Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education
Examining the Japanese History Textbook Controversies

Kathleen Woods Masalski
November 2001
available in PDF format (118.8KB +PDF+)


The Importance of History Textbooks in Japan and the United States

Background on the Japan Textbook Controversies

The Current Situation

Lessons for Americans


Textbooks with individuality are multi-dimensional; they are pluralistic; a pluralism must permeate them that allows teachers in the classroom to select what is most suitable for their own use.
-Ienaga Saburo, Court testimony, 1969.(1)

The Importance of History Textbooks in Japan and the United States

The controversy surrounding the adoption of middle school history textbooks in Japan raises the question, Why are textbooks—history textbooks in particular—important enough to fight over? Historians Laura Hein and Mark Selden tell us that "history and civics textbooks in most societies present an 'official' story highlighting narratives that shape contemporary patriotism"; "people fight over textbook content because education is so obviously about the future, reaches so deeply into society, and is directed by the state. Because textbooks are carried into neighborhood schools and homes, and because, directly or indirectly, they carry the imprimatur of the state, they have enormous authority."(2) Richard H. Minear, Japanese historian, answers the question this way: "As a practicing historian, I encounter at every turn the power textbooks exercise over my students' minds. In...Japan it is the government that influences the content of textbooks. In the United States today the problem is not the government but textbook publishers. As far as the effects on students go, the difference is not great. . . . our students believe absolutely what they read in textbooks."(3)

More than one American scholar has suggested that Japan is a mirror for Americans. If so, then we Americans can learn from the controversy over textbooks in Japan. At the very least, this controversy in Japan should raise a related question for Americans: Why aren't there more debates in this country over textbook content? Why don't American teachers—and their students—look more deeply into the authorization process that American publishing companies and state and local adoption agencies follow here at home?

Background on the Japan Textbook Controversies







The Current Situation







Lessons for Americans

Why should American teachers and their students bother themselves about this textbook controversy? What can they and their students learn from it?

First, as a mirror for Americans, Japan's textbook controversy may shed light on what could happen here if the dominant narrative—our "official" story of our past—were challenged by a counternarrative, one that threatens to alter or even replace a textbook narrative. Japan lost the war that is the center of the textbook controversy. American teachers and students might ask how that fact has influenced Japan's textbook narrative. Does the victor's interpretation of the past differ from that of the vanquished? For example, James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, points out that most American history textbooks published before 1990 omitted all the important photographs of the Vietnam War.(14)

Second, many Americans see Japan as a harmonious, one-dimensional society; the fact that teachers' brought this textbook controversy—which involved lawsuits supported by tens of thousands of Japanese people—to the attention of their students may help to break down that stereotype. At least two individuals are prominent in the textbook controversy in Japan. By introducing to students Ienaga Saburo and Fujioka Nobukatsu, American teachers add a human dimension to Japan's textbook controversy. The more human faces put on Japan, the better.

Third, Japan's history textbooks have for years come under the scrutiny of Japan's past adversaries, its Asian neighbors. Together with their students, American teachers might examine American textbook narratives while imagining that Mexican, Japanese, Vietnamese, or Middle Eastern scholars and students are reading over their shoulders as they teach and learn about American interpretations of the war with Mexico, the war in the Pacific, in Southeast Asia, or in the Middle East. Finally, American teachers might also consider presenting this passionate debate in Japan as an example for Americans to follow.


(1) Ienaga Saburo, Japan's Past/Japan's Future: One Historian's Odyssey, trans. Richard H. Minear (New York: Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001), 155.

(2) Laura Hein and Mark Selden, "The Lessons of War, Global Power, and Social Change," in Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States, ed. Laura Hein and Mark Selden (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000), 3-4.

(3) Richard H. Minear, "Support Statements of Nominators and Supporters," Nomination of Prof. Ienaga Saburo for Nobel Peace Prize.

(4) Nozaki Yoshiko and Inokuchi Hiromitsu, "Japanese Education, Nationalism, and Ienaga Saburo's Textbook Lawsuits," in Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States, ed. Laura Hein and Mark Selden (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000), 97.

(5) Ibid., 108.

(6) Murai Atsushi, "Abolish the Textbook Authorization System," Japan Echo, (Aug. 2001): 28.

(7) Quoted in Nicholas D. Kristof, "Japan Bars Censorship of Atrocities in Texts," The New York Times, 30 Aug. 1997.

(8) Nishio Kanji, "Restoring Common Sense to the Teaching of History," Japan Echo, (Aug. 2001): 33.

(9) "International Scholars' Appeal Concerning the 2002-Edition Japanese History Textbooks," Center for Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility.

(10) "China and South Korea Urge Japan to Correct Textbooks," CRI Online, Apr. 2001.

(11) "Seoul Stands Firm: President Rebukes Japan for Textbooks, Shrine Visit," Korea Now, (21 Aug. 2001): 6-7.

(12) Mari Yamaguchi, "Japanese History Textbook Shunned," The Japan Times, 16 Aug. 2001.

(13) "Only 0.03% of junior high students to use disputed textbook," Kyodo News, 16 Aug. 2001.

(14) James W. Lowen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, (New York: The New Press, 1995), 241.

Kathleen Woods Masalski is the Projects Director for the Five College Center for East Asian Studies and the 2000 recipient of the John E. Thayer III Award for a lifetime of work furthering understanding between the U.S. and Japan.