Don't believe everything you read. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for historical events and significant cultural facts that were either amended or completely omitted from school textbooks.
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00:00 This is a deliberate plan to politicize and whitewash history.
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for historical events and significant
00:10 cultural facts that were either amended or completely omitted from school textbooks.
00:15 The plants are dying, the animals are dying.
00:19 We're not too far behind them as the Mohawk Nation.
00:23 Number 10.
00:24 The Nanjing Massacre.
00:25 This is a house of the Lord.
00:26 These are children.
00:27 You are breaking the laws of man and of God.
00:34 The Second Sino-Japanese War lasted between 1937 and 1945, with China emerging victorious
00:41 over Japan and reclaiming lost land.
00:44 The Nanjing Massacre occurred during this war, with the Imperial Japanese Army killing
00:48 200,000 Chinese civilians throughout a six-week period.
00:52 This has long been a contentious issue in Japan and has been the subject of some historical
00:57 revisionism.
00:58 Some revisionists outright deny that it ever happened, while others attempt to literally
01:02 rewrite history.
01:04 In 2017, Japan's Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact removed references to the
01:10 massacre in junior high textbooks.
01:13 Critics argue that this is an example of whitewashing by a group of right-wing Japanese nationalists.
01:18 The truth about Nanjing is aggression, and the massacre is a typical example of the Japanese
01:24 wars of aggression.
01:25 Number 9.
01:26 America's First Interracial Marriages
01:34 One might imagine that interracial marriage wasn't common in America until the Civil
01:38 Rights era.
01:39 Public opinion of such marriages stood at just 5% in the 1950s, and it wasn't until
01:44 1967 that the banning of interracial marriage was deemed unconstitutional.
01:55 In reality, interracial marriages have been legal and encouraged for hundreds of years.
02:00 A number of eastern states, including New York, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, never
02:05 made interracial marriage illegal.
02:07 In fact, anti-miscegenation laws were first passed in the mid-17th century because interracial
02:13 marriage was so rampant.
02:15 Yup, as far back as 1660s Virginia, people of other races were happily marrying each
02:20 other without lawful intervention.
02:32 Number 8.
02:33 Slobodan Milosevic
02:35 A prominent war criminal, Slobodan Milosevic served as the President of Serbia between
02:40 1991 and 1997.
02:43 Following that, he was the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and remained
02:47 in office for three years until he was overthrown in October of 2000.
03:00 Milosevic was accused of various war crimes during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s and
03:06 early 2000s, specifically targeting Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians.
03:11 In 2001, shortly after his overthrow, every mention of Milosevic was removed from Croatian
03:17 school books.
03:19 While they still made reference to his atrocities and the various wars that Milosevic began,
03:24 his name was never specifically dropped.
03:26 The producer of the textbook, Radoslav Petkovic, later admitted that they wished to ignore
03:32 that period of Croatian history.
03:34 Number 7.
03:47 Critical Race Theory
03:48 It's only recently that Critical Race Theory has become controversial, despite being around
04:01 since the 1970s.
04:03 In its essence, CRT analyzes how race shapes certain laws and media.
04:08 But perhaps the most controversial argument that it makes is that various laws are inherently
04:13 racist through systemic ideals.
04:15 The field has generated a lot of criticism, both from the public and academia.
04:19 Florida, in particular, has challenged the teaching of Critical Race Theory.
04:23 A white parent could plausibly claim that reading MLK's writing made their child feel
04:28 discomfort on the basis of their race.
04:31 But some of these laws seem designed to bend schools' curriculums to the sensibilities
04:35 of the most conservative, alarmed parents.
04:38 In 2022, the state rejected 41% of submitted math textbooks, claiming that they contained
04:44 prohibited topics like CRT.
04:47 The issue dates back to April 2022, when Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 7 into law,
04:54 making it illegal to teach CRT in the state's schools.
04:57 So yes, we understand.
04:58 It's not just one course.
05:00 It's an overall worldview that many people are trying to inject into our kids' education.
05:06 Number 6.
05:07 Taiwan's history.
05:08 There is a political debate, a political campaign going on right now that is really pitting
05:13 one party that wants to maintain friendly relations with China, doesn't want to declare
05:19 independence, doesn't want sovereignty.
05:21 The ownership of Taiwan is a very complex issue, its story spanning multiple decades
05:27 and containing much political maneuvering.
05:29 Essentially, China considers Taiwan to be one of its sovereign territories, and Taiwanese
05:34 citizens don't like that.
05:36 In 2015, the country's government launched an initiative to appease mainland China and
05:42 attempted to alter its high school textbooks.
05:52 According to one professor, roughly 60% of the country's history was altered, including
05:57 the period after 1949 when the Republic of China took control.
06:02 One major change saw the Taiwanese Zheng Dynasty being renamed to the Ming-Zheng period, falsely
06:09 suggesting that Taiwan was part of the mainland's Ming Dynasty.
06:13 However, these changes were met with public protests.
06:24 Number 5.
06:25 George Floyd and Black Lives Matter.
06:34 It's not just critical race theory that Florida has a problem with.
06:37 In fact, state law has made it illegal to teach many facets of political and social
06:42 justice, particularly in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement.
06:46 In 2023, the state rejected 35 social studies textbooks and demanded changes to many others.
06:53 We're very concerned about the standards here in Florida.
06:56 You know, what teachers want to do is they want to teach kids an accurate, complete,
07:00 and honest history, both the good and the bad.
07:03 One textbook aimed at grades 6 through 8 made reference to systemic racism, white supremacy,
07:08 George Floyd, the resulting protests, and the wider BLM movement.
07:13 However, these were deemed "unsolicited topics" and the entire section was removed.
07:19 As a result, no mention of George Floyd or BLM appears in the edited and ultimately published
07:25 textbook.
07:26 I just see it as a strong attempt to hide the truth and discount the contributions of
07:32 many African Americans to the U.S.
07:34 Number 4.
07:35 40 years of Afghan history.
07:38 Some 20 different languages are spoken.
07:40 The people have always resisted a centralized government.
07:44 In 2012, approximately four decades of Afghan history was wiped away when the country's
07:49 education ministry rewrote their school's textbooks.
07:53 Several major events were either omitted entirely or severely reduced, including the various
07:58 coups of the 1970s, the Soviet invasion of 1979, the Taliban regime, and the American
08:04 occupation of the early 2000s.
08:14 The Afghan government claimed that such changes would "unify a politically divided country."
08:19 However, critics and academics argue that the government was simply trying to appease
08:23 the Taliban and portray them in a positive light.
08:26 Basically, it was state-sponsored propaganda.
08:29 We did not come to power by force, but with the support of the people.
08:33 If the U.S. is so powerful, why did they just give up?
08:36 Number 3.
08:37 The Cultural Revolution.
08:46 For ten years between 1966 and 1976, the People's Republic of China was rocked by the so-called
08:52 Cultural Revolution.
08:54 Launched by the communist leader Mao Zedong, its main goal was to purge China of capitalism
08:59 and reaffirm its communist ideals.
09:02 The revolution was marked by widespread violence, resulting in the deaths of up to two million
09:07 people.
09:08 This period is obviously quite contentious in Chinese history.
09:11 Or at least, it was.
09:13 That was before the government of China completely erased it from their state-approved textbooks
09:18 in 2018.
09:20 Virtually every reference to the Cultural Revolution was removed, ensuring that future
09:24 generations will not learn about the horrible atrocities.
09:36 Number 2.
09:37 Saddam Hussein's revisions.
09:47 Serving as the fifth president of Iraq between 1979 and 2003, Saddam Hussein ran a highly
09:54 authoritarian government, which included elements of repressed information.
09:58 Back in 1973, while serving as vice president, Saddam had the country's history textbooks
10:04 completely rewritten to be more favorable towards his contentious "bath party."
10:08 But he was just getting started.
10:17 After becoming president, Saddam made some egregious alterations to history, like falsely
10:21 claiming that Iraq had won both the Gulf War and the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.
10:26 However, all of these historic alterations were removed once America took control of
10:31 Iraq in 2003.
10:59 Number 1.
11:03 Treatment of Native Americans.
11:13 They say history is written by the victors, and that is certainly the case when it comes
11:17 to Native Americans.
11:18 It's only recently that Canada has come under fire for its treatment of Native Americans,
11:22 especially as the residential school system has been increasingly studied.
11:26 The system wasn't a mandatory subject in Canadian schools, likely due to the rampant
11:31 abuse that occurred within their walls.
11:40 Thousands died while attending these schools, and these deaths weren't often reported.
11:45 Therefore, they were never taught.
11:47 This also leads into the idea of coerced sterilization, a Canadian eugenics movement that dropped
11:52 the Aboriginal birth rate nearly 20% between the 60s and 80s.
11:56 However, it's now believed that such practices continued well into the 2010s.
12:02 What do you make of these alterations?
12:04 Let us know in the comments below.
12:19 Thanks for watching.
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