ABSTRACT

Through education we strive to equip individuals and ourselves with particular knowledge and skills. The power of education, however, goes beyond mere acquisition: it is also a powerful ideological institution that legitimates particular ideas and images of a nation. History education is one of the most powerful means of delivering the ideas of a nation, as it reinforces a particular perspective, one that constructs a historical narrative by providing children with what and how to remember. Japanese history textbooks are no exception: in the 1990s a controversy occurred over the representation of World War II. The decade witnessed a reemergence of the nationalist movement in Japan, this time led by politicians and intellectuals in opposition to a revision of history textbooks that featured the Japanese military’s wartime aggression against Asia. These politicians and intellectuals established organizations that criticized the textbook publishers, the government, and the schools for perpetuating a “masochistic historiography”—that is, a writing of history that emphasizes Japan’s wartime aggression against neighboring countries—and proposed a history that cultivates a sense of “pride” among the Japanese. In particular, Fujioka Nobukatsu and Nishio Kanji—leading members of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform (from here on referred to as the Society)—received considerable public attention in the mid-1990s. Fujioka and Nishio condemned the textbook revision and published numerous books and articles in 1996, including The National History and The Negligence of the Japanese People. Furthermore, they established a close connection with two political leagues known as the “Dietmembers’ League for a Bright Japan” and the “Dietmembers’ League for the Passing on of a Correct History.”