“아시아·태평양 전쟁기(1931～1945)” 한국관련 서술의 분석—2007년도 검정 고교일본사를 중심으로—

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the problems of writing materials related to Korean subjects specifically for the period of Asia Pacific War(1931～1945) in the textbooks of Japanese history for Japanese high school that go through the process of the authorization from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan in 2007. The major points are as follows: First, according to the results of the analysis on the theme of ‘sexual slave(or comfort women)’ which has been the most controversial issue between Japanese orthodoxy-reflective historians and the history revisionists, the majority of the Japanese textbooks avoids the manifest descriptions over the issue of compulsory recruitment and military involvements absorbing the pressure of the historical revisionists and the political stance of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The textbooks exhibit not only the extreme ambiguity on the nature of invasion war and the policy of ‘Japanization’ with a great royalty to the Japanese Emperor, but also the positive interpretations and benefits of the colonization developments. Secondly, it would not be too much exaggeration that Japanese government would continue to attempt to conceal the nature of invasion history for the future, considering the facts that the Fundamentals of Education Act of Japan, which have been functioned as a safety net to prevent the escalation of nationalism education, was unilaterally revised in December 2006; the abolition demands of the right-wing organizations for the provision of the vicinity countries, which has been conceived in times as normative criteria for the critical writings of the invasion history, has been erupted; and the systematic involvement of Japanese government for restricting different historical perspectives in the name of “self-imposed control” or “voluntary revision,” adopting the system of examination of history textbooks.