August 29, 2020. This essay examines the relationship between Japan’s textbook authorization system and a self-denigrating view of history, addressing GHQ’s postwar educational reforms, the establishment of the Japan Teachers’ Union, the Neighboring Countries Clause introduced following the 1982 textbook-reporting controversy, textbook descriptions of the comfort women issue, and Justice Radhabinod Pal’s warning to the Japanese people.

August 29, 2020
This essay is a continuation of the preceding chapter.
It examines the postwar educational reforms carried out under the GHQ Occupation, the establishment of the Japan Teachers’ Union, the so-called “Neighboring Countries Clause” introduced following the textbook controversy of 1982, and descriptions of the comfort women issue that appeared in textbooks during the Heisei era.
Furthermore, in light of the warning Justice Radhabinod Pal gave to the Japanese people in 1952, it questions the criteria by which historical events should be selected for teaching to children and the influence education exerts upon a nation’s historical consciousness.
The following is a continuation of the preceding chapter.
■ Instilling a Self-Denigrating View of History Through Education—The Ruinous Textbook Authorization System
Under the name of the “democratization of education,” GHQ brought communists and socialists into the process and attempted to move education to the left.
The Civil Information and Education Section（CIE）held repeated consultations with Marxists such as Gorō Hani and encouraged the establishment of the Japan Teachers’ Union（hereinafter referred to simply as Nikkyōso）.
In 1982（Shōwa 57）, an erroneous report alleging that the word “invasion” in a textbook had been rewritten as “advance” prompted Chief Cabinet Secretary Kiichi Miyazawa to issue a statement declaring that “from now on, consideration will be given to friendship and goodwill with neighboring countries.”
On that basis, the Ministry of Education at the time introduced the so-called “Neighboring Countries Clause” into the textbook authorization standards.
Ever since then, Japanese education has used self-denigrating textbooks and diligently produced self-denigrating Japanese people.
After the Kōno Statement was issued in 1993（Heisei 5）, the erroneous description that comfort women had been “forcibly taken away by the military” appeared in textbooks.（Heisei 8）
Justice Pal visited Japan in 1952（Shōwa 27）, delivered a lecture at the Hiroshima High Court, and warned the Japanese people against their self-denigrating view of history.
The Japan Teachers’ Union
In 1945, as part of the democratization of education, GHQ instructed teachers and other educational personnel to form a labor union.
It was once an influential industrial union within the Socialist Party–Sōhyō bloc, but it is now one of the principal supporting organizations of the Democratic Party of Japan.
Its organization rate was once close to 90 percent, but as of 2013 it stood at 25.3 percent.
There is strong criticism that it made leftism, anti-Japanese thinking, and a self-denigrating view of history the ideological pillars of its activities and brought about the collapse of Japanese education by promoting relaxed education, abnormal sex education, and other such policies.
The Neighboring Countries Clause: A guideline was introduced into the textbook authorization standards to the effect that “necessary consideration must be given from the standpoint of international understanding and international cooperation.” The authorized-textbook controversy that arose in 1996 was not caused by protests from overseas; rather, South Korea’s denunciations of Japan were incorporated directly into Japanese textbooks.
The comfort women issue was included in “all” seven types of textbooks.
Nikkyōso argues that “it is important even for children to face the ‘truth’ directly.”
Then is there no need to face the “truth” that the South Korean military in Vietnam, the United States military in occupied Japan, and the armed forces of many other countries throughout the world repeatedly caused incidents of violence against women?
There are countless historical events that could be taught to children.
Because the historical value of each event varies enormously, choices must be made, but the standard for those choices should be a comprehensive judgment of value based upon the educational purpose for children.
No matter how important it may be to face the truth, teaching children who have not yet acquired sufficient powers of judgment about atrocities whose truth or falsity has not even been clearly established is an entirely mistaken policy—unless the intention is deliberately to produce self-denigrating citizens who are incapable of taking pride in their homeland.
The fact that as many as 1,878 incidents of sexual violence against women by United States military personnel occurred in Japan during the eight months following independence is, of course, not included in textbooks.
But that is as it should be.
To be continued.