Education Policy of Allied Occuped Japan

1. The Democratization of Education: Phase I

The 1890 Imperial Rescript on Education (Ky(iku-Chokugo) set the ideological basis for the post Sino-Japanese War, by stressing moral education based on Confucian and Shint( values. "Ethics" (sh(shiu) was the instrument through which nationalism and traditions were implemented. In the pre-Meiji era (i.e. that of Togugawa) the Chinese model of Confucianism had fashioned "academies". With the Meiji Restoration, the first European-style university (daijakh() was created, viz. Tokyo University--still today the major school of tertiary education in Japan.

Post World War I caused panic and social confusion in Japan as it did in many nations. The Leftist movement and the Kant( earthquake of 1923 added to the uncertainty in the minds of the Japanese people. It was precisely during this period, however, that "Taish( democracy" and liberalism came to light and that a mind-set which enhanced nationalism and education was acquired. The Extraordinary Education Council, established in 1917, emphasized higher education, while secondary and primary education flourished, and the foundation for compulsory education was laid.

Meanwhile, as the nation built up its economic basis and increasingly set its sights on international trade (which meant selling rather than buying--except for the raw materials of wh

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great soldier who was neither a sociologist nor a political scientist. Thus, as reforms were being implemented with some measure of success, a lot of people with the longer view of sociology and international politics were highly critical of what Amerasia called "Ersatz Democracy for Japan" (October 1946). "United States policy shifts from passive tolerance to active support of the old guard", today sounds but too familiar to other nations in the United States' sphere of influence. Ask any Latin American. The magazine article cited May 1946 as the decisive point of change, and discussed the results of the May election, and the zaibatsu cabinets under Shidehara and Yoshida, as well as SCAP's activities in the drafting and adoption of the new constitution and its programs concerning the dissolution of the zaibatsus, the land reforms, and the promotion of the labor union movement. The authors of the first Report of the United States Education Mission to Japan (1946) remarked that Japanese educators believed the words "liberalism, democracy, science, and humanism" did not always bring home their essential meanings to their people. As a consequence, the Japanese might be unable "to chart the painful road toward implementation" of d
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Approximate Word count = 10002
Approximate Pages = 40 (250 words per page)