If I had been more informed, I may have had an easier time in Canada. The Chinese and Koreans would not be so angry because by teaching history properly, Japan would be showing contrition. I would have known more and I could have talked about the history openly. We must demand a proper telling of our history. We Japanese all have a responsibility to be more aware. My hope is that with true awareness and true contrition, we can soar into the 21st Century with a clear conscience. All of us.