ABSTRACT
The establishment of a particular sovereign state creates a corresponding “nation” (Wallerstein 1991). It follows that understanding the construction of postwar Japan’s nationhood requires a close examination of the state formation that took place during the time of Allied occupation of Japan (1945–52). State formation is a series of historical processes through which various groups come together to establish a power bloc, seize the state, and build a (cultural) hegemony (see Green 1990). Hegemony here is a form of rule achieved by winning the consent of the subordinate through everyday social, cultural, and ideological practices, rather than by the direct use of force, for it is through such practices that people come to perceive and understand themselves, their social relations, and the world in particular ways: ways that in actuality serve the interests of dominant groups (see Gramsci 1971; Williams 1977 and 1983; O’Sullivan et al. 1994). Formal education, in playing a decisive role to sustain such hegemony, inevitably becomes a site of political struggle.
