Japan's history textbooks debate: National identity in narratives of victimhood and victimization

Asian Survey

Volumn 47, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 683-704

  Bukh, Alexander ^a  

^a WASEDA UNIVERSITY   (Japan)

Author keywords

Historical memory; Japan; National identity; Textbooks; Victimhood

Indexed keywords

HISTORY; NATIONAL IDENTITY; TEXTBOOK;

ASIA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; JAPAN;

EID: 36448942601     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: 1533838X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.2007.47.5.683     Document Type: Article

References (11)

1. Yoshiko Nozaki, "Japanese Politics and the History Textbook Controversy," in Edward Vickers and Alisa Jones, eds., History Education and National Identity in East Asia (London: Routledge, 2005), pp. 275-306, 299.
2. For a concise overview of the debate, see Mirai Niki, "Rekishi Kyōkasho Mondai" [The history textbooks problem], in Rikkyo daigaku kyōikugakka kenkyū nenpo [Yearbook of the education faculty, Rikkyo University] 48 (2005), pp. 113-43.
3. In general, the term "Asia Pacific War" refers to the conflict that starts with Japan's military expansion in China (usually 1937, but sometimes traced back to the Manchurian Incident of 1931) and that, following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, became an integral part of World War Two. The war ended with Japan surrendering to the Allies in August 1945.
4. James J. Orr, The Victim as Hero (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2001), pp. 72-73.
5. Saburo Ienaga, "The Glorification of War in Japanese Education," in International Security 18:3 (1993/94), pp. 113-33.
6. For example, see Fuwa Tetsuo, Koko Ni "Rekishi Kyōkasho" Mondai No Kakushin Ga Aru [Here is the core of the "history textbooks" problem] (Tokyo: Shinnihon Shuppansha, 2001).
7. For example, see Democratic Party of Japan, Ureubeki Kyokasho [Deplorable textbooks] (Tokyo: Nihon Minshutō, 1955) 1, pp. 24-27.
8. Kanji Nishio, ed., Atarashii Kyōkasho o 'Tsukuru Kai' no Shucho [The argument of the Tsukuru kai] (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 2001).
9. For example, see Fujioka Nobukatsu, "Jigyaku Rekishikan" no Byōri [The pathology of a "masochistic view of history"] (Tokyo: Bungei shunshu, 2000).
10. Kanji Nishio et al., Atarashii Rekishi Kyōkasho [New history textbook] (Tokyo: Fusōsha, 2001). In January 2001, the MoE became the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT).
11. For a sample of the progressive perspective, see Ienaga Saburo, ed., Kyokasho kara Kesenai Sensō no Shinjitsu [Truth about the war that cannot be deleted from the textbooks] (Tokyo: Aoki shoten, 1996.)