Eric Takabayashi wrote:
> mtfester@netscape.net wrote:
>
>> masayuki yoshida <ysd_m@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:
>>
>>> What you and Eric want to say in this thread may be so simple that I
>>> will rephrase as follows:  Contemporary Japanese should learn what
>>> their own nation did as an invader during the war times.  However,
>>> how to teach history is not so simple.  If you tell us what of
>>> Japanese war history you want to teach Japanese students, it would
>>> be appreciated.
>>
>> Reminds me of what my wife told me about taking history class. They'd
>> spent the year going through the class, and ran out of time at about
>> the time they just finished the beginning of the Showa Era. The
>> teacher told the class "I'm very sorry. Please ask your parents
>> about this."
>>
>> :-)
>
> Whaaat? Didn't they get to the suffering in the Battle of Okinawa or
> the A-bombings? Not even the firebombings or just the A-bombing of
> Hiroshima? Didn't the children have to spend literal weeks painting
> banners or murals calling for world peace, or put on a skit or sing
> songs during some school functions to magically create peace
> somewhere else in the world where people are suffering today?

When I was a JET, my high school had the 2nd year students do a unit on
Okinawa. They might as well have called it "Three months about the Battle of
Okinawa". Sweet sassy molassey it seems liek all they did was talk about
people killing themselves in a cave.

> Those teachers didn't do their jobs.

-- 
Kevin Gowen
"The US economy accounts for about one-third of global GDP-greater than
the next four countries combined (Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom
and France)."
- "Advancing the National Interest: Australia's Foreign and Trade
Policy White Paper", Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade