earticle

영어

This article attempts to examine the changes and limitations in the perception of the history of imperialist aggression in Japanese middle school history education around the time of the lifting of the GHQ occupation. In the 1950s, the courses of study were revised three times, and textbooks were revised accordingly. These history textbooks evaluate the process of colonizing Korea and imperializing as “capitalist development” and “improving Japan's status in the international community. And this perspective was consistently found in most textbooks, regardless of when they were revised. This is an interpretation of history based on the perception that the orthodoxy of imperialism and colonialism was valid until the First World War. Since these events occurred after the establishment of the League of Nations and before the formation of war crimes courts, the perception is that aggression was not an international problem. This is also the viewpoint that is prevalent in current Japanese history textbooks. On the other hand, after World War I, the change in the narrative perspective of the textbooks and the presentation of courses of study regarding Japan's attempted invasion of China, the full-scale invasion of the Chinese mainland after the Manchurian Incident, and the entry into the Asia-Pacific War is very noticeable. In the pre-occupation period, textbooks emphasized the importance of international peace efforts and negatively evaluated Japan's aggression and the military as a key actor. However, in the post-occupation textbooks, which became more conservative after the end of the occupation, a logical structure was formed to define the aggression as a war of defense. The dilution of the nature of the war of aggression eventually led to a regression of historical awareness and a lack of Asian awareness that invalidated reflection on the war.