Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Considering the great influence textbooks have as interpreters of history, politics and culture to future generations of citizens, it is no surprise that they generate considerable controversy. Focusing largely on textbook treatment of lingering - and sometimes explosive - tensions originating in World War II, Censoring History addresses issues of textbook nationalism in historical and comparative perspective. Discussions include Japan's Comfort Women and the Nanjing Massacre; Nazi genocide against the Jews, Gypsies, Catholics and others; Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Indochina wars. The essays address controversies over textbook content around the globe: How and why do specific representations of war evolve? What are the international and national forces affecting how textbook writers, publishers and state censors depict the past? How do these forces differ from country to country? Other comparative essays analyze nationalist and war controversies in German, US and Chinese textbook debates.
Table of Contents
The lessons of war, global power, and social change / Laura Hein and Mark Selden -- The Japanese movement to "correct" history / Gavan McCormack -- Consuming Asia, consuming Japan : the new neonationalistic revisionism in Japan / Aaron Gerow -- Japanese education, nationalism, and Ienaga Saburåo's textbook lawsuits / Nozaki Yoshiko and Inokuchi Hiromitsu -- Identity and transnationalization in German school textbooks / Yasemin Nuhoglu Soysal -- The Vietnam War in high school American history / James W. Loewen -- War crimes and the Vietnamese people : American representations and silences / David Hunt -- The continuing legacy of Japanese colonialism : the Japan-South Korea Joint Study Group on History Textbooks / Kimijima Kazuhiko -- The power of selective tradition : Buchenwald concentration camp and Holocaust education for youth in the new Germany / Gregory Wegner -- Teaching democracy, teaching war : American and Japanese educators teach the Pacific War / Kathleen Woods Masalski.