From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japan
Date: 21 Aug 92 11:42:11 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

ntetsuya@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Nishimura) writes:

[* stuff omitted *]

>	Many young Japanese, actually, know almost nothing about what Imperial
>	Army did on the continent in WW II but years and names of events that
>	are *important* for their exams.  
>	There is a(n) (in)famous anecdote about what the many (some if not 
>	many) know about history:

>		Right after a history lecture concerning the Attack of Pearl 
>		Harbor in a university, a student came up to the professor and
>		asked;
>			"Is that really true that the US and Japan had a war?"

How many young Americans know much about the war? I was in
California visiting my daughter (29) and she hardly knows anything.

>	I don't think this is always the case, though, I cannot deny the story
>	completely with the fact I got from my teaching experiences.  They, I 
>	mean the students are honestly and innocently ignorant.  When I 
>	presented what I personally learned, some of my students were just 
>	shocked and some showed interests in seeking the facts.

>	Yes, they can learn if there is enough information that should be from
>	more than one way of point of view.

During my stay in California I found a shop that had many old life
magazines and bought three which were published just at the end of
the war. She was very interested in them as she had never seen such
pictures.  March 5th, 1945 showing the battle for Iwo Jima. August
10th, 1945 showing the bombing of Hiroshima. September 24th, 1945
showing where the atomic bomb had been developed at Almagordo New
Mexico and the Tojo's attempted suicide. I showed them to the people
I know in Japan who are the same age as me and they were pretty
interested as well as they had never seen them either. 

What interested me most was the even-tonedness of the language. Two
pictures stand out: One of MacArthur looking down at the bodies of
Japanese soldiers with the caption "ON RECONQUERED BATAAN GENERAL
MACARTHUR LOOKS DOWN ON A HUDDLE OF DEAD JAPANESE". 

The other I can almost remember seeing as a child (I was 10 in
1945). It's a double page showing a Marines scattered over a low
hillside surrouned by bodies and pieces of bodies, "ON A RIDGE IN
IWO JIMA, BLACK AND DESOLATE WITH OLD VOLCANIC ASH FROM MT.
SURIBACHI, AMERICAN MARINES CROUCH IN THEIR FOXHOLES SEEKING SHELTER
FROM THE POUNDING OF JAPANESE MORTORS AND ROCKET SHELLS. BESIDE
THEM, SOMETIMES HALF-BURIED IN THE SHIFTING ASH, LIE THE BODIES OF
THEIR ENEMIES AND THEIR FRIENDS."

[* more stuff omitted *]

>	I agree with your idea, Masuda-san.  I will keep telling my future 
>	students (I'm currently working on my M.A. in TESOL, NOT in history :))
>	about what I learned on this net, not only Japan's point of view but
>	also other countries, people, and many netters point of view.  They 
>	will decide what they should do by themselves.

IMHO, nothing much will change for Japan until all those who took
part in the war have died. There is just too strong a sense of
not contradicting (the silence of) your elders. Only a guess...

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087