Japan on Monday approved a batch of updated middle school textbooks carrying stronger claims than before to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, in another move that could dampen efforts to mend bilateral ties.

The Korean government immediately lodged a protest, calling the decision a “provocation” against its sovereignty over its indigenous territory. Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong summoned Ambassador Koro Bessho and delivered a written complaint.

“The Japanese government has once again staged a provocation by approving middle school textbooks that distort, downplay and omit obvious historical facts,” ministry spokesperson Noh Kwang-il said at the news conference. 

“The Japanese government’s ceaseless injection of misleading historical views and territorial views into the country’s young generations is no different from seeking to repeat past wrongdoings, while displaying a lack of resolve to take a responsible role as a trusted neighbor.”

The Education Ministry struck a more stringent tone, issuing a statement to “strongly condemn” the announcement and call for an immediate correction.

It took issue with the absence of descriptions of Japan’s sexual enslavement of women from Korea and elsewhere, which it said amounted to falsifying history and evading historical judgment.

Previous middle school textbooks have failed to touch on the issue of the so-called comfort women at all, officials say. But one of the newly authorized publication introduced the landmark accounts by a Korean sex slavery victim in 1991 and Tokyo’s ensuing probe into the matter and official apology in 1993.

“We strongly urge the Japanese Education Ministry to take the lead in keenly repenting for the erroneous past and correct misdeeds through the accurate understanding of the country’s history of aggression so that its distorted historical accounts will not break peace in Northeast Asia as the two countries mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of their relationship,” the ministry said in a statement.

The update follows an amendment of authorization standards in January 2014. In addition, a subsequent revision of teaching guidelines for middle and high school students recommended that history, social studies and geography books state that Dokdo is Japan’s “indigenous territory” and “illegally occupied by Korea.”

Of the 18 textbooks newly certified by Japan’s Education Ministry, 15 describe Dokdo as indigenous territory and 13 describe it as illegally occupied. This is an increase from nine and four, respectively, in its last deliberation, which is held every four years.

All four geography texts and all but one of the six social studies workbooks carry both statements.

All eight history books say that Dokdo was incorporated into Japan’s Shimane prefecture in 1905. Three of them were more elaborate, depicting Japanese fishermen’s activities in the waters surrounding the islets up until the late 1900s.

The move is likely to dampen Korea’s efforts to reconcile with Japan ahead of the anniversary by promoting trilateral partnerships involving the U.S. or China and resuming bilateral security cooperation.

On Tuesday, Japan’s Foreign Ministry is scheduled to release an annual diplomatic paper reiterating the sovereignty assertion, which would prompt officials to file another complaint and escalate tension.

Seoul associated Tokyo’s persistent territorial claim with its imperial past that resulted in its illicit takeover of the islets a century ago.

At the height of the Russian-Japanese war in 1905, Japan annexed outcrops to install communication and surveillance devices and collected intelligence on Russian naval movements in the East Sea. Japan returned Dokdo to Korea after winning the war, but then pushed to occupy the entire peninsula.

“We’ve been closely monitoring the results of the latest deliberation, expecting that, given last year’s policy changes, the textbooks would include exacerbated content, especially with regard to Dokdo,” a senior ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

“While Dokdo-related content is relatively easy to assess, history entails cautious analysis before we demand revisions from Japan, as opinions among scholars here may diverge.”

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)