The legacies of war continue to dog Japan and are divisive at home and in Asia. Despite the government's position that all war-related reparation claims have been resolved, lawsuits and anger among Japan's victims indicate that resolution and reconciliation remain elusive. As a result, Japan remains in the dock and on the defensive. In contrast, Andrew Horvat comments, "the European example of successful reconciliation is an unmoveable fact."
This collection of papers drawn from two symposiums hosted in Tokyo by the Asia Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in 2001 and 2002 examine Japan's history textbook and forced labor controversies in the context of related experiences in Europe and the United States. Conference participants examine how Germany, Italy, France and the U.S. have dealt with teaching about the past and what Japan might learn from these efforts. In light of Japan's often tense relations with China and Korea stemming from disagreements over their shared history, the largely successful efforts by Germany to craft mutually acceptable narratives of the past with France and Poland are both instructive and encouraging.
Why do history textbooks matter? As Mark Selden points out, "Textbooks are important vehicles through which contemporary societies transmit ideas of citizenship and both the idealized past and the promised future of the national community. They provide authoritative narratives of the nation, delimit proper behavior of citizens, and outline the parameters of the national imagination. Textbook controversies erupt when prevailing assumptions about national unity and purpose are challenged and when international relations change rapidly as in the post-Cold War era and post 9/11, sometimes rupturing the smooth flow of earlier dominant narratives." He adds, "The central problem of history textbooks -- by no means limited to American history textbooks -- that address issues of war and nationality is nationalist myopia, often tinged with racism. This is particularly true where textbook treatments are lashed to the chariot of triumphalist state power."