Citizens scuffle with security guards at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government office where Tokyo's board of education debate approving a controversial history textbook for public schools.

TOKYO (AP) - Tokyo's board of education voted Tuesday to use a history textbook criticized for glossing over Japanese wartime atrocities, the first time the book has been approved for public schools.

The "New History Textbook" will be used in three of the city's 45 schools for handicapped students in the academic year beginning April 1, 2002, said Yuko Sakai, of the Tokyo Office of Education.

Sakai said several private schools in Japan had approved the book, but this was the first time a public institution voted to use it. The book will be used by an estimated 70 public school students in Tokyo.

The text was written by nationalist scholars and has been criticized in Japan and abroad for not mentioning Japanese World War II atrocities such as germ warfare in China and the 200,000 women forced to work as prostitutes for the wartime military.

South Korea, which suffered the brunt of Japanese imperialism as Tokyo's colony from 1910 until 1945, has protested the publishing of the book by freezing all military exchanges with Tokyo and canceling plans to further open its market to Japanese music, cartoons and video games.

Opponents were angered by Tuesday's decision.

"This is an outrageous act that leaves a stain in history," said Yoshifumi Tawara, secretary general of the Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21.

About 500 labor union members and other opponents demonstrated peacefully against the decision in front of Tokyo city hall, said Mineo Onuma, a city hall security official. The Korean Residents' Union in Japan, the pro-Seoul association of ethnic Koreans here, urged the withdrawal of the textbook decision.

Supporters of the book, which is backed by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, say Japanese students learn too much already about wartime atrocities and ought to be taught more about having pride in their country.

Backers also say that there is scant historical evidence for some of the atrocities Japan is accused of, adding that even if true, such violence is an inevitable part of war.

Tsunemi Matsubara, chief of the city's Curriculum and Guidance Division, defended the vote, saying it was a purely academic decision based on `"a comprehensive standpoint."

"I don't think our textbook is flawed," said Toshiaki Shirasawa, textbook department chief at the book's publisher, Fusosha. "It's the textbooks in the past that were wrong."

The book has tapped into a growing mood here that Japan has apologized enough for the misdeeds of half a century ago.

But as the Aug. 15 book selection deadline for schools approaches, school authorities are voicing concerns about the impact the text may have on Japan's relations with its neighbors. At least one school board has already voted to not use the book.

The authors and the publisher made minor revisions in July. Japan's government has rejected Seoul and Beijing's demands for further revisions, saying it can impose no changes based on historical interpretation.