Do All Countries Whitewash History?
There is a saying that history is written by the victors. This is very true. What they write may be different from what actually happened. Japan was a big loser in World War II, but do they teach what they did to contribute to the war or actions they did during it? History books in Japan portrait it as having to go to war due to aggression of the US. Also, Japan has only recently acknowledged some of its more egregious acts such as woman used as sex slaves and medical experimentation on POW’s.
Japan is not alone. Most countries write favorably about its history and minimize the negative aspects. This is only human nature. However, when a country denies or misrepresents its actions, then a problem exists because once it is print it becomes difficult to change. If many sources write the same falsehoods, overtime it may become viewed as the truth.
The King James Bible, one of the world’s most read books may have a lot of it that does not represent what actually was true. A group of white men who were in the clergy gathered many documents and they decided what was true and what wasn’t. They also wrote to appease King James and what he wanted to hear. There can be a lot of debate about what is objective and what is subjective in it. They quote as verbatim that “Jesus said…” Even the source of these were written down by Peter or Paul many years after the fact. Did Peter and Paul and the others remember exactly what was said word for word? I highly doubt it. Did they convey the intended meaning, maybe?
I enjoy reading history. I also know that it is an interpterion of sources that the author used to create the book. How much is really true, that is hard to tell. If two people can see the same event today and come to different conclusions, how are we to believe what is “true” decades or centuries ago? Most of the truth is lost to history.
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