Imperial Subjects as Global Citizens: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Education in Japan (review)

At the start of this book, the author delves into recent controversial events concerning education policy, nationalism, and Japan's international image. The introduction begins with the 1999 suicide of a Hiroshima high school principal caught between the twin pressures of a local Board of Education that wanted all schools to follow Ministry of Education guidelines about respect for the national flag and anthem at school ceremonies and a teachers' union that opposed such measures. The discussion moves quickly to the ongoing debate concerning how history should be taught in schools. For readers who might think this is very well-worn territory with numerous books, articles, and journalistic contributions already available, Lincicome straight away identifies the originality of his own approach by stating on page xvi (one minor quibble is the use of roman numerals for pagination of the introduction) that he will incorporate a "much longer historical perspective, ranging from the late nineteenth century to the new millennium." This book, therefore, will appeal equally to historians of education and to scholars interested in the current debates and controversies surrounding internationalization and nationalism. The book is composed of the introduction, four chapters, and an epilogue. Since the chapters deal with quite distinct (though related) topics, they will be discussed one by one.

Chapter 1 deals with educational discourse related to international issues in the late Tokugawa and Meiji periods. There is already, of course, a huge literature on how the Meiji reformers used the new education system to help mold a strong, modern nation-state. There is less discussion of discourse dealing with the words internationalism or internationalization, however. Lincicome points out that the former word until recently was not mentioned in the context of prewar Japan except in discussion of fringe movements by Christians or socialists, or of diplomatic activity relating to the League of Nations. In the last ten years, however, a new generation of scholars has taken a fresh approach, one that does not see nationalism and internationalism as contradictory value systems.

One of the fascinating things about the rest of the book is the way in which Lincicome follows the careers of key people involved in educational discourse, showing how their views and ideas evolved over time. Some of these people moved from a progressive to a more conservative and nationalist position and would be accused of betrayal, opportunism, or intellectual dishonesty by contemporary colleagues as well as later historians. Lincicome's approach is more subtle allowing the reader to see how changing national and international circumstances affected the development of ideas. Readers of today also need to be reminded that the Western nations Japan often looked to for inspiration and guidance during this time were hardly glowing models of liberal, compassionate internationalism. The author points out, for example, that although the verb "internationalize" appears in English dictionaries as early as 1864 (kokusaika did not make it into a Japanese dictionary until 1981), it usually has its transitive form emphasized. It was used by European powers to describe and justify techniques for control over other societies as in the example sentence "The Suez Canal must be internationalized."

Elsewhere in chapter 1, Lincicome returns to ground covered in his previous book that challenged the conventional view that there was straightforward subjugation of the education system to statist interests during Meiji modernization.¹ The "developmental education" doctrine, brought to Japan by educators who had traveled to the West, was the subject of that book, and it was not the only imported modern idea that posed dilemmas for Japan's oligarchs.

The same compulsory education laws that were essential to cultivate human capital needed for commerce and industry also exposed a literate public to other intellectual currents from abroad which critics considered not merely impractical but potentially dangerous to the divinely ordained, imperially sanctioned "national polity" (kokutai).

(p. 12)

The Meiji leaders were especially worried about the importation of...