South Korean lawmakers mounted a last-ditch attempt to stop the use of a controversial Japanese history textbook on Wednesday and announced plans for an Asia-wide coalition against Tokyo's ``whitewashing'' of history.
The four MPs are applying to a Tokyo court for an injunction against the distribution of one a series of textbooks that have sparked outrage in the region and increasingly soured Japan's diplomatic relations.
China and Korea have said the textbooks brush over Japan's military aggression in World War Two, from which many of their people still bear scars.
While a ruling in their favor is seen as unlikely, the four MPs plan to continue their campaign against the textbooks by forming a region-wide body to oppose ``historical distortion'' by Japan, said Hahm Seung-heui of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party.
``We also propose (to set up) a neutral independent justice body -- the Asia History Court -- to settle historical disputes in Asian nations,'' said Hahm, a former public prosecutor.
Hahm was speaking only hours after the final version of the eight textbooks, written by a group of nationalist scholars, was unveiled.
The textbooks, approved by the Japanese government in April, have sparked diplomatic disputes with China and South Korea, together with new Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to visit a Tokyo war shrine, the final resting place of several convicted war criminals -- TOKYO (Reuters)
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