Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

This study explores the impacts of the Japanese colonial policy by comparing the political and educational ideologies projected in the primary school Japanese language textbooks published and used in Korea and Japan during the period of Japanese colonial rule (1910 - 1945). Previous studies have analysed the differing textbooks used by Japanese and Korean students separately. The comparison made in this study therefore provides new insight into the varying policies that the Japanese government implemented in the different school systems, as well as highlighting the changes that took place in the curricula and textbooks as the political situation changed over time. This study utilises critical curriculum theory. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is used for analysing the texts, whilst visual grammar analysis, primarily based on Kress & van Leeuwen’s (1996, 2006) theory, is adopted for the visual images. By comparing the texts and images in Kokugotokuhon (Japanese language textbooks for Korean students) and Shougakutokuhon (Japanese language textbooks for Japanese students), this study verifies how the Japanese colonial authorities projected specific subjectivities onto the colonised, and promoted different versions of ideal worlds and citizens to the students. By comparing the language textbooks, the ideal student that schools emphasised to their colonised students was revealed. Koreans were depicted as people who needed to performed primitive physical labour. Additionally, Korean students were encouraged to worship, respect, and show obedience towards the Japanese Emperor within the textbooks whereas the textbooks for Japanese students did not include texts about the Japanese Emperor.