The ways in which both Japanese and Germans remember and narrate the history of World War II have generated a vast literature in recent years. School education and textbooks have attracted particular interest from both educationalists and scholars, yet this stimulating monograph by Julian Dierkes demonstrates that it is still possible to bring much fresh material and analysis into this well-trodden debate.
Dierkes' approach has four primary elements. First, the book offers three case studies: East Germany, (West) Germany, and Japan. This is the order in which they are discussed, reflecting the author's important observation that "East Germany has been left out of most examinations [of comparative Japanese-German education] entirely." The introduction of East Germany on Page 1 immediately lets readers know that they are going to encounter something a little different in this book.
The second element is a focus on the "educational policymaking regime": "the configuration of actors who are involved in decisions about educational policy, their organizational history and memory, and the locus and status of decision-making within the strategic action field of educational policymaking." Dierkes' analysis of the core characteristics of postwar education facilitates a more varied and nuanced version than previously available of exactly what is similar and what is different within the German and Japanese cases.