History

As some of you may already know, before I decided to major in Political Science and East Asian Studies, I considered doing History. Why? Because it’s fascinating how what we learn (or don’t learn) about the past affects our future, and how we perceive the world, which in turn affects decisions made for better or for worse. Unfortunately it appears that people tend to unfortunately learn the wrong lessons from history, in large part due to lack of accurate information or deliberate propaganda during childhood education. It’s a complicated situation, particularly when teachers and textbook authors have to confront the history of a discredited war. For Japan or Germany, it’s WWII, whereas for the US it tends to be Vietnam, though as time goes on this may hold true for Iraq as well. Either way, it’s essentially impossible to discuss either the actions of the citizenry or treatment of foreigners in ways that can satisfy everyone.

Are teachers to acknowledge the brutality of war that their country engaged in, while defending the least objectionable goals? Condemn the war goals and practices? On what grounds should something be condemned – human rights, aggressiveness, imperialism, or irrationality? What should be taught about dissent in war? These questions are difficult, and have the potential to be deeply divisive because they cut right to the heart of ideas regarding both what it means to be a nation, and what it means to be a citizen.

I was reminded of this during a conversation with my host Mom at dinner tonight – the study abroad program I’m participating in (Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies) sends all host families program schedules, such as the dates for spring break, or group trips. Next Friday KCJS is going to be visiting Hiroshima for two days, and she asked me about it – I mentioned that I was looking forward to having conversations with the other American KCJS students there regarding the dropping of the atomic bomb. A few weeks ago, I borrowed a REALLY thick book from the library (in English) regarding how American’s perceptions about the decision to drop the atomic bomb were shaped – the author argues quite convincingly – incorrectly. And so she asked me what *I* personally thought.

As a disclaimer, I have to point out that I didn’t attend high school in the United States, so I am unqualified to comment about all aspects of a typical American education, but I don’t recall learning anything about the Japanese internment camps, or antiwar protests, or My Lai, or the effects of the atomic bomb in my elementary school history classes. Now some may protest, saying that it’s not healthy for young kids to be exposed to such brutality and violence. At a certain level, I agree – but on the other hand, you also cannot afford to gloss over war when kids are young, with the hopes that they will become educated and informed about the issue in the future. Unfortunately, it seems that the way education works (particularly at the lower grades) is that you are taught a certain way of perceiving the nation, rather than how to think. It’s how adults want children to see the country that they live in, true or not.

In an age where you see people getting shot and cut to pieces or blown up by missiles daily on television shows, where violence is only occasionally condemned – even glorified, like in “24”, or any action movie, it seems to me that one of the most important things to teach an impressionable child is that war is not a game. But that’s what it’s sold as. Look at the military recruitment commercials. Look at the advertisements for the latest action flick. Look at the gratuitously violent video games. (Note: Gratuitous, which means pointless. Violence can be used effectively to make a point in media) People say things like, “Let’s bomb ‘em” or “Let’s nuke ‘em” without actually realizing what these words actually mean. A lot of us Americans enjoyed the scene in the latest Indiana Jones movie where he survives a nuclear test by hiding in a refrigerator. “Oh ha ha, it’s Indy getting out of another jam!” whereas for a Japanese person, the scene invokes fear, devastation, and suffering.

We as a nation haven’t been challenged to confront our past in the ways that Japan or Germany have been, in large part because of our overwhelming military and economic dominance – as these things slowly start to change, I expect that demands from other countries for more evenhanded treatment of our foreign policy and education about past wars will increase, and it will be a test of our character, in how we react.