This paper examines the memories of Japanese teachers who worked in Korea during the colonial period. By focusing on the autobiographical narratives of three Japanese primary school teachers who worked in rural Korea between 1931 and 1945, this study aims to unpack the relatively under-studied aspects of colonialism. Their narratives carried…

Numerous research and scholarly articles have been written on the Korean War. Yet in many K-12 history classrooms, the war and its legacy are still "forgotten" and are only addressed with a paragraph or two in a textbook. The Korean War Legacy and World History Digital Education foundations are changing this situation by honoring…

In the last two decades, the issue of comfort women--the women and girls who were forced into sex slavery for the Japanese army before and during WWII--has risen to global attention. Tens of thousands of comfort women (the average estimate is anywhere between 80,000 and 200,000) were confined at comfort stations managed by the Japanese Imperial…

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…

A recent controversy in the USA centres on classroom use of Yoko Kawashima Watkins's semi-autobiographical "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" (1986), a novel focused on the flight of Japanese settler families to Japan after the liberation of Korea at the end of World War II. Taught in a literary and historical vacuum under the thematic…