Abstract
This series reviews the textbooks of NHK radio lessons published before World War II and examines the history of educational and cultural programs through them. Following the previous installment in the January-February issue, which presented the overview of the pre-war textbooks, this second part focuses on language lessons, lectures, school broadcasts, and children’s programs, along with their textbooks.
In terms of language programs, English language lessons were broadcast most frequently in the pre-war period, and a wide variety of textbooks were published to meet the needs of the audience, such as English for entrance examination and English conversation. German and French lessons were aired from the early days of radio broadcasts, and Chinese and Manchurian lessons started in the 1930s. The languages covered are presumed to have been selected to reflect the international situation at the time.
Lectures were also one of the principal pre-war programs and aired almost every day from the early days of broadcasting. In response to listeners’ keen requests for reviewing the content after the broadcast, the transcriptions or summaries of the lectures were published not only in Tokyo but also by local stations. These materials tell that diverse themes were covered in the lectures, but the proportion of the government and military propaganda gradually increased from the late 1930s and onward, along with the advancement of the wartime regime.
School broadcasts and children’s programs also contributed to the spread of diverse knowledge in the pre-war period, with the monthly publication of teaching aids and “Kodomo-no Tekisuto” (textbooks for children). Nevertheless, as happened with other genres, the content gradually changed to reflect the situation under the wartime regime, and many textbooks disappeared as the paper control was implemented. Thus, radio textbooks show not only the changes in programing but also the changes in society as Japan was heading for war.
March 22, 2025 will mark the 100th anniversary of broadcasting. The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute works on the digitalization of pre-war radio textbooks and, on the occasion of the centennial of broadcasting, plans to make some of the textbooks presented in this paper viewable on the internet.
