

The headmaster of a kindergarten in Shanghai issued a formal apology after the school received backlash from parents for playing Japanese military music during a graduation ceremony.

The Zheng Dan Kindergarten played “Worship Marching”, a song used by Japanese maritime forces, as the background tune of a musical performance during a graduation ceremony on June 27.

News of this was immediately reported to the North Shanghai Department of Education, which, on September 11, carried out a thorough examination with the board of directors at the school.

The kindergarten was instructed to openly apologize for the incident, and all teachers and staff members involved have been temporarily removed from their jobs until further notice.

Amid the apparent scandal, the Shanghai Department of Education stressed the importance of strengthening patriotism in schools and restricting schools from certain music genres and internet usage.

Here’s a translation of the public apology statement made by headmaster Xia Miao:

On June 27th, 2014, at the second year kindergarten graduation ceremony, the song “Worship Marching” was used. From our investigation, the music was found by the homeroom teacher of the class on the Baidu Music App. According to her, the music had no lyrics or other identification about the content and source of the original song.

The teacher was solely focusing on the beat and sounds of the music. In addition, the portion of the music that was played during graduation was only the drumming; no content of the song was revealed.

Once the video footage of the graduation had been released, parents commented and complained about the homeroom teacher’s carelessness and lack of consideration, and the public called the school out for being not strict enough and for making such mistake.

For that, I am sincerely sorry, I feel guilty, and I want to apologize to the community. I would like to take full responsibility for the incident, and this situation has given me a memorable lesson. We will take this opportunity to reinforce school rules and regulations to prevent any similar issues.