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Dierkes, Julian : POSTWAR HISTORY EDUCATION IN JAPAN AND THE GERMANYS: GUILTY LESSONS

Routledge, 2010

ISBN 9780415553452

How did East and West Germany and Japan reconstitute national identity afte r World War II? Did all three experience parallel reactions to national tra uma and reconstruction? History education shaped how these nations reconceived their national ident ities. Because the content of history education was controlled by different actors, history education materials framed national identity in very diffe rent ways. In Japan, where the curriculum was controlled by bureaucrats ben t on maintaining their purported neutrality, materials focused on the empir ical building blocks of history (who? where? what?) at the expense of discu ssions of historical responsibility. In East Germany, where party cadres co ntrolled the curriculum, students were taught that World War II was a capit alist aberration. In (West) Germany, where teachers controlled the curricul um, students were taught the lessons of shame and then regeneration after h istorians turned away from grand national narratives. This book shows that constructions of national identity are not easily malleable on the basis of moral and political concerns only, but that they are subject to institutional constraints and opportunities. In an age when post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation has become a major focus of international policies, the analysis offers important implications for the parallel revision of portrayals of national history and the institutional reconstruction of policy-making regimes., Very Good

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