The Comparative Study Of Pearl Harbor Writings In History Textbooks Of U.S. And Japan

Pearl Harbor incident is the beginning of the Pacific War.As the hostile participants in the incident,the United States taking California as an example and Japan have different presentation emphasis and content in textbooks and related documents.California curriculum standards emphasize that Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor led to passive participation of the United States in the war,deliberately indicating that the responsibility for the attack on Pearl Harbor lies with Japan.The Pearl Harbor Incident plays a relatively important role in the history teaching of World War II in the United States.American textbooks generally place Pearl Harbor at the beginning of the Pacific war.Qualitatively,most California high school history textbooks describe the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a brazen surprise attack.Japanese textbooks also positioned the Pearl Harbor incident at the beginning of the outbreak of the Pacific War,with the same emphasis on background introduction.From a qualitative point of view,several mainstream textbooks acknowledged that the Pearl Harbor incident was a surprise attack,but not a shameless betrayal,but a strategic and tactical arrangement after the failure of US-Japan negotiations,without involving moral evaluation.In the aspect of auxiliary system presentation,the American auxiliary system of history textbooks is more inquisitive.One characteristic of Japanese textbooks is that they have more supplementary notes and extracurricular reading,but less inquiry.Although the United States and Japan have common ground in the presentation of the Pearl Harbor incident,differences account for the main part.There are the following deepseated reasons for the different characteristics: first,it is affected by the political environment.Second,to build a good national image.Third,it is influenced by the mainstream historical view and historical research in China.Fourth,different teaching modes in the two countries lead to different teaching requirements.From the differences in the presentation of the Pearl Harbor Incident in the high school history textbooks of the United States and Japan,we get some understanding and reflections on the compilation of textbooks.First,the compilation of history textbooks should communicate the history and reality,and avoid the pure indoctrination learning of knowledge.Second,the compilation of history textbooks should take into account the development of various education;The third is to pay attention to the compilation of teaching materials auxiliary system,in line with students’ psychological characteristics and cognitive level,improve students’ interest in history learning.Analyzing the differences of history textbooks in different countries is conducive to understanding the educational function of textbooks in shaping national identity and cultivating students’ historical thinking,and provides ideas for how to use history textbooks in middle school teaching.