(AFP) The Chinese community today launched a signature campaign in a protest over a controversial Japanese history textbook accused of glossing over the nation's wartime record.

The four-day campaign, organised by several Chinese non-government organisations (NGOs), also aims to underline opposition to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's proposed visit to a Tokyo war shrine.

MCA vice-president Ong Ka Ting, said his "blood boiled" when he read the Japanese book.

"The history book is misleading, we cannot accept that. History cannot be changed or whitewashed. You have come here and killed so many, wounded so many," he told reporters after launching the campaign.