The Nationalist government “anti-Japanese education” and Japanese teachers before  and after the Manchurian Incident

TAKAYANAGI Toshihide

doi:10.24471/shigaku.127.8_52

During the 1930s, the education policy of the Nationalist government was criticized by Japan for its anti-Japanese themes, and throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japan attempted to remove and revise textbooks in its occupied territories portraying the country in a negative light. This article examines the process by which Japan came to identify and subsequently criticize the Nationalist government education policy as a key element of China’s anti-Japanese stance, especially during the time just following the Manchurian Incident, by analyzing how Japanese teachers both in Japan and Manchuria played a pivotal role in dealing with the issue. The research to date has mainly focused on the diplomatic aspects of the issue, but has yet to address the role played by educators.<br> In 1928, the Nationalist government compiled a number of new textbooks which adhered to Sun Yat-sen’s “Three Principles of the People,” which the Japanese teachers at elementary schools in the South Manchuria Railway Zone regarded as being conducive to anti-Japanese sentiment. In response, these educators and South Manchuria Railway Company began publishing materials introducting China’s ‘anti-Japanese textbooks’, quoting excerpts translated into Japanese and English. This literature was used as a propaganda tool both in and outside Japan by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the League of Nations Association of Japan. A number of these treatises, which were published in Japan both before and after the Manchurian Incident and garnered a large readership, were cited in other books and articles, and even attracted attention within China.<br> Meanwhile, groups of educators in Japan, especially the National Union for Primary School Teachers, which had hitherto not concerned itself with Chinese affairs, submitted recommendations to various interests in Japan, stressing the importance of Sino-Japanese educational cooperation and offering a solution to the issue of anti-Japanese education. Following the Manchurian Incident, these educators proposed to the Nationalist government a mutual revision of textbooks to promote mutual friendship, emphasizing the cultural similarities that existed between the two countries. On the other hand, in their recommendations to the Japanese government and the League of Nations, they took a more heavy-handed tone, demanding Draconian measures to counteract anti-Japanese education in China. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also made use of such activities as an international propaganda tool; and Japanese teachers in both Manchuria and Japan believed that it was such anti-Japanese education that had served as the catalyst for such clashes as the Manchurian Incident.

The Nationalist government “anti-Japanese education” and Japanese teachers before and after the Manchurian Incident

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