Abstract
This paper examines various aspects of the school system in the 1930s, aiming to discover a historical place for the acceptance of human development brought about by Japanese schools. As observed in proposals to redefine secondary education on the basis of the universalization of higher education, the present debate aims to re-evaluate the school establishment. These debates are based on the notion of human development by schools, yet these fail to consider the historicity of the idea itself. This paper identifies the present indicator of the acceptance of schools as having transitioned from compulsory education to the desire to and act of moving on to a higher-level school. The school system of this period originated with significant developments in the trend to pursue higher levels of education, which appeared in the 1930s as advancement to higher elementary schools and finally to the subsequent post-elementary education. Furthermore, this paper examines and attempts to find a historical place for various aspects of the acceptance of schools in the 1930s, while referencing the actual state of affairs surrounding such school articulation. In the 1930s, the ordinary elementary schools that took charge of building a national citizenry with the aim of national unification weakened their self-contained education and began to face challenges regarding articulation with schools at higher levels as the behavior of seeking further education after compulsory education became popular. The demand for advancement to secondary schools increased and the advancement to higher elementary schools became ordinary. Furthermore, a situation in which a large number of individuals entered the business world after further attending post-elementary educational institutions began to take shape. When male students' attendance at the youth schools established to integrate post-elementary educational institutions was made compulsory, policymakers were aware of these realities and were viewing the construction of conduits to the military and public safety measures as political challenges. Such schools targeted the youths who left from the school establishment in ordinary elementary schools for continued school education under the category of "youth education." This was accomplished in post-elementary educational institutions that were not clearly designated as schools, in contrast with elementary and middle schools. New challenges such as building connections with the business world and the military (conscription) caused various difficulties, and solutions were apparently needed. Moreover, a process of trial and error was enacted toward those youths not targeted in adolescence for school education; that is, youths and youth culture shaped by principles and formulas in which the region dictated human development and the new generation assumed the occupations practiced by the old. Within such informal educational culture, people had not become to accept schools until schools arranged themselves along with the youth culture. The formation of self occurred in accordance with two sets of principles, school-related and non-school-related. This was also an attempt to respond to a new state of affairs in which teachers practiced their occupations, considering principles of the regional community. The experience of being included in school in the 1930s prepared public acceptance of schools and the ground of stability of the postwar 6-3-3-4 educational system.
