역사연구와 교육의 갈등과 통합— 중국역사교과서의 중일전쟁 인식 변화를 중심으로 —

Abstract

China held the position that the Sino-Japanese War (War of Resistance against Japan) was the first time it fought against a foreign invasion, and that it was completely won within the territory of the Chinese Communist Party. During that period, there was an invasion of Japanese imperialism and resistance against it with the September 18 Incident in 1931, and a full-scale anti-Japanese war began with the July July Incident in 1937, which continued for eight years until 1945. However, since 2017, China has included in its history textbooks the content that China waged the “14-year War of Resistance against Japan” against Japan, which spanned from the September 18 Incident in 1931 to Japan's surrender in August 1945. However, in the “14 Years War of Resistance Against Japan,” from 1931 until the second China-Communist joint effort in September 1937, the Chinese Kuomintang and Communist Party concentrated on civil war rather than a war of resistance against Japan. The continued talk of an “eight-year war of anti-Japanese resistance” in China reflected this situation. It also emphasizes China's contribution to World War II, saying that the Sino-Japanese War (War of Resistance against Japan) was part of the global anti-fascist war and that China was the “main battlefield in the East.” Recently, China's theory of “the main battlefield in the east” has been trying to emphasize China's position in World War II, but Japan's defeat was mainly due to the defeat by the US military on the Pacific front, the dropping of atomic bombs, and the entry of the Soviet Union into the war. In order to emphasize China's international position in World War II and strengthen patriotic education, the “14 Years of Resistance” and “Main Battlefields in the East” theories have been included in history textbooks and taught since 2017. However, it is difficult to avoid criticism that they are using controversial claims in historical research for political purposes.