This book uses historiography and discourse analysis to provide a new insight into understanding the nexus between ideologies, the state, and nation-building--as depicted in history school textbooks. It focuses on the interpretation of social and political change, significant events, and examining possible new biases and omissions in school…

Efforts have been made among scholars from Japan, South Korea, and China since the 1980s--on both private and state initiatives--to narrow the gaps in their historiographies and to cultivate mutual understanding. This article offers an extensive discussion of the author's history project, "A Student Project of Writing a Common History…

Japan's "historical amnesia", represented by conservatives' denial of the Nanjing massacre, sanitization of history textbooks, and Japanese politicians' visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine continues to generate tensions between China and Japan. This study aims to understand the degree to which "historical amnesia" is…

International revulsion at the violation of human rights during World War II helped spark a global movement to define and protect individual human rights. Starting with the creation of war crimes tribunals after the war, this newfound awareness stimulated a concerted international effort to establish human rights for all, both in periods of war…

Informed by recurring international controversies, this study explores representations of the Second World War as official history in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean secondary-level textbooks and theorizes about how they influence and function as collective memories about this time period. Using grounded theory, it finds that the examined Japanese…

Under various names--education and conflict, education and fragility, education and insecurity, etc.--the understanding of linkages between education and violent conflict has emerged as an important and pressing area of inquiry. Work and research by practitioners and scholars has clearly pointed to the negative potential of education to contribute…

The legacy of crimes committed during the Second World War in East Asia is still a stumbling block for reconciliation and trustful cultural relations between South Korea, China and Japan. The presentation of this issue in history school books is in the focus of a heated public and academic debate. This book written by historians and pedagogues…

This article examines how recent history textbooks from the United States, Japan, China, and South Korea present the Korean War. The comparative analysis focuses on four areas: the causes of the Korean War, American involvement in the war, Chinese involvement in the war, and the results of the war. Analysis of the central story lines reveals that…

The Second World War stands as the most devastating and destructive global conflict in human history. More than 60 nations representing 1.7 billion people or three quarters of the world's population were consumed by its horror. Not surprisingly, therefore, World War II stands as a landmark episode in history education throughout the world and its…

A model is used to provide a framework for secondary teachers of intercultural studies who wish to compare and contrast developing nations and, further, to identify characteristics of the nature of the society to determine the nations' modernity. Although C. E. Black's model is general, i.e. it applies to all countries, the author applies this…

Contends that regional studies, such as Asian studies, can engage students more actively than a traditional global approach to world history. Delineates the author's objectives in teaching a course in Asian studies. Outlines the subjects covered in the course's units on China, Japan, and Korea. (DSK)

This secondary level curriculum guide provides a program and identifies materials for the study of the history and culture of China and Japan. The purpose of the course is to provide exercises that require students to research, question, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate historical data. Each lesson contains behavior and content objectives,…

A Dutch teacher presents reading, film viewing, and writing activities for "Empire of the Sun," J. G. Ballard's autobiographical account of life as a boy in Shanghai and in a Japanese internment camp during World War II (the subject of Steven Spielberg's film of the same name). Includes objectives, procedures, and several literature,…

The purpose of this quarterly publication from the Asian Studies Project is to promote increased attention to Asian Studies in elementary and secondary education. This issue of the newsletter contains introductory comment on current affairs as well as two main articles: "On the Study of World Cultures" by Dr. Kishorkant Yajnik of India…