Japanese Current Situation Of History Education

The view of history and the conflict of historical cognition have brought enormous negative impact on the diplomatic relationships and non-governmental communications between countries like China and Japan or Japan and South Korea. There are no agreements on the history issues of East Asian countries as to the most important reasons that Japan doesn’t know enough about the responsibility of wars and doesn’t face the harmful history properly. History education is the way to help students establish the right understanding of history and correct the recognition of history. The significant function of history education is to engage the younger generations who have never experienced the wars themselves to gain more knowledge about the true history, encounter the history problems more rationally and build the right values and historical viewpoints. Taking into consideration the current political situation in East Asia, the related research to history education is incredibly valuable.Firstly, this thesis focuses on an explanation of the contents and of the history textbooks which have been published since 2000, in order to discover the situation of Japanese history education, find out the defects and problems of Japanese history education. According to the comparisons of history textbooks from different publishers, specific aspects such as titles, contents, the number of deaths and the compensation for the Nanjing Massacre and the issue surrounding "Comfort Woman" Issue have been changing since 2000. Furthermore, these changes reflect the tendency that Japan is tending not to consider this history seriously and thus ignores the harm it coursed to other countries. This tendency is obvious in the history textbooks of Junior and Senior schools which comprise 50% of the history textbook market. The orientation of history education of more than 50% of the Junior and Senior high school students is showed by these textbooks.Secondly, this thesis also analyzes the verification system, adoption system and the circumstances of these textbooks. Although there are no specific textbooks that are chosen by the Japanese government, the freely composed textbooks ought to be judged by the national verification system to see whether they qualify or as to the contents and those which are not qualified be modified. The adoption system seems still complete but there are also several problems. For example, leaders are able to appoint certain committee members and the teachers on the front line are not allowed to give opinions. During the process of compilation, verification and adoption of the textbooks, the administrative authority interferes, it and the politics pervade it. Therefore, Japanese students get fewer and fewer opportunities to discover the accuracy about history in current society.Lastly, this thesis analyzes the factors which affect Japanese understanding of history and demonstrates how political power arouses the general public’s view of Kokoku Shikan and patriotism, distorts the Samurai Spirit, formulates the concept of a Land of Gods and realization towards nationalism through history education. The political viewpoints can be seen in the national history textbooks, teaching materials and policies. The education of Japanese history shows the sign of a rightward shift.The contents of Japanese history textbooks reflect the diplomatic position of the Japanese government about its responsibility in war and also shows the effort that the government has made in order to unify its history. The current Japanese government’s own thinking of its responsibility for war is not thorough. The government is using the systems of verification and adoption to regulate the textbooks in a certain way, interferes with its teaching of courses by not allowing the students to discover the true history. Traditional cultural aspects such as Kokoku Shikan, Samurai Spirit and Land of Gods are the factors which lead to the current tendency in Japanese history teaching and the spirit currently being promoted. If the situation is not changed, the nation will be immersed in conservative ideas with the realization that they will be victims and they might not be able to embrace the history. Consequently, it’s very likely that the recognition between Japan and other East Asian countries about its history will be more and more diverse and the possibility of a shared knowledge will be less, which will result in a decrease of trust among countries and nationalities.