戦後日本における旧軍関係教育機関出身者の「学歴」認定問題

―旧軍人団体の動向と行政機関の対応に注目して―

抄録

After the Potsdam Declaration, measures were taken to transfer military educational institution graduates (hereafter referred to graduates) to secondary and higher educational institutions. Some of them were certified as their “educational background” of having graduated from middle school, but the Naval Aviator Preparatory Course Trainees of Otsu class (hereinafter referred to Otsuhi) were not given this certification. Then They petitioned the relevant ministries to certify their “educational background”. This was an important issue which affected their life courses in the post-war period, but it has not been investigated previously. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the fact concerning the movement of former military groups and the measures taken by administrative agencies, focusing on the problem of certifying the “educational background” of graduates, and to consider its historical significance.

In the early 1950s, a system for certifying “educational background” was established. The Ministry of Education established the University Entrance Qualification Examination Regulation. In order to fill the gap between the former middle schools and the new junior high schools, it exempted the former middle school graduates and equivalent from some of the subjects for the University Entrance Qualification Examination. Such transitional measures concerning entrance qualifications for new universities played the role of certifying the students' “educational background”. In the same year, the National Personnel Authority decided on the Implementation Details such as the Starting Salary Promotion Rates, and Rates of Salary Increases. Based on the “educational background” of schools belonging the Ministry of Education, the National Personnel Authority connected it with the personnel system clearly. At that time, the treatment of officer training institute graduates was decided quickly, but decisions relating to other graduates were postponed. In the middle of the 1950s, when rearmament developed, the problem of certifying “educational background” was raised as an administrative issue by former military groups.

Since the new junior high schools and the former middle schools were already considered to be equivalent, the increase in the numbers of graduates of the new junior high schools kindled the desire for certification of “educational background” of graduation from the former middle schools. The “educational background” petition movement by the group of Otsuhi developed with the desire for certification of “educational background” as the junior high school enrollment rate rose, and the Defense Agency officials supported this. The group negotiated with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and the National Personnel Authority. Trying to bring former military educational institutions with the original purpose of training airman closer to schools belonging the Ministry of Education with a fundamentally different principle resulted in dilemmas everywhere. In response to the issue, makeshift measures were taken, and the “educational background” of Otsuhi was certified..

By regarding “military background” as “educational background”, a unified “educational background” system centering on schools belonging to the Ministry of Education was reconstructed. Former Otsuhi were discriminated in the late 1940s and developed resentment of post-war Japan. It was treated as if the issue had been cleared up by certifying “educational background” in the early 1960s. As a result, the issue concerning Fallen Naval Aviator Preparatory Course Trainees (Yokaren-kuzure) was disregarded.