The history textbook controversy and nationalism

Abstract

This article examines the origins of critics' claims that history textbooks in middle schools and high schools in Japan do nothing but slander Japan and present a gloomy, “self-tormenting historical perspective.” The study is set against the backdrop of a new version of the “Return to Japan” phenomenon, which began as a reaction to the Civilization and Enlightenment movement at the start of the Meiji period. The author focuses attention on the arguments of the “Liberal Historiography Study Group,” observing that they are highly ideological and present a distorted view of both contemporary Japan and modern Japanese history. “What is the role of historians and teachers in all of this?” The author answers that “we must face up to the facts of history and openly communicate past successes and failures to students…. [T]here is no shame in failure itself. Rather, it is shameful not to study past failures or to falsify them and so distort the historical consciousness of the Japanese people.”