Despite the efforts of the nationalist textbook reformers , by the late 1990s the most common Japanese schoolbooks contained references to , for instance , the Nanjing Massacre , Unit 731 , and the comfort women of World War II , all historical issues which have faced challenges from ultranationalists in the past . The most recent of the controversial textbooks , the '' New History Textbook '' , published in 2000 , which significantly downplays Japanese aggression , was shunned by nearly all of Japan 's school districts
Unit 731
Unit 731
Japanese history textbook controversies