Join Our Newsletter
  • Visit Our Store
  • Come Write for J-List!
J-List Blog
Visit J-List - Your Favorite Online Shop and Friend in Japan
  • Featured
  • News
  • Gallery
  • Product Reports
  • Your Friend in Japan
No Result
View All Result
J-List Blog
  • Featured
  • News
  • Gallery
  • Product Reports
  • Your Friend in Japan
No Result
View All Result
J-List Blog
No Result
View All Result

How Japanese study WWII in school, and the history of ecchi.

Peter Payne by Peter Payne
10 years ago
in Your Friend in Japan

How Japanese study WWII in school, and the history of "ecchi."

One reason I like J-List’s Facebook page and Twitter feed is the ease with which I can get feedback from readers, including suggestions for subjects for these posts. The other day a follower asked how the Japanese studied the subject of World War II in school, so I thought I’d cover that a bit. Japan has a structured educational system that teaches standardized subjects to all students based on school year. Students learn about 第二次世界大戦 dai-niji sekai taisen or World War II – though it’s nearly always called 太平洋戦争 taiheiyo sensou or the Pacific War here – at four points between years six and eleven. While students do learn about the unsavory things their soldiers did during the war, there’s certainly a big gap between what’s printed in Japanese textbooks compared with countries like South Korea, for whom constant remembrance of every minute detail of the war is part of their national character. (I once saw a Japanese news program that presented blown-up pages from Japanese and Korean textbooks, comparing the 5-6 pages devoted to the subject of Japan’s wartime misdeeds in a junior high school textbook here with more than 100 in a similar Korean textbook.) The actual education any given student receives on the subject of the war will be influenced by whether his history teacher happens to be right-leaning (which in Japanese politics means to be pro-Emperor, pro-U.S. relations and interested in casting Japan’s wartime past in as positive a light as possible, wrestling Asia from the grip of “Britain-senpai” and all that), or left-leaning (which means being pro-communist/socialist, preferring ties with China rather than the U.S., and being critical of Japan’s wartime past).

Honestly, what’s needed to understand these gaps in history aren’t more detailed history books, but some good sociologists who can tell us how people react to different kinds of facts. There might be 100 pages detailing transgressions by Japan in Korean history textbooks, but you might not find mention of the Jeju Massacre, in which 30,000 North Korean-sympathetic South Koreans were killed on the island of Jeju from 1948 to 1951, which was struck from all history books and covered up until recently. Look into any country’s past and you’ll find subjects – China’s Cultural Revolution, Indonesia’s anti-communist purge of 1965-1966, many incidents in Britain’s long colonial era – which are treated with extreme delicacy by that country because of their embarrassing nature. It was similar for me: growing up in the 70s and early 80s, I had to wait until university to read any details about the Vietnam War era. Maybe learning more about the way our minds function and react to different data can make it easier to talk openly about the past, and we can all meet in the middle somewhere.

Japan is a subtle place, where people often substitute vague, indirect language when discussing things they don’t want to mention openly. This takes many forms, for example the omitting of sentence subjects entirely, or using euphemisms like 人身事故 jinshin jiko (“an accident involving physical injury”), which is what they call it when someone commits suicide by jumping in front of a train, or a woman’s menstrual cycle being referred to with the generic term 生理 seiri (“biology”), though many women call it Sailor Moon’s Day. Perhaps the most famous euphemism used in Japanese is the English letter “H,” pronounced エッチ ecchi, which refers to anything to do with sex, from the act itself to someone who thinks about it overly much. Surprisingly, the slang term is not a new one, being first used back in the 1880s, though it entered popular use in 1955 when it was used in a novel.

Valentine's Day Chocolate Season is here

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and you might have noticed some really amazing new chocolates and other snacks being posted to J-List’s snack pages. We’ve got a great lineup this year, from Rilakkuma chocolates to Hello Kitty-shaped chocolates to Attack on Titan chocolates so you can build your love-shrine to Levi. Browse our newest snacks from Japan, or sort the products by customer ranking.

Tags: Attack on TitaneducationhistorySailor Moon

More Posts Like This

Anime Distrracted Boyfriend Meme
Your Friend in Japan

I Understood That Reference! Ten Times Anime Embraced Western Memes

by Peter Payne
5 months ago

Anime and memes are two of my favorite things, so I love it when they come together in the same...

The Origins Of Ecchi
Your Friend in Japan

The Origins of Ecchi: 12 Groundbreaking Anime in Fan Service History

by Peter Payne
7 months ago

Over the past three decades, anime has evolved from a niche subculture to a mainstream phenomenon, even making its way...

Best Anime Fathers

Anime Fathers: Exploring the Dads We Choose in Anime!

1 year ago
Henshin The Best Magical Girl Transformations

Henshin! Why Magical Girl Transformations Are So Much Fun

1 year ago
Legendary Anime Creators

Ranking The Most Legendary Anime and Manga Creators!

1 year ago
What's The Oldest Anime You've Seen

What’s The Oldest Anime You’ve Watched?

1 year ago
Next Post
Jlistfront Gjbxev W 1

One of my favorite Japanese Cities (Kobe), and Japanese Desserts You Should Try.

Trending Today

Stellar Blade Cosplay
Featured

The Hottest Stellar Blade Cosplay—Just Before the PC Release

4 days ago
The Top 11 Anime Sex Scenes Blog
Your Friend in Japan

Happy Sex Day! Let’s Rank the 11 Most Surprising Ecchi Scenes in Anime

7 days ago
Yandere Dark Elf Episode 1 Featured Image
Featured

Yandere Dark Elf, Episode 1 — Love Heavier than Chocolate Melons!

2 months ago
Spring 2025 Ecchi Anime Web Cover
News

Spring 2025 Ecchi Anime and Where to Watch Them

3 months ago
Please Put Them On Takamine San PV2 5
News

The Power of No Panties, Please Put Them On, Takamine-san

4 months ago
Get the Newest Figures from J-List - Your Favorite Online Shop and Friend in Japan
The Top 10 Jav Actresses Article
Your Friend in Japan

The Top 10 JAV Actresses to Browse During J-List’s Sale!

by Peter Payne
June 15, 2025

The Top 10 JAV Actresses to Browse During J-List’s Sale!

Haite Kudasai, Takamine-san, Episode 7 — Peeking Through the Thin Veil

Beam Me Up, Senpai! 6 Anime Influenced by Western Science Fiction

Blank Slate Hero in The Beginning After the End

Lily Flowers Bloom in There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless…

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Discord
  • YouTube

© J-LIST. All trademarks, characters and images are property of their respective owners.

No Result
View All Result
  • Featured
  • News
  • Gallery
  • Product Reports
  • Your Friend in Japan

© J-LIST. All trademarks, characters and images are property of their respective owners.

No Result
View All Result
  • Featured
  • News
  • Gallery
  • Product Reports
  • Your Friend in Japan

© J-LIST. All trademarks, characters and images are property of their respective owners.