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"a book brimming with interesting findings and stimulating analysis" Jeff Kingston, Temple University, Japan Reviewing the book in the Japan Times |
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"There are many assertions about similarities and differences between history education in Japan and Germany, but hardly any systematic research. In this invaluable study, Julian Dierkes provides an empirical examination of how and why history curricula developed as they did in Japan, West Germany, and East Germany, advancing our knowledge by leaps and bounds. It is a must-read for anyone concerned with history education in the modern world." Peter Cave, University of Manchester Author of Primary School in Japan |
"There are few scholars with deeper knowledge of postwar political culture in Japan or the two Germanys than Julian Dierkes; and there is none with deeper knowledge of all three. In its intriguing three-case comparison, Guilty Lessons? shows convincingly how later policy debates over history education are path-dependent products of earlier such debates and thus are not determined by institutional or culture variables in any automatic fashion. Subtly capturing the fluidity of this process, the book is a cutting-edge masterpiece of historical sociology. Guilty Lessons? will certainly be a standard reference and model for future work on history education, collective memory, and institutional analysis more generally. It is a tour-de-force." Jeffrey Olick, University of Virginia Author of The Politics of Regret |
More from an interview with the author
How did East and West Germany and Japan reconstitute national identity after World War II? Did all three experience parallel reactions to national trauma and reconstruction?
In the immediate aftermath of defeat, progressives in Japan vigorously debated Japanese responsibility for the Asia Pacific War. Such debates had all but disappeared in the 1970s, only to resurface in the 1980s, in part after criticism from East Asian neighbours. The German Democractic Republic was founded with an explicit "anti-fascist" identity. The silence regarding World War II and atrocities committed in its course in the 1940s and 50s has been described as a "Second Guilt" by Ralph Giordano, but from the late 1960s on, German responsibility for Word War II and the Holocaust has been one of the dominant recurring themes to public discourse in the Federal Republic.
History education shaped how these nations reconceived their national identities. Because the content of history education was controlled by different actors, history education materials framed national identity in very different ways. In Japan, where the curriculum was controlled by bureaucrats bent on maintaining their purported neutrality, materials focused on the empirical building blocks of history (who? where? what?) at the expense of discussions of historical responsibility. In East Germany, where party cadres controlled the curriculum, students were taught that World War II was a capitalist aberration. In (West) Germany, where teachers controlled the curriculum, students were taught the lessons of shame and then regeneration after historians turned away from grand national narratives.
This book shows that constructions of national identity are not easily malleable on the basis of moral and political concerns only, but that they are subject to institutional constraints and opportunities. In an age when post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation has become a major focus of international policies, the analysis offers important implications for the parallel revision of portrayals of national history and the institutional reconstruction of policy-making regimes.
Much has been written about postwar national identities in Japan and the Germanys separately and even comparatively. Not much of what has been written is based on systematic comparative and over-time analysis. Through such analysis I am able to illustrate some observations and misconceptions about teaching materials and their portrayal of national history.
Japanese teaching materials especially have often been misinterpreted or mischaracterized. In my mind, what distinguishes Japanese middle school materials most from German materials and from materials in many parts of the world, is that they remain focused on the empirical building-blocks of history, rather than trying to offer an analysis of the causes of historical developments. It is through this focus that teaching materials come not to discuss the causes for the Asia Pacific War, for example. While teaching materials through the 1970s were clearly remiss in not including many important events and developments during the Asia Pacific War, since then history textbooks have included such events as the Nanjing Massacre and have referred to sexual slavery, etc. It is therefore - in my eyes and as I show in the book - not justified to accuse Japanese education of whitewashing shameful aspects of national history.
When German national identity and a coming to terms with the past has been considered in the past, the focus has been almost exclusively on the Federal Republic. My inclusion of the German Democractic Republic in the analysis led to a number of important insights.
Most analyses of postwar history education have focused exclusively on portrayals of the Asia Pacific War and World War II. While this historical period clearly looms large, my analyses were informed in very important ways by portrayals of the German Peasant War and the Meiji Restoration, respectively.
Many attempts at explaining postwar trajectories in Japan and the Germanys have offered important insights. I have integrated these insights to arrive at a comprehensive - I hope - explanation that identifies agents and their motivations for decisions within the context of particular institutionalized policy-making regimes.
I am especially happy that I was able to include all quotations in the origrinal Japanese and German in the footnotes. I hope that this will spur discussions about my interpretation of particular terms and quotes, but also that the inclusion of the Japanese originals (not-romanized) will facilitate others' research on related topics.
I have organized the book specifically to offer discrete parts for possible assignments in teaching.
The main empirical chapters (2, 3, 4) are organized by country, so that Chapter 4, for example, might be of interest as a chapter that focuses on Japan for classes on contemporary Japanese society, on Japanese education, postwar identity or several other related topics.
The comparative analsysis that forms the heart of the book is laid out in Chapter 1, so that this chapter could be assigned in courses that focus on memory politics, national identity construction, or the national implementation of global trends in education.
Reading across the three main empirical chapters would be a great basis for a discussion not only of memory politics and postwar memory construction, but would also offer an opportunity to examine the construction of expertise and professional interests within public policy-making contexts.
Given the chapter structure, a combination of Chapter 1 and one of the central empirical chapters would also lend itself to assignment.
Of course, I believe that the strongest version of my argument and analysis can be garnered from assigning and reading the book in its entirety.
Julian Dierkes is an Associate Professor and the Keidanren Chair in Japanese Research at the University of British Columbia's Institute of Asian Research where he teaches Asia Pacific Policy Studies. Dr. Dierkes' current research focuses on a sociological analysis of supplementary education ("juku") in Japan.
Dr. Dierkes is available for media appearances and comments on Japanese and German national identity, the politics of apologies in Europe and Northeast Asia, memory politics in Japan and Germany, history education and other related topics. Please contact him at julian.dierkes@ubc.ca
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