Thesis
Teaching democracy: education reforms during the allied occupation of Japan, 1945-1952
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2007
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102554
Abstract
The Allied Occupation of Japan reformed many of Japan's institutions, but few scholars have looked at education reforms during the Occupation. The goal of the Occupation was to inculcate democratic values to Japanese youth through a restructuring of the school system and curriculum. Most of the Occupation's education reforms have persisted, largely unmodified. However, during the Reverse Course and Red Purge the Occupation purged a number of liberal educators. By doing so, the Ministry of Education regained much of its power and the Occupation inadvertently limited the reform of Japanese history curriculum and textbooks. The first phase of education reforms purged militarists and ultranationalists from education, banned objectionable militarist contents and restructured the Japanese school system by extending compulsory education, making public schools coeducational, and decentralizing authority over education by limiting the power of the Ministry of Education and putting in place a new school board system. The second phase extended the rights and responsibilities of schoolteachers by redefining the role of women as educators, encouraging union participation, and encouraging teachers to create their own lesson plans tailored to the needs of the students. During this phase, educators also had a prominent role in shaping the curriculum and writing new textbooks for courses that had been suspended by the Occupation forces. The final phase was the Reverse Course and Red Purge, which purged many communists from their careers in education and limited educators' rights to participation in political activities. The Red Purge was the final Occupation action that limited the effectiveness of the Occupation's initial reforms and would lead Japan to future problems in education, especially in the teaching of Japanese history.
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Details
- Title
- Teaching democracy
- Creators
- Marie Rose Reed
- Contributors
- Noriko Kawamura (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- History, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525184901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis