Current Status and Challenges in Digital Accessibility of Former Colonial Textbooks

Abstract

School textbooks of former colonies are an area what more studies are needed, as their contents differ from those of textbooks used in Japan at the time, and they are also important materials for understanding the educational ideas and customs of the time. Currently, a major issue is how to preserve old colonial textbooks and make them available to the public in digital format. In this paper, the status of digital public access to old colonial textbooks and teacher's manuals on the Internet in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan is surveyed, and issues for future digital public access to school textbooks of former colonies are discussed.