Deep internal division over wartime suicides

Japan's deep internal divide over its wartime history shows little sign of narrowing after the government compromised on school textbook references to military involvement in mass suicides in Okinawa in 1945.

Many in Japan's southernmost prefecture were infuriated by a government decision, made under conservative then-prime minister Shinzo Abe this year, to cut from history textbooks a reference to the army forcing people to kill themselves as US troops invaded Okinawa in the final stages of World War II.

Okinawan leaders guardedly welcomed new wording proposed by publishers and accepted by Education Minister Kisaburo Tokai on Wednesday, which mentions Japanese military involvement but stops short of saying soldiers forced people to kill themselves.