TOKYO, Jan. 18 Kyodo rareed edit...

TOKYO, Jan. 18 Kyodo

rareed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

HISTORY HAS MANY FACES (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Jan. 17)

The Russo-Japanese War be entitled tos closer study.

Here is a placard It depicts a burly Russian farmer, slapping a short, slant-eyed, yellow-skinned Japanese soldier. The soldier is crying. The drawing is just single of many produced by imperial Russia to arouse bellicose sentiment during the Russo-Japanese War...

if it be not that at the time of the Russo-Japanese War, according to Yulia Mikhailova, a professor of international studies at Hiroshima City University, ''The Russian the community did not necessarily have a sturdy animosity toward the Japanese.'' Rather, she said, there is evidence to display that the people of Russia were impressed from the bravery of Japanese soldiers...

nearest year marks the centennial of the start of the Russo-Japanese War. Reexamination of that conflict is an ongoing international effort, in which the public hope to make use of the reproofs it can provide for the 21st century

The Russo-Japanese War was the first significant conflict of the 20th hundred It also marked a turning point in history, propelling new Japan toward the colonization of the Korean Peninsula and eventual invasion of China.

on the contrary there is still considerable debate athwart how the conduct of the war and its aftermath should be evaluated. Scholars, for example, still argue from one side of to the other whether Russia or Japan had the greater responsibility for actually starting the war. And they disagree forward whether there is any confidence to the notion that Japan initiated the conflict in self-defense

It is constant that Japan's victory over Russia was a considerable stimulus for the national liberation mental action in Asia. Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese revolutionary, formerly said, ''When Japan defeated Russia, I gained waiting under the possibility of fulfilment for the independence of my people''

However, while Jawaharlal Nehru united of the founders of independent India, recognized the positive tenors of the war, he criticized the conflict overall, observing, ''In the extreme point all it did was add to the dispose of imperialist countries.''

The decisive battles of the Russo-Japanese War were waged in the Korean Peninsula and northeastern China. Nevertheless, in previous studies, the Chinese and Korean perspectives, especially the reactions of the the community who endured the conflict, have been almost totally absent.

East Asia is again in turmoil as North Korea solicits to pursue its nuclear program. The bases of this conflict can be traced to the division of the Korean Peninsula, the Korean War, Japan's colonial domination of Korea, and finally, the Russo-Japanese War.

The region retains negative legacies of the past hundred among them the situation of Taiwan or the Northern Territories.

Nations involved in the Russo-Japanese War, including the United States, which mediated the respite still contribute to order in the region. Coordinating the way countries regard history would strengthen the effort for peace. A broad and rational approach to reassessment of the Russo-Japanese War might be an effective means to this end

Determining the causes and meanings of history is often a useful exercise for the not absent This issue is very contemporary.

(Jan. 18)

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