- 著者
- 上林 喜久子
- 出版者
- 国際基督教大学
- 雑誌
- 国際基督教大学学報. I-A, 教育研究 (ISSN:04523318)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.20, pp.29-55, 1977-03
The purpose of this study is to examine what about and how Japan and America try to teach the historical relationships of two nations in their schools. It was hoped to find out, in comparison, a way which Japan and America cultivate national identity and understanding of other nation through the study of their national history textbooks. The author compared the treatments of Japan in American history textbooks, and those of America in Japanese history textbooks used at senior high school, level, respectively. Twenty-four Japanese history textbooks published from 1951 to 1971, and sixty-four American history textbooks published from 1951 to 1972 were chosen in this study. Three methods were used to compare the treatments of Japan and America in these textbooks.: 1. to make a list of twelve historical topics out of the whole content in the both textbooks; 2. to count the textbook coverage given to each topic in order to find out the degree of emphasis among the topics; and 3. to examine the treatments of selected topicsin tems of their expression, the stand points taken to describe the event, and the trend in the treatments. The examination was made on the treatments of 1. the topics regarding the wars (Sino-Japanese War, the First World War, the Disarmament Conferences, and the Pacific War), 2. the topics regarding social-cultural systems of the two nations (Japanese social-cultural systme in America, and American social-cultural systems in Japan). The author found that both Japanese and American textbooks placed almost equal emphasis on the description of the wars they were directly or indirectly involved. However, there were certain differe-nces in the treatments of the topics. American textbooks tended to interprete historical events from various points of view and their interpretation were varied depending on the author or publication year of the textbooks. Japanese textbooks showed little variation in the treatments of the events for almost twenty years. Furthermore, American texbooks explained an event in a manner of why and how it happened, but Japanese texts books presented the events in a pure historical record.