A delegation backed by some 3,000 members of the Chinese community today submitted a memorandum to the Japanese embassy to protest against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's recent visit to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine.

Delegation chairperson Bong Hon Liong said that they were also protesting against the adoption of a history textbook by Japanese schools, which gave a distorted version of the country's history during World War II.

The petitioners are seeking an apology from the Japanese government for wartime atrocities committed against Malaysians.

The memorandum, which contained 3,240 signatures, was handed over to the Japanese mission after a 30-minute meeting between the 10-member delegation and the embassy's first secretary Shigeru Oshio this morning.

After the meeting, Bong told reporters that the Japanese embassy promised the document would be delivered to the Japanese government soon and that the delegation would be kept informed of its progress.

Asked to comment on the meeting, Bong said the delegation was unhappy with the explanation given by Oshio regarding the controversial history textbook.

"Oshio said the Japanese government's stand was that such textbooks represented the views of the authors and therefore they cannot be banned in the name of 'freedom of expression'," he said.

However, Bong stressed that the delegation is neither antagonistic nor hostile towards the Japanese people.

"We just don't want the younger Japanese generation to be influenced by a distorted version of their history," he said.

Whitewashed

In April, the Japanese government adopted a history textbook which sparked off a volley of protest in China and South Korea who claimed that the book had whitewashed the Japanese military aggression in the past.

The textbook, written by a nationalist group called Society for History Textbook Reform, claimed that Japan "entered and exited" - instead of invaded - Asian countries "to give the locals courage and inspiration to free themselves from their colonial masters".

Issues such as the use of Asian women as sex slaves, or commonly known as 'comfort women', by Japanese troops, were papered over in the book.

The tension later escalated when Prime Minister Koizumi visited to the Yasukuni shrine early this month in conjunction with the 56th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.

The shrine in Tokyo is where two million Japanese soldiers who died, including 14 'Class A' war criminals, were deified and honoured.

Bong said he was deeply disappointed by the Japanese government whose words contradicted with its deeds.

If the Japanese government was sincere about forging a friendly relationship with neighbouring countries, as repeatedly said, its prime minister should not have hurt the feelings of Asian people by visiting the shrine, he added.

Whitewashed

Another member of the delegation, Wu Chee Chow, whose brother went missing after joining an anti-Japanese movement in 1942, told malaysiakini that he was "pleasantly surprised" that a majority of the signatories for the memorandum were youngsters.

"It's a good thing that the our young generation have not forgotten their past," he said.

Asked whether the delegation anticipated any outcome from the handing over of the memorandum, Wu said, "We expressed our stand on the issue to make sure that the Japanese government understands our feelings and perhaps reflects on its past."

Wu was among the 200 mourners who paid homage to a war memorial near Thean Hou temple in Kuala Lumpur recently.

The mourners - comprising students, family members of victims, community leaders and politicians from the government and opposition - demanded an apology from the Japanese government for wartime atrocities after a worship ceremony at the war memorial.