A Study On The Intercultural Exchange Attribute Of The U.S. Educational Reform In Japan(1945-1952)

After Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 th,August 1945,the Allied Forces led by the United States conducted a military occupation in Japan from September 1945 to April1952.During this period,the U.S.carried out an educational reform in Japan involving the fields such as educational legislation,textbook reform,and the reform of physical education.Foreign studies mostly emphasize the specific reform fields like textbook reform and the reform of physical education,and produce meticulous and detailed findings.Comparatively,the majority of the relevant studies in China attempt to conduct a panoramic-style study and produce grand and comprehensive findings.In terms of the stance,however,some Chinese studies subjectively view the event as a forced alteration,even an autocratic movement,rather than a reform.In terms of the content,most studies in China focus on the overt realm such as educational legislation and practices,while ignoring the covert realm such as the U.S.cultural export behind the reform.In response to the research gaps,this thesis will study the following two questions: Is the U.S.educational reform in Japan a largely negotiable educational exchange activity or an autocratic educational reform movement? Is the U.S.educational reform practice in Japan an intercultural communication activity of the U.S.cultural export?To answer the questions,the study first sorts out the history of U.S.cultural export to reveal its consistent features of intercultural interactions.Then it attempts to clarify that the process of the educational reform is a relatively equal exchange process with cooperation and negotiation between the U.S.and Japan through an analysis of the making of the new Constitution and the Basic Act on Education,as well as the reforms of the textbook and the physical education,using the documents of Foreign Relations of the United States(FRUS),Mac Arthur Memorial Library in Norfolk,Virginia,and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.Last,it attempts to analyze the ideologies that the U.S.exported to Japan in the reform through an analysis of the texts of the Meiji Constitution,the new Constitution,and the Basic Act on Education,as well as the practices of textbook reform and physical education reform,trying to testify that this educational reform is an intercultural communication activity of U.S.cultural export.The study finds that,in terms of the ways of reform,the educational reform is not an authoritarian one,but an educational exchange with a relatively clear negotiable attribute.Specifically,the making of the new Constitution and the Basic Act on Education is generally on the basis of the U.S.-Japan negotiation.Although the U.S.showed a tough attitude toward its censorship of the textbooks in the early period of the textbook reform,it gradually relaxed the censorship when the Cold War began.The reform of physical education was carried out on the basis of U.S.-Japan negotiation.The negotiability comes from the following motivations.Firstly,the U.S.has a tradition of exporting its culture by negotiation.Secondly,the social science studies represented by The Chrysanthemum and The Sword suggested that the U.S.government should reform Japan through negotiation.Finally,in the context of the Cold War,negotiable reform was conducive to building the U.S.-Japan alliance.In terms of reform content,what is behind the legislation and practice of the U.S.education reform in Japan is the export of the U.S.core values.Specifically,in this educational reform,the U.S.mainly exported the ideologies of democracy,liberty,equality,and individualism,which is highly consistent with its previous cultural export practices.The U.S.educational reform in Japan is an intercultural educational exchange activity that influences the society and culture of Japan.The reform achieved the penetration of the U.S.ideologies into Japan while shaping Japanese educational thoughts and practices,and exerted long-lasting subtle influence on Japanese culture.When global intercultural educational exchange intensifies,China should grasp the right to speak in educational exchanges,carrying out intercultural educational exchanges on the principle of equality and negotiation,and the premise of maintaining domestic cultural security and ideological security.