著者

池田 誠司 IKEDA Seishi

出版者

金沢大学環日本海域環境研究センター

雑誌

日本海域研究 = Bulletin of the Japan Sea Research Institute, Kanazawa University (ISSN:13477889)

巻号頁・発行日

no.51, pp.39-55, 2020

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During Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula, the various Governor-Generals gaveinstructions to make the local school children learn honorific Japanese language phrases at elementaryschools. The local children used Japanese language textbooks. A very limited number of, but helpful forgoverning, honorific phrases in the textbooks were learned for four years at elementary schools duringthe thirty-five years of Japan's rule. The honorific phrases were necessary at every aspect of their livessuch as when talking to parents, classmates, and teachers. The relevant Japanese EducationalDepartment published the elementary school textbooks in the Japanese language. What they aimed atwas to make the school children behave politely and obediently in Japanese to their elders as well as theJapanese rulers. Moreover, they were expected to be respectful not only to their elders but also to theirclassmates or even people younger than them.As the international situation became more tense and conflict broke out between Japan and China(as well as other powers), the importance of the Korean Peninsula as the supply base for Japanesemilitary materials and manpower became more apparent. The escalation in tensions also caused theJapanese rulers to deprioritize education by reducing government spending and granting less attention tothe teaching of honorific Japanese. The number of Japanese language lessons (including honorificJapanese lessons) was reduced. By doing this, the initial objective of teaching honorific phrases to localschool children was sidelined. The opportunity to comprehensively teach respect to others including allpeople, young and old, men and women, was arguably lost.