This study examines how the ideas of keishin (worship of the imperial ancestors) and sūso (ancestor worship) were introduced into the elementary school morality textbooks in the process of reorganizing national morality in Japan in the 1910s. It also attempts to clarify the dilemmas involved in this introduction in juxtaposition to freedom of religion stipulated in the Constitution of the Empire of Japan and the actual customs of people at that time.

　Despite the ideas of keishin and sūso being significant elements within the theory of national morality in the 1910s, previous studies regarding this topic have not considered their influence on primary education. This study reveals that national textbook content related to keishin and sūso increased from the first term to the second term, and that the trend continued in the third term. Although the description of keishin appeared to require worship at the Imperial Grand Shrine, it did not emphasize the divinity of the emperor; instead, it described the religious services of ancestor worship performed by the emperor, in detail, and required imperial subjects to imitate the same. In the description of sūso, traditional indigenous religious services were also emphasized for implementation.

　This content reflects the dilemma of national moral theory. Scholars thought that religiosity, through keishin and sūso, was effective in inculcating moral education. However, in consideration of freedom of religion, it was necessary to eliminate religiosity in public school education. Therefore, keishin and sūso had to be formulated in a manner distanced from religious beliefs. The Challenge of textbooks was in describing the format of keishin and sūso religious services in detail and encourage its implementation without emphasizing imperial divinity. This policy was based on jinja hi shukyoron (the theory that the Shinto shrine was not a religion).

　In the Taisho New Education Movement that ensued from the 19th century to the early 20th century, teachers tried to break away from uniform teaching methods and searched for new ways of guidance. However, previous research did not sufficiently examine the teacher’s view of guidance, and the evaluation of guidance at that time remained ambiguous until now. Therefore, this paper attempts to elucidate contemporary teachers’ views of guidance by focusing on Tsurui Shigekazu, who worked in the Elementary School attached to Nara Women’s Higher Normal School.

　Previous research reveals that Kinoshita Takeji, the school’s director, proposed environmental improvement theory as one of the new teaching methods, and Tsurui also incorporated it into his practice. While Kinoshita’s theory of environmental improvement was the subject of analysis in previous research, the teacher’s understanding of environmental improvement and the process that led to such understanding was not. Therefore, this paper clarifies the development of the view of guidance by focusing on Tsurui’s understanding of environmental improvement.

　The findings are as follows. When Tsurui began his integrated study, he reached an impasse in his practice. To resolve this problem, he researched environmental concepts and formed a new concept of environmental improvement. As a result, he understood that environmental improvement should be done not only by the teacher but also by the children themselves. Also, he came to recognize that environmental improvement by teachers meant that providing facilities and space for children to improve the environment determined by children’s learning situation would awaken children’s sense of necessity for environmental improvement.

　Therefore, Tsurui understood that “guidance” was not to convey the predetermined content to children but to set up places and situations where children could create their learning environment.

　This study investigates the use of radio among Japanese youth groups during the 1930s and 1940s by focusing on the discussions and activities regarding youth “Group Listening” organizations. During this period, radio receivers became widespread and standard, and their usage was systematically implemented. By referring to historical documents comparing broadcast media (radio) and publication media, this study found that during the years leading up to the Second World War, broadcast media or radio was identified as a means to quickly increase national consciousness, which could not be achieved by conventional media such as publication media. Therefore, the proposition was to organize a body of youth group members who would listen to radio broadcasts through the dissemination of “Group Listening” efforts throughout the country. In order to facilitate this, a radio receiver was installed for each youth group. As a result of this initiative, radio-based group learning became widespread in Japan in the 1930s and 1940s.This movement is said to have been succeeded by the “Rajio no tsudoi” (Group Listening), which spread as part of the CIE’s democratization policy during the occupation. This study reveals that there was an increased opportunity to link youth groups and their attitudes to educational discourse through listening to radio broadcasts and discussion.

　The establishment and expansion of school education that had been progressing by the 1930s resulted in the following issues regarding teacher training at the Tokyo Academy of Music. First was the relative uniqueness of the two courses: the main course, which issued secondary teachers’ licenses without examination, and the teacher training course, which required graduates to serve, had become problematic. Second, the conflicting aspects of general education and specialized education became apparent within the Academy over the “burden of elementary schools”; this became an important issue for music education studies that were being developed.

　In the early 1940s, the Academy planned to develop and expand the teacher training course, while also adding research in “auditory training” in elementary education, which was advocated by army officials. Principal Kaju Norisugi, the plan’s proponent, was aware that there were still difficulties and objections around teacher training and general education. In the end, the original intent of the reform was not fully accomplished as priority was given to responding to the wartime regime.

　Soon after Japan’s defeat in the war, the Tokyo Academy of Music’s faculty approved a reorganization plan that included abolition of the teacher training course. The plan also envisioned reforming teacher training in the main course and redefining the relationship between general education and specialized education; however, this was not implemented. This reorganization process not only relinquished the Academy’s core position in the music teacher training system, but also led to the failure to connect the developing music education studies with the music teacher training system.

　Through an analysis of CIE Conference Reports, this study examines how the occupying forces viewed and acted toward student self-government associations at Japan’s universities and the potential impact of these views and actions.

　Concerning the university’s views on student self-government and student self-government associations, CIE officials considered the associations as training grounds for democracy. Further, it encouraged both faculty and student self-government representatives to cooperate amicably in student self-government activities. However, these activities were limited to matters concerning the students themselves and did not allow student representatives to participate in the university’s internal administration, as some university student self-government associations had called for at the time. CIE Conference Reports indicate that CIE officials were concerned that student demands for participation in the school administration went too far.

　In 1948, as nationwide student movements became more frequent and student self-government associations strengthened their relationship with the Japanese Communist Party, meetings between CIE officials and student self-government representatives temporarily ceased. However, from 1949 onward, meetings were predominantly held with the newly established, and/or anti-Zengakuren (“All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations”) student self-government associations and coalition organizations. In these meetings, CIE officials clearly expressed a sense of urgency regarding the communization of student self-government associations and sought to advice and support student self-government organizations that attempted to counter this trend.

　It is quite possible that the views and actions of the occupying forces as described above influenced the formation and early activities of student self-government associations at Japan’s universities.

　This paper elucidates the characteristics of youth schools in Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule in comparison with youth schools in Japan proper.

　According to the school register of Ōhira Youth School and other historical sources, Ōhira Youth School differed from that of Japanese youth schools, in that it recruited by ethnicity, imposed examinations, and collected uniform fees instead of tuition. Unlike Japan’s youth schools, young men who applied for admission did not receive the privilege of shortening their period of military service (from 1935-1939) or the explicit coercion of making it compulsory (after 1939). However, it attracted certain applicants not only from other Taiwanese-only elementary schools in Taihoku City, but also from other provinces. In addition, the average attendance rate in 1939 was higher than that of Japanese youth schools in Taihoku city. Since the chance to obtain higher education after graduating from elementary schools was so limited, it is possible that Taiwanese young men applied for admission because they considered the youth school as a substitute for higher educational institutions.

　Some of the students at Ōhira Youth School were exceptional, who either passed the volunteer examination or served in the military. Prior to the introduction of the compulsory youth school system and conscription system in 1944, becoming a soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army was quite difficult for Taiwanese youth. This fact may have discouraged those who entered youth schools in the hope of some kind of career advancement. In addition, for Taiwanese young men who expected to continue their education after graduating from elementary schools, the lack of uniforms and full-time teachers could be seen as disappointing.

　This paper discusses aspects of the relationship between moral education and religious education in elementary schools in the late nineteenth century, based on the content of moral education as a secular subject developed by the Birmingham School Board. In England, the established church controlled mass education, and religious instruction was popularly moral education in elementary schools in the nineteenth century. However, secular moral education was taught within the national education system in some areas, and Birmingham was a prime example of this. In Birmingham’s board schools, moral education was a secular subject taught separately from religious instruction.

　This paper explores how the proponents of secular moral education, who sought to separate morality from religion, distinguished religion and morality by comparing the teacher’s manuals for the secular curriculum with the religious one. These proponents were looking for effective ways to impart moral virtues to children, especially those values of national importance. They deliberately and thoroughly excluded religious elements in the construction of their secular educational theories and methodologies. Secular moral education, in the English national education system at the end of the nineteenth century, was heavily influenced by the presence of religious education in the construction of theory.

　These findings points out that secular moral education at the time incorporated conflicts with religious education in order to construct its own logic of usefulness, and thereby inextricably linked to a strong awareness of religious education.

　This study traces the characteristics and contemporaneous positioning of citizenship education using extracurricular activities in the U. S. at the turn of the twentieth century. For this purpose, this study explores the design background, content, and characteristics of the educational method called “School City” developed by Wilson L. Gill (1851–1941), president of “The Patriotic League,” a progressive group that was active at the turn of the century. The study also examines the critical discussions about “School City” that took place in the National Municipal League from 1903 to 1905.

　First, Gill’s “School City” was introduced in 1897 to a summer vacation school on the Lower East Side of New York City, and it was successively introduced to various schools in the Northern U. S. and U. S. occupied Cuba. “School City” was an educational method that attempted to effectively realize citizenship education as Americanization by having students learn “American principles” and “ideals” experientially through the introduction of a student self-governing body with a separation of powers. However, as the policy of progressive reform shifted in the 1900s to the pursuit of “efficiency and frugality,” the complexity of “School City” and other factors were roundly criticized. Extra-curricular activities were reduced to being a means of enriching school life and reconsidered by school governments as being a part of citizenship education, rather than having overall responsibility for citizenship education.