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Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States
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Comments/Reviews
Description: This provocative collection of essays addresses ongoing controversies over coverage of World War II in Japanese, German and American textbooks. The book shows how sanitized treatments of war crimes, racisim, and other injustices have mobilized fierce debate internationally as well as within the three countries. Together these essays paint a compelling picture of how official narratives of a country's past both shape and are shaped by the citizen's view of the nation.
Specific issues discussed include the Japanese movement to "correct" history; identity and transationalization in German textbooks; the Vietnam War in high school American History; the teaching of Japan's colonization of Korea in Japanese and Korean schools; Holocaust education for youth in the New Germany; and how American and Japanese educators teach the Pacific War.
Selected Contents:
Introduction: The Lessons of War, Global Power, and Social Change, Laura Hein and Mark Selden
Textbooks and Historical Memory
The Japanese Movement to "Correct" History, Gavan McCormack
Consuming Asia, Consuming Japan: The New Neonationalist Revisionism in Japan, Aaron Gerow
Japanese Education, Nationalism, and Ienaga Saburo's Textbook Lawsuits, Nozaki Yoshiko and Inikuchi Hiromitsu
Identity and Transationalization 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
Politics in the Classroom
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
Comment(s): "Laura Hein and Mark Selden have performed an enormously valuable service with this collection of essays. The assessments of textbooks in Japan, Germany, and the United States raise disturbing questions about the force of nationalism in distorting the past in all these countries. For Americans especially, this book should lead us to question whether we truly have a free marketplace of ideas, and to ponder the dangerous consequences of mis-educating our young." -- Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States
"This fascinating collection of essays argues that teaching and learning about the past helps to shape the political battles and choices of the present. Censoring History lays bare the politics that produce historical indifference, engagement and amnesia in three of the world's leading states. As we turn a new leaf to begin life in a new millennium, Laura Hein and Mark Selden are right to insist that all polities have some freedom to interpret the past, but that none can escape from it." -- Peter J. Katzenstein, Cornell University
"In the burgeoning field of war and memory, Censoring History stands out for its shrewd attention to the topic's comparative dimensions, to the complex international politics of memory, and to the next generation's memory as shaped in the classroom. This is a fresh, important approach to the field." -- Michael Sherry, Northwestern University
" Censoring History is a splendid contribution to our understanding of the uses and misuses of history. The great distinction of this edited collection lies in its incisive combination of comparative breadth, topical cohesion, and contemporary pertinence. By focusing on textbook treatments of World War II in Japan, Germany, and the United States, Laura Hein and Mark Selden have given us a pathbreaking new perspective on the creation of national identities and international misunderstandings." -- John W. Dower, author of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
Review(s): The volume's most valuable contribution may lie in its illustration of how history is not an impartial record of the past but a tool of nationalism for the present... Well worth reading for those interested in the burgeoning debate over war memory and, more broadly, in how the present shapes the past. Japan Quarterly
This superb collection of essays surveys the transnational battlefields of history and explores the permutations and implications of censorship and denial. The Japan Times
As a study of current school textbook treatments of war history among defeated nations ... this volume is indispensable and will likely find eager readers among students, teachers, and laypersons alike. Journal of Japanese Studies
A fascinating, challenging, well written and highly informative anthology of essays about how history is almost inevitably distorted and revised by subsequent generations to meet their social, political and cultural needs and myths- and how such unwarranted revisions must be countered with an coherent understanding of the politics of education, from the writing and publication of textbooks to curriculum development and classroom instruction practices. Censoring History is critically important reading for anyone seeking to understand how and why the needs of nationalism would and do distort the recording and transmission of history. Wisconsin Bookwatch
This collection is a welcome addition to our understanding of the way national memory is enshrined in textbooks...An important contribution to our knowledge of textbook nationalism and institutionalized memory. The essays are informative, represent solid scholarship, and address important questions that will continue to be discussed in the years to come. Monumenta Nipponica
This book is indeed a treasure trove of detailed analyses of three historically related national discussions on history and memory. ...The editors and authors are to be commended for putting together a cohesive and well written monograph. H-Net Reviews
Anyone who teaches Asian History and/or America's relations with Asia should welcome this provocative ... set of essays. ... This book has a powerful message to convey. Education About Asia
...there is little doubt that this work offers an excellent introduction to a highly contemporary subject. ... Numerous photographs and illustrations further enhance the book's usefulness. Free of theoretical jargon, this book should be welcomed by anyone interested in contemporary history, history education, and collective memories of the wars of the twentieth century. Journal of World History
...an excellent critical analysis of how Japan, Germany, and the United States perceive, reflect, and propagate their roles during and post-World War II. Pacific Affairs Vol. 76 No. 1
    
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