This paper reveals the great controversy surrounding the process of determining Prewar Japan’s national flag regulations through an analysis of government approved textbook descriptions. National flag regulation long remained unsettled, with an intense debate raging through the 1920’s and 1930’s.During the 1920’s the Japanese government failed to model to the public consistent, official national flag customs which contributed to the persistent controversy, in that the government did not recommended the rising of the national flag in public space on holidays, etc.

Emphasis on national flags customs varied. As a result, diverse views continued to be disseminated even government approved Textbooks. In December, 1930, the government issued an official notice determining national flag customs. However, there was a great deal of public opinion opposed to the new regulation. Flag customs promulgated in textbooks published by the Ministry of Education even differed from one another. Even though the issue was discussed by the House of Representatives, the controversy remained unresolved. The prewar Japanese government was unable to standardize flag custom. In 1940, the issue was finally resolved; the Ministry of Education produced a textbook that finally adopted the December, 1930 official notice on flag customs.

Public records government approved textbooks, and Diet records were utilizes in the research for this paper.

The objective of this study is to elucidate the characteristics of “sagyoka,” which was established in the middle and upper primary grades of the Elementary School Attached to Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School in 1928, and reveal its relationship to various subjects of study and lower primary education. “Sagyoka” was regarded as a curriculum that added value to the material learned under various subjects through the implementation of objective-based activities and incorporated life studies courses, which were part of lower primary education, into the curricula of the middle and upper years. The logic of integrating various subjects into “sagyoka” was completely different from the approach based on compartmentalization into subjects designated by law, which can be seen in contemporary educational magazines. For example, the concept of “middle integrated learning” at the Elementary School Attached to Nara Women’s Higher Normal School depended on the logic of smoothly linking “wide integrated learning” from lower primary grades with “narrow integrated learning” based on the legally designated curriculum. Due to its design, which caused children to form natural connections with the subjects they learned by performing objective-based activities, “sagyoka” can be considered as an approach that fundamentally altered the very structure of the curriculum as well as children’s connection to it.

Because of the shallowness of the subject content, previous research on this period’s new curriculum at the Elementary School Attached to Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School has several limitations. However, the results of this study show that the significance of the new curriculum cannot be fully understood from the viewpoint of subject content alone because it is necessary to examine the position of the subjects within the curriculum as a whole.

During the Second Sino-Japanese war (1937-1941), there was an expansion of discourse and practice of “School Meetings” (gakko jokai), a term that here encompasses “Pupil Meetings” and “Children’s Neighborhood Groups.” This paper explores the trend of “School Meetings” discourse and its significance as a new method of drilling and training.

Specifically, this paper analyzes the formation and development of this discourse and practice by focusing on the “Federation for Citizen Disciplinary Education” (Kokumin Kun’iku Renmei) and the “Japan Young Teachers Association” (Nihon Seinen Kyoshidan).

In December, 1940, the “Federation for Citizen Disciplinary Education” held a workshop, inviting pioneering practitioners and theorists of “Morals Education” (hotoku kyoiku), thereby directly absorbing their know-how and theory. Thereafter, within the Federation, the practises that encourage children’s “virtues and merits” through “School Meetings,” and emphasize approach to the children’s inner side with “responsibility and compassion” were increased.

As for, the “Japan Young Teachers Association” developed the theories and practices of “School Meetings” through connections with policy strategists. Their methods emphasized having a “cooperative heart” and practicing “self-reflection” as well as the importance of “public service” and “drilling.”

“School Meetings” generated from the two “breeding grounds” both evoked “spontaneity” and “initiative” through “self-reflection” while removing self-assertion. This was inextricably linked to stifling feelings of children who were not committed themselves to drilling. The movement may be said to have exposed the limits of pedagogy.

This article places public vocational schools (Shokugyo-Gakko) for girls within the context of the history of women’s education by analyzing the education of girls at Sano Higher Practical School for Girls (Sano Koto Jissen Jogakko) in Osaka Prefecture.

In the rural areas of Osaka Prefecture during the 1930’s, public vocational schools for girls were established as an alternative to public girls’ high schools (Koto Jogakko). In the 1940’s, most of these vocational schools were converted into girls’ high schools. Sano Higher Practical School for Girls was one of them.

Sano Higher Practical School for Girls taught many of the same subjects as the girls’ high schools, but devoted more hours to sewing. Some graduates of the vocational school married immediately after graduation, others were employed at department stores, train stations, or in other fields, while others continued to train in sewing as preparation for marriage. The students in vocational schools regarded the students of the girls’ high schools with admiration and a sense of competitiveness. Students, their parents, and graduates wished for the vocational school to become a standard girls’ high school.

In the 1930’s, vocational schools were part of the increase in public secondary schools. They were training schools intended to promote the ideal of “Ryosai kenbo”, as were girls’ high schools. While the purpose of vocational and high schools were similar, vocational schools devoted more hours to sewing and held lower social status. Eventually vocational schools were promoted to girls’ high schools.

This paper analyzes agricultural education in Karafuto through an examination of the reorganization of the Karafuto Prefecture Colonial School established in 1934.

This colonial school was the first prefectural school to offer vocational education. It was modeled on the private educational institution run by Yokoo Sosaburo, the first minister of Agriculture and Forestry in Karafuto. The purpose of this school was to provide an education to nurture middle-class farmers; hence it focused on the teaching of practical skills in agriculture in the subarctic zone as well as preparing students mentally for the region’s harsh labor conditions.

In the first year, it fulfilled the minimum quota of students but in the following years it did not succeed in doing so. The two main reasons are: 1) the overemphasis on the teaching of practical skills, a fact that made it difficult to educate farmer leaders; and 2) Karafuto agriculture did not receive sufficient government subsidies to withstand the harsh labor conditions. IN an attempt to change this situation, Karafuto Prefecture promoted this school to an ‘official’ vocational school in 1939. With this reorganization, the school’s purpose shifted from its initial role of promoting social mobility through the teaching of practical agricultural skills to training middle-class farmers to be farmer leaders.

The colonial school was established as an institution that, different from the modern schools that focused on the teaching of theoretical knowledge, prioritized the teaching of practical skills in agriculture; nevertheless it is possible to say that this type of ‘special’ vocational school was not perceived as providing a more attractive education than ‘official’ vocational schools.

This paper aims to clarify the development of initiatives addressing problems of long-term absence and non-enrollment after World War II, focusing on Kobe City’s out-of-school education system known as homen kyoiku, begun in 1946, and later the visiting teacher system. The homen kyoiku program was formed in response to growing juvenile delinquency in which school teachers took on the responsibility to address the problem. In the 1950s, the program’s sphere of activity expanded to save long-term absent students as well as safety education. In the 1960s, the visiting teacher system was begun in Kobe City to help solve the problem of long-term school absence.

The findings of this study are as follows: (1) Long-term absence had become an urgent problem for schools in Kobe City through the 1960s, particularly in school districts which contained discriminated Burakumin communities. Despite the fact that the municipal board of education and schools tackled the issue of long-term absence with homen kyoiku, there was a limit to what school teachers could do, which led to the later implementation of the visiting teacher system. (2) Visiting teachers were conscious of the problem of discrimination and alienation behind students’ long-term school absence and violence. However, this does not imply that the problem was based completely on the underlying issues associated with discrimination; there still remained the challenge of solving the problem of dowa (social integration to eliminate discrimination).

The results of this study indicate that, although it is certain that these efforts served as a turning point in restoring human dignity to children facing inhumane social and living conditions, during the process of the development from homen kyoiku to the visiting teacher system in Kobe city, the visiting teacher system, let alone homen kyoiku, would not and could not fully resolve the problem of Burakumin discrimination which was inseparably linked to that of long-term absence.

Inspired by a larger question concerning the role of Christian church schools in Chinese women’s education in the 1920s, this article is a case study of that influence in regards to the problem of marriage. Concretely, it offers a comparative analysis of how the views on marriage and divorce of the Chinese woman Han Duanci were, after her death, developed by two camps; a Christian group represented by the missionary Laura M. White and Li Guanfang publishing in the journal Nüduo, and a group of Chinese intelligentsia connected with Han Duanci advocating their ideas in Funü Pinglun.

While previous research on private Christian church schools has primarily focused on their methods of “education” − and in particular their alleged positive effects on the emancipation of Chinese women − the analysis in this paper shows that ideas concerning “marriage” played a central role in the discourse on emancipation. On the one hand, while church schools expected a married woman to play a restricted role in public life, they primarily envisioned her social role directed towards the private life within the family. In contrast, the vision of Han Duanci aimed to expand the public role of women, arguing for their economic and moral independence, and advocating social change to accommodate such a new type of woman.

The findings of this paper thus suggest that in order to elucidate the problem of women’s emancipation in China during the 1920s, research must beyond education and include discourse on marriage, work, and social environment.

This paper reveals the 1905-1930 transformation of Shizangan (Zhishanyan in Chinese) into a Shrine. Previous research focused on the Shizangan Incident in colonial Taiwan, does not address how the Shizangan Incident developed into the Shizangan Spirit. Through the examination of official documents of the Governor-General of Taiwan, newspapers, and education magazines, this paper reveals how the Shizangan Spirit developed out of the annual commemorative ceremony.

This paper makes two arguments. First, the memorialization of the “Bo kyoikuka” (Deceased Educators) honored in the annual Shizangan Ceremony included an implicit, undeniable differentiation between Mainland Japanese and Taiwanese islanders. Second, the construction of a Shrine-like facility provided spiritual support for educators in Taiwan.

Generally speaking, the development of a place called “Shizangan Shrine” served a particular function in education in colonial Taiwan. The educational role that this place fulfilled is a theme for future consideration.

Picture books for children became popular in France during the 1930s. One series of picture books, called Albums du Père Castor (1931-), appeared under the influence of “The New Education Movement,” which flourished during that time, and was enthusiastically accepted in France and in its neighboring countries.

This paper explains how children and adults, especially parents, had to deal with these picture books, which were becoming popular. It also explains the influence of these picture books on childrearing at that time. Earlier studies on ≪ Albums du Père Castor ≫, do not focus on the parents’ relationship with Albums du Père Castor. This research analyzes prefaces of the series, written by editor Paul Faucher (1898-1967).

The conclusions of this paper are as follows:

1. Faucher regarded picture books as a means of reading education to young children and in the prefaces he explained to adults, especially mothers, the way to use these books. Albums du Père Castor played an important role in establishing a code of behavior for children and adults.

2. Fausher’s work produced a new concept in childrearing, in which a mother was expected to be an attentive educator, who had to be involved in her child’s character formation. The mother was expected to respect her child’s spontaneity and at the same time participate in the child’s educational games through picture books.