Japanese Textbooks Used In Japanese Schools – Most of us believe that historic accounts are irrefutably factual and that they must be accurately conveyed or they would be called fiction not history.  As we read about events from the past, we trust that what the history books tell us is, in fact, what happened, how it happened and when it happened.  Unfortunately though, there are nations in certain parts of plant earth which are so embarrassed or afraid for the bona fide truth to be revealed that they distort the reality as they fabricate incidents, camouflage actuality, whitewash evil doing — they, in fact, reinvent or rewrite history.

Japan is one such nation.  Orchestrated and propagated by the Japanese government, the Japanese history textbooks used in Japanese schools at their primary as well as their secondary level education (elementary school, junior high school and high school) have been twisted and warped in an attempt to cover up and obscure the offensive behavior of Imperial Japan during World War II (WWII).  In addition, the constitutionality or legality of the Japanese government which is sanctioning the misrepresentation of true history in the Japanese textbooks has been questioned by Japanese and international communities for many years now, especially those which suffered acts of violence at the hands of Japanese war criminals and imperialists during the earlier half of the twentieth century.

On the one hand, proponents and defenders of Japanese textbooks used in Japanese schools are quick to point out that every book that is proposed as a prospective textbook to be used in Japanese schools must pass a series of rigorous assessments and evaluations before it is finally approved.  Advocates of the existing system claim that all potential textbooks for the Japanese schools are authored by private entities and their drafts are first submitted to the Authorization and Research Council which is made up of university professors, high school and junior high school teachers, and it is an official ruling and authoritative body of the Japanese Ministry of Education.  This scholarly council then scrutinizes the draft of each presented textbook against the educational curriculum guidelines that had been issued by the Japanese Ministry of Education and inspects its contents for objectivity, for impartiality and for errors and inaccuracies.

Drafts that have been found to hold data that is not in agreement with the principles upheld by the Japanese Ministry of Education will be returned for correction or reconsideration.  Revised drafts are resubmitted to the Authorization and Research Council for further inspection.  Once a textbook is approved, it is added to a list of authorized textbooks.  Local Boards of Education have the final say about which sanctioned textbooks to use in the schools under their control.  This entire process of official textbook endorsement for Japanese schools takes place every four years.

Critics and opponents, on the other hand, maintain that the Japanese Ministry of Education uses the textbook authorization system to extract historical facts which shed unfavorable light on Japan’s past.  These critics most avidly point to the fact that Japanese history books make no mention of the Nanjing Massacre and similar war crimes that were committed by the Japanese military before and during World War II.

So, can we continue to trust that history textbooks accurately depict events which happened in our past and that none of the good nor the bad nor the ugly has been censored out?  I wonder!

Filed under: Used Textbooks For Sale

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!