Textbooks and Radio: a study of English learning immediately after Japan's surrender to the Allied Powers

Abstract

Nichibeikaiwatecho (Anglo-Japanese Conversation Manual), published on September 15, 1945, is said to have sold 3.6 million copies or more in three months after its first publication. According to the Japanese playwright Hisashi Inoue, within just a month after Japan’s surrender to the Allied Powers, the negative image of Americans, once considered “evil creatures” in wartime Japan, had changed into such a positive image that many Japanese were inclined to speak to them. Inoue says that the publication of Nichibeikaiwatecho synchronized with this emotional shift, and for this reason the small handbook sold like hot cakes. In a sense, it was the time when ‘America’ was closest to the Japanese. The presence of the Americans was one of the major factors that led to the brisk sales of Nichibeikaiwatecho and the nationwide boom of Tadaichi Hirakawa's radio program English Conversation, which started on February 1, 1946. As is shown in these cultural phenomena, the framework for English learning in postwar Japan was apparently formed by the publishing and broadcasting media. This implies, however, that the various trends in the contemporary school education were overshadowed by these new phenomena. In this article, I will overview the school education resumed immediately after Japan's defeat in the Asia-Pacific War, by highlighting the history of school textbooks and radio broadcasting. This study will give us an opportunity to view the enthusiasm for English learning in postwar Japan from a slightly different perspective than the conventional ones.