Matthew Penney
"Why on earth is something as important as this not
in the textbooks?" - Teaching Supplements, Student Essays, and History Education
in Japan
After a short introduction contextualizing revisionist history in Japan and controversies over the representation of imperial and wartime violence in Japanese textbooks, this piece presents translations of a wide variety of student writing projects and classroom resources from progressive educators. Focusing exclusively on textbooks results in a limited view of what actually goes on in Japanese classrooms. This collection highlights some of the ways that critical educators have resisted revisionism and brought vivid discussion of controversial issues to the classroom. Matthew Penney is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Concordia University, Montreal. He is an Asia-Pacific Journal coordinator. | |||||||||
Gavan McCormack
http://japanfocus.org/-Gavan-McCormack/4056
In
the wake of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, much
has been said about the character of Japan, and especially about Tōhoku and its
people.
It was clear immediately after the earthquake and tsunami, however, that very few specific, actionable ideas about how to rebuild were forthcoming, a problem exacerbated by confirmation of reactor meltdowns and radiation leaks. Faced with the enormity of the 3/11 catastrophe, many pundits and observers simply reheated pet theories and repeated old ideas. The immediate aftermath of disaster is often an opportunity to repeat long-held beliefs or vague platitudes in the hope that they remain applicable and will find new ears, and the days after of March 11 were no exception. Old attitudes are comforting and hard to abandon; when our beliefs are shown to be ineffective or obsolete it is quite common to respond by urging that their failure is the result of insufficient application of these beliefs rather than any defect therein. New ideas-at least the acceptance of new ideas-tend to come later if at all; neither philosophical nor discursive change occur as fast as the pace of events. Among the many ideas about Japan and about Tōhoku that resurfaced after 3/11, two deserve special attention. One is philosopher and critic Maruyama Masao's "system of irresponsibility." In the first years after Japan's surrender, Maruyama diagnosed the wartime system as a complex "system of irresponsibility," in which "proximity to the ultimate value," i.e. the imperial institution and person, was the measure of political legitimacy and moral authority. The second describes Tōhoku in its relationship to the Japanese nation-state. Historians have argued for decades that Tōhoku is Japan's "internal" or "domestic colony," and that the ostensible "backwardness" of the Northeast resulted from policy decisions by the government during Japan's rush to modernize after the 1868 Meiji coup d'état. Nathan Hopson is a historian of modern Japan. He is currently a postdoctoral associate at Yale University's Council on East Asian Studies, where he is completing a book manuscript on Japanese postwar regionalism and nationalism in global context. Forthcoming works include "Takahashi Tomio's Phoenix: Recuperating Hiraizumi, Part 1 (1950-1971)" (Journal of Japanese Studies, 40, no. 2), and "Takahashi Tomio's Henkyō: Eastern Easts and Western Wests" (Nichibunken Japan Review, summer 2014). |
Gavan McCormack
Bitter Soup For Okinawans - The Governor's Year-End
Betrayal
Gavan McCormack is an emeritus professor of Australian National University and coordinator of The Asia-Pacific Journal. He is co-author of Resistant Islands: Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States (2012) and co-author of Tenkanki no Nihon e - Pax Americana ka Pax Asia ka (NHK Bukkusu, 2014). Read More. . . |
