History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia

Gi-Wook Shin is the director of Shorenstein APARC; the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies; the founding director of the Korean Studies Program; Senior Fellow at FSI; and Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. Daniel C. Sneider is the Associate Director for Research at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University.

• 1 Introduction 2 Comparative Excerpts from textbooks of China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States on 8 historical issues Part I Textbook Content: A Comparative Analysis 3 War Stories 4 Japanese History Textbooks as seen in a Comparative Perspective 5 International Wars in Chinese Secondary School History Textbooks 6 Colonial Korea and the Asia-Pacific War 7 One Colonialism, Two Memories 8 On Looking into Chinese History Textbooks Part II Textbook Politics: Domestic and International Implications 9 Writing history textbooks in Japan 10 Towards Pluralism? Reforming History Curricula and Textbooks in China, Taiwan and South Korea 11 History that Opens the Future 12 The War Over Words 13 Europe’s Troubled World War II Memories

"It is rare to find a book that tackles the problems of history education in East Asia in such a comprehensive manner. Moreover, the editors manage to assemble a team of pundits who represent each of the discussed nations, and several of them play a critical role in textbook production there... The volume is important for scholars who are interested in this field. It should be received as a welcome addition to the existing scolarship." - Ivo Plsek, University of California; Pacific Affairs Vol.86, No.1 (2013).