Depending on where you are in the world this may or may not be on your nightly news, but in Asia the two big economic superpowers, China and Japan are at it again. This most recent conflict of interests stems from a new Japanese history book that the Chinese say fails to admit the extent of Japan’s World War II atrocities. The Chinese claim the book distorts facts and attempts to beautify and deny Japan’s aggressive assaults throughout Asia in the 1940s and earlier. Now this word "atrocity," which I’ve seen used on numerous occasions to describe the actions of the Japanese may be justified. However, this word which means an act of unusual or illegal cruelty inflicted by an armed force on civilians or prisoners is used in the context of the past.

Unlike the ongoing and present day "atrocities" the Chinese government have been inflicting upon Tibetans for over half-a-century.

According to recent reports, 20,000 protesters paraded in two cities in southern Guangdong on Sunday, with some targeting a Japanese department store in Shenzhen, one day after angry demonstrators threw rocks, eggs and plastic water bottles at Japan’s embassy and ambassador’s residence in Beijing. It’s really hard to sympathize with what I believe are primarily staged protesters given a green light by their government to do whatever they wish in order to create a public relations out-cry. At least when Tibetans around the world protest for freedom and basic human rights, we do it peacefully with some civility. It’s completely ridiculous that a communist government that mutes its own media and people in order to print what it chooses – believes it has the authority to tell another free democratic country what to write in its own history books.

If this was a hundred Tibetans in Tibet protesting that the Chinese government accurately account for the thousands of innocent Tibetans killed by the Chinese in Chinese textbooks – there would be arrests, followed by imprisonment and torture.

For those Chinese that are protesting wildly in the streets for what you believe to be atrocities of the past, I’ve got a message for you. Look in the mirror and deal with the present first!

Note: This opinion I wrote was published in The Daily Yomiuri, Japan’s National English newspaper.