Postwar History Education in Japan and the Germanys

Guilty Lessons

Bibliographic Data

ID19899005
AuthorsJulian Dierkes (0000-0003-4322-4699, corresponding author), Julian Beatus Dierkes
Year2010
Pages224
Publication date2010-12-14
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenuePostwar history education in Japan and the Germanys (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9780203864586
OpenAlexW4249861939
Open LibraryOL33707098M
ISBN9780203864586
LanguageEN
Citations received14

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? 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

Archaeology · Economic history · Empiricism · German · German history · Historiography · Political science · Sociology · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · European history and politics · Gender Studies · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Law · Philosophy · 1939-1945 · 20th century · BMBF-Statusseminar gnd · Chōsen Kōgei Kenkyūkai · Education · Education and state · German National characteristics · Germany · Germany (East) · Germany (West) · Geschichtsunterricht · Japan · Japanese National characteristics · National characteristics · National characteristics, japanese · Nationalbewusstsein · Social aspects · Study and teaching · War and society · World War

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