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일본의 신조 아베 총리와 한국의 박근혜 대통령 양측 모두 “역사적 교훈”을 위협하는 인물들이라고 미 현지 일간지 뉴욕타임즈의 국제판인 인터내셔널 뉴욕타임즈가 보도했다.
뉴욕타임즈는 14일자 지면에 보도된 “정치인과 역사 교과서”라는 제목의 사설에서, 아베 수상과 박근혜 대통령이 “고등학교 역사 교과서를 자신들의 역사관에 맞게 고쳐 쓰도록 압력을 넣고 있다”며 강하게 질타했다.
특히 “양국 내에서 역사 교과서를 고치려는 위험한 시도가 이루어지고 있으며 이는 역사적 교훈을 위협한다”고 주장했다.
이 같은 동북아시아의 역사 수정주의는 미국을 포함한 여러 나라의 학자들에게 제기됐으나,이처럼 두 나라의 수장을 직접적으로 동일선상에 넣고 비판한 것은 처음이다.
뉴욕타임즈는 “박 대통령의 아버지인 박정희는 일제 때 만주군이자 1962~79년 군 독재자”였고 “아베 총리의 외할아버지인 기시 노부스케는 A급 전범 혐의자”라며, 두 인물 모두 “전쟁과 매국 문제에 민감한 사람들”이라고 꼬집었다.
또 뉴욕타임즈는 아베 총리는 국민들이 “세계 2차 대전 등 부끄러운 과거에 대한 내용에 대한 관심을 딴 곳으로 돌리”고 싶어한다고 비난하며, 한국 위안부 문제와 중국 남경 학살 사건도 역사 교과서에서 빼고 싶어한다고 주장했다.
이어서 “박 대통령은 일제강점기 당시 한국인들의 친일 협력에 대한 내용과 한국의 독재 정권의 묘사내용에 대해 우려하고 있다”며 “”박 대통령은 ‘당시 친일 행위는 일본이 강압에 의해 어쩔 수 없었다’는 내용의 새로운 교과서를 교육부가 승인하도록 밀어붙였다“고 뉴욕타임즈는 덧붙였다.
한편, 조태영 외교부 대변인은 14일 브리핑에서 “전혀 사실과 다르다. 강한 유감의 뜻을 표명한다. 뉴욕 타임즈 쪽에 필요한 조처를 취할 계획”이라고 밝혔다. 또 교육부와 새누리당도 박 대통령을 아베 총리와 동일한 역사 왜곡자로 취급한 것에 대해 유감을 표명했다.
<관련 영문 기사>
Both Abe, Park threaten lessons of history: NYT
The International version of the New York Times on Thursday slammed two Asian political heads, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Korean President Park Geun-hye, equating them as historical revisionists.
“Both Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea are pushing to have high school history textbooks in their countries rewritten to reflect their political views,” said the NYT in its editorial “Politicians and Textbooks.”
“In both countries, these dangerous efforts to revise textbooks threaten to thwart the lessons of history,” it wrote.
The NYT accused Abe for only approving the Japanese education ministry that promotes patriotism as well as his attempts to tone down Japan’s negative memories regarding World War II.
“He is primarily concerned about the World War II era, and wants to shift the focus away from disgraceful chapters in that history. For example, he wants the Korean ‘comfort women’ issue taken out of textbooks, and he wants to downplay the mass killings committed by Japanese troops in Nanking,” the NYT said.
The daily also slammed the Korean president for distorting the portrayal of Japanese colonialism and the postcolonial South Korean dictatorships in the high school history textbooks.
“She wants to downplay Korean collaboration with the Japanese colonial authorities and last summer pushed the South Korean Education Ministry to approve a new textbook that says those who worked with the Japanese did so under coercion,” the NYT said.
It also noted that the majority of Korean socioeconomic elites and civil servants today come from the collaborators to the Japanese colonialism, a notion that has been accepted by the Korean public for decades.
The NYT also tied Abe and Park’s common personal family histories. It said the two leaders are both sensitive to “war and collaboration,” citing Abe’s grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, a suspected class-A war criminal, as well as Park’s father Park Chung-hee, “who was an Imperial Japanese Army officer during the colonial era and South Korea’s military dictator from 1962 to 1979.”
By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)
Both Abe, Park threaten lessons of history: NYT
The International version of the New York Times on Thursday slammed two Asian political heads, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Korean President Park Geun-hye, equating them as historical revisionists.
“Both Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea are pushing to have high school history textbooks in their countries rewritten to reflect their political views,” said the NYT in its editorial “Politicians and Textbooks.”
“In both countries, these dangerous efforts to revise textbooks threaten to thwart the lessons of history,” it wrote.
The NYT accused Abe for only approving the Japanese education ministry that promotes patriotism as well as his attempts to tone down Japan’s negative memories regarding World War II.
“He is primarily concerned about the World War II era, and wants to shift the focus away from disgraceful chapters in that history. For example, he wants the Korean ‘comfort women’ issue taken out of textbooks, and he wants to downplay the mass killings committed by Japanese troops in Nanking,” the NYT said.
The daily also slammed the Korean president for distorting the portrayal of Japanese colonialism and the postcolonial South Korean dictatorships in the high school history textbooks.
“She wants to downplay Korean collaboration with the Japanese colonial authorities and last summer pushed the South Korean Education Ministry to approve a new textbook that says those who worked with the Japanese did so under coercion,” the NYT said.
It also noted that the majority of Korean socioeconomic elites and civil servants today come from the collaborators to the Japanese colonialism, a notion that has been accepted by the Korean public for decades.
The NYT also tied Abe and Park’s common personal family histories. It said the two leaders are both sensitive to “war and collaboration,” citing Abe’s grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, a suspected class-A war criminal, as well as Park’s father Park Chung-hee, “who was an Imperial Japanese Army officer during the colonial era and South Korea’s military dictator from 1962 to 1979.”
By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)
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