ABSTRACT
Ienaga Saburo was born in 1913 and received his early schooling during Japan’s era of liberalism and conciliatory diplomacy, which may have left him with some subliminal leaning to such values—so much in contrast with the succeeding period of reaction. When Ienaga began his tertiary courses in 1934, the universities, which until shortly before had been hotbeds of liberal and Marxist thought, had become politically quiescent. In both cases Ienaga had testified for academic freedom and formed contact with lawyers sympathetic to the cause. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 1984, Ienaga had responded to the toughened screenings of 1980 and 1983 by instituting his third lawsuit in the District Court for damages from the state and the restoration of his original text. Takashima had already experienced six screenings of his textbook before he decided to rebel at the seventh and launched his suit at his local district court in 1993.
