Asia in AP , IB , and Undergraduate Honors Courses
RESOURCES TEACHING RESOURCES ESSAYS
Perhaps surprisingly , the researchers generally did not find disagreement among the textbooks on historical facts ( with some notable exceptions ). However , they did find sharp contrasts in which facts were selected , emphasized , and omitted , and how those facts were incorporated into an overarching historical narrative .
For example , compare the three passages on Nanjing below , each excerpted from a different textbook — American , Japanese , or Chinese . Can you guess the country of origin for each textbook excerpt ? Textbook A : The crimes committed by Japanese troops in the areas they occupied were so many that they could never be recorded completely . Japanese troops carried out barbarian slaughters in occupied areas . In December 1937 , after the invading Japanese troops occupied the Chinese capital of Nanjing , they carried out a well organized and planned six-week-long slaughter of innocent residents and Chinese troops who had already put aside their weapons . The victims numbered more than 300,000 .
Textbook B : The Japanese Army continued to fight fierce battles with the Chinese Army , and in December they had occupied the Chinese Nationalist capital of Nanjing , where a reported 200,000 people , including soldiers , prisoners , and noncombatants , were killed , and incited numerous instances of looting , arson , and rape ( Nanjing Massacre ).
Textbook C : Japanese troops in China had killed hosts of civilians , often after torturing them , when they captured cities that had tried to hold out . In Nanking , for example , as many as 300,000 were killed after the city had fallen .
Aside from the obvious disagreement in death count ( ranging from “ a reported 200,000 ” to “ more than 300,000 ”), these passages do not actually contradict each other . Nevertheless , their differing tones and narratives convey starkly divergent impressions of the events in Nanjing . In this respect , these passages are fairly representative of the more than 100 excerpts analyzed ; even when they agree on facts , they tell different stories . 1 ( Answers : Textbook A : China . Textbook B : Japan . Textbook C : United States .)
As a second example , compare the three passages on the atomic bombings of Japan below , each excerpted from a different textbook — Taiwanese , South Korean , or Chinese . Can you guess the country of origin for each textbook excerpt ? Textbook D : Early in the thirty-fourth year [ 1945 ], the Nationalists , armed with US-made equipment , waged war in Xiangxi in April and May , dealing a heavy blow against Japan . From then onwards , the Nationalist army began to shift from a defending to attacking stance and launched offensives in targeted areas . With the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US , Japan approached a dead end and announced its unconditional surrender on August 14 .
Textbook E : On August 6 and 9 , 1945 , the US respectively attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs , which caused the deaths of 300,000 people . On August 8 , the USSR declared war against Japan and surrounded and annihilated the Japanese troops in northeastern China . At the same time , anti-Japanese military forces and people in China launched a general counterattack on Japanese troops . With nowhere to go , on September 2 Japan formally signed the instrument of unconditional surrender . The Anti-Fascist World War II concluded with success .
Textbook F : [ No mention of the atomic bombings ]
Again , these passages do not directly contradict each other , yet they tell quite different stories . Of particular interest to American educators is probably Textbook F , since it tells no story at all about the atomic bombings — an event that , in the American mind , is among the most significant of the twentieth century . 2 How can a history textbook possibly leave it out ? Such omissions , in and of themselves , teach us about how historical memory is being shaped in these societies . 3 ( Answers : Textbook D : Taiwan . Textbook E : China . Textbook F : South Korea .)
As a final example , compare the three passages below regarding comfort women , each excerpted from a Chinese , Japanese , or South Korean textbook . Textbook G : The reality of comfort women : Imperial Japan , as it extended its wars of aggression since around 1932 , took Korean , Chinese , and Taiwanese women to its military bases under the slogan of “ preventing rapes committed by soldiers , checking for venereal infections , and stopping a leakage of military secrets .” Deprived of their human rights , the comfort women were forced to provide sexual work throughout imperial Japan ’ s occupied territories including Manchuria , China , Myanmar , Malaysia , Indonesia , Papua New Guinea , and various islands in the Pacific , Japan , and Korea .
Those who did not return to their native countries after the war were deserted in the fields , forced to commit suicide , or were slaughtered . The comfort women who were lucky enough to come back to their hometowns also had to suffer from social alienation , a sense of shame , and weakened physical conditions throughout the rest of their lives .
Textbook H : Many women from Korea were sent to Japanese factories as volunteer corps or the battlefront as comfort women .
Textbook I : [ No mention of comfort women ]
These passages do not conflict with each other factually , yet their inclusion and omission of information leave the reader with very different impressions . Of the three textbooks , only Textbook G devotes any real attention to the topic , explicitly naming and describing the conscription , work , and ultimate fates of the comfort women . By contrast , Textbook H mentions comfort women only in passing , and Textbook I makes no mention of them at all . Even ignoring the excerpts ’ tone , diction , and narrative , just a simple comparison of word count can suggest the relative importance of this issue in each society . Can you guess the country of origin for each passage ? ( Answers : Textbook G : South Korea . Textbook H : Japan . Textbook I : China ). 4
Classroom Connections The multinational comparative nature of the “ Divided Memories ” project provides a golden opportunity to help students recognize history textbooks — and history itself — as things that are constructed . By leveraging passages like those above , we can inspire and empower students to identify bias in the world around them , participate in critical historical inquiry , and develop a better understanding of the processes of interpreting , constructing , and transmitting history .
Such an exploration of East Asia ’ s “ history wars ” can fit especially well into courses like AP World History and AP US History that specifically aim to sharpen students ’ document analysis and historical thinking skills . 5 For example , the nine essential historical thinking skills enumerated in the AP curriculum frameworks — ranging from comparison and contextualization to argumentation — align nicely with the learning objectives of the “ Divided Memories ” project . The AP ’ s “ historical interpretation ” skill in particular echoes a core objective of the project , affirming that students should consider how the “ contexts in which individual historians work …
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