Photo/Illutration History textbooks used at Sundai Yobigakko from which passages were deleted (Provided by a source)

A major cram school operator bent to pressure again and said it would retract its earlier decision to delete history textbook passages about the Nanking Massacre and the Takeshima islets.

Sundai Yobigakko, which runs preparatory schools for students taking university entrance exams, announced in late August that it would remove the two passages after coming under fire on social media and being questioned by a ruling party lawmaker.

After its instructors argued against that move, the company said it will retract the decision and hold discussions about the passages in question.

According to Sundai sources, school officials met with instructors on Sept. 17 and explained the decision to delete the passages. They cited the online uproar and said they wanted an early resolution of the problem.

The officials also said they were well aware that revisions to the textbooks could not be made without the consent of the authors.

On Sept. 27, about 60 Sundai instructors of such subjects as Japanese history, physics, English and the Japanese language submitted a document to school officials.

It requested that the operator continue asking instructors to write the textbooks and test questions, and refrain from revising or deleting parts in the textbooks without the consent of the authors or teachers.

The instructors also reminded the operator of the unwritten rule at Sundai that course content is left up to them and that autonomy of educational activities should be protected as part of the freedom of research and education.

Such private-sector cram schools are outside of government supervision and can use whatever textbooks they want.

School officials met with the instructors this month and later said the two sides had reached an amicable agreement that would be implemented in a sincere manner.

A school official contacted by The Asahi Shimbun declined to go into detail about the agreement, saying only that further discussions would be held with instructors once the decision is retracted.

In Sundai Yobigakko’s modern Japanese history textbooks, a reference to the Nanking Massacre of 1937 said more than 100,000 Chinese residents, surrendering soldiers and prisoners of war were killed.

The online critics said that number was much too high.

Another passage regarding the disputed Takeshima islets said Japan named them after incorporating the Dokdo islands during the Russo-Japanese war.

Dokdo is the name South Korea uses for the islands.

According to Surugadai Gakuen, which operates Sundai Yobigakko, an image of a page from the history textbook regarding Takeshima was posted on Twitter on Aug. 29. That led to a flood of tweets criticizing the passage.

Two days later, an official connected with Hiroshi Yamada, an Upper House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, called Surugadai Gakuen a number of times.

That same day, company officials decided to delete the two passages.

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