青年訓練所の入所督励策 : 入所者確保の試行錯誤が形成するその実像

抄録

Seinen Kunrenjo (SK) were part-time schools for working adolescent males, established in 1926, with a curriculum made up four subject areas: the humanities and natural sciences, national moral and civic studies, vocational education, and military training. Up until now, this unique system was regarded as a symbol of the militaristic invasion into the domain of education. It can be said that such opinions largely focus on the purpose of SKs. While accepting these assumptions for the most part, this paper puts a different spin on the topic of the purpose of SKs' through a discussion of the tactics used to entice working youth to utilize SKs. Contrary to the expectations of bureaucrats, the implementation of such tactics was a series of trial and error, resulting partly in failure. The measures taken to lessen some of these difficulties, however, imbued SKs with two unique characteristics. First, SKs became a way for young men at the bottom of society to get better jobs; second, SKs provided some with a chance to get a head start in the military career. The situation faced by young working men in the 1920s-1930s will first be discussed, as well as the extent that SKs were used. It will become clear that there were very serious problems with the SK system, specifically, a serious plateau in admission rates and a high number of dropouts (chapter 1). The process of how Japanese military bureaucrats attempted to deal with these problems will be examined next, as well as the ad hoc strategy that inevitably created contradictions within the SK system (chapter 2). However, even with such contradictions, it is still important to note that those who graduated from SKs were put in an advantageous position if they were "selected" to join the army. The relationship between these two systems indicates their organic link, which cannot simply be explained away by military domination of education (chapter 3). Finally, the importance of SKs for those graduates will be discussed, particularly regarding its value in the job market. While SKs graduates were given special access to major companies, the most important point is that such benefits resulted from measures taken by local officials to promote SKs. To improve SKs suffering from admission rate plateaus and numerous dropouts, local officials encouraged some companies to recognize SK graduation as an established educational qualification (chapter 4). These facts indicate a SKs new characteristic. That is, they were not only a symbol of the domination of education by militarism, but also social institutions those which improve individual employment opportunities.