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January 23, 2005
Robbing the Next Generation
"Patriotic" indoctrination has entered a new phase in Japan:
The draft revisions, which include platitudes about modern learning and better teaching, say that Japanese schools should foster a sense of aikokushin among pupils. This word could be translated as “love of country”, but to most Japanese it has other—and liberals would say darker—connotations. Many Japanese are indeed discovering things to love about their country these days, but aikokushin, say worried liberals, implies devotion to a particular idea of Japan: as a uniquely entitled nation supported by hard-working but unquestioning citizens. And although a return to militarism and rampant chauvinism seems hugely unlikely, the LDP's latest ideological games risk antagonising Japan's neighbours and reopening deep domestic wounds.
I don't expect SDF troops to be marching towards Beijing or Seoul any time soon (Diaoyutai occupation notwithstanding). Nonetheless, this is a disturbing development, in the context of historical revisionism in textbooks and venerating war criminals in the Yasukuni shrine. The souls of the victims of that terrible war, of all nationalities, cannot rest until a full sense of what happened is educated to their descendents.
Posted by Kelvin at January 23, 2005 9:37 PM
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