Talent is the hope of a country. Without a sustained talent outflow, a country will not have the motivation to move forward and will not be able to develop. Education is an important way to correctly cultivate the fresh blood of talents. Among them, historical education, as one of the major plates of education, affects the value orientation of the educated, and naturally it will easily affect the future destiny of the nation.
After the end of the Second World War, both the fascist countries of Japan and Germany were punished accordingly, and under this punishment, the two countries behaved very differently – Germany changed after this, reflected deeply on its responsibilities, and unreservedly told the next generation of its mistakes. But Japan, also a fascist country, behaved in the opposite way.
Compared with Germany's sincerity, Japan not only retained the original emperor system, but even glorified the war of aggression, characterizing its aggressive behavior as self-protection and necessity. And this erroneous concept not only brainwashes the ordinary people of Japan, but even the ruling class thinks so, and the education received by the younger generation in Japan is such a wrong education. This rejection and attempts to cover up mistakes have led its people to live in the wrong values for many years.
So why are the historical understandings of Germany and Japan diametrically opposed? What kind of historical understanding did they convey to their people about this period of history?
I. Historical Education in Germany and Japan
After World War II, Germany carried out profound reflection, in addition to political leaders, together with ordinary people also carried out profound reflection, in addition, Germany also did not hesitate to tear open the bloody historical scars, not only in the textbook to fully restore these histories, but also through the news, movies and other media means to further "propaganda", these historical truths to the next generation, and even through the law clearly stipulated that Nazi acts are criminal acts, So much so that every German is familiar with his or her own history and the history of the Nazis.
Under the control of the United States, they not only inherited the original erroneous militarist ideas, but also released The Class A war criminals in the war, tried their best to evade their original responsibilities, distorted the historical truth, and tried in vain to cover up the guilt they committed in history, resulting in many young Japanese generations not knowing much about historical facts, and even defending them.
II. Analysis of the Reasons why there are such great differences in history education between the two countries (geography, religion, ideology)
First, geographical factors
Japan is an island country, the land area is very small, the resources are relatively scarce, but the population is very large, the whole country relative to China to use the land of bullets to describe is not excessive, and this special geographical environment makes its land area completely insufficient to meet the growing needs of the country. Faced with this dilemma, Japan developed the idea of expanding its own territory through a war of aggression. Because this can be the most direct access to land, so as to get more living resources and space. Therefore, in the eyes of many Japanese people, foreign aggression is not wrong at all, but an inevitable act of contributing to Japan's development.
Compared with Japan, Germany's geographical location is relatively good, in the center of Europe, and many countries are connected to the land, although the country's resources are not rich, but it can be friendly with neighboring countries, and is not as isolated as Japan. Moreover, the lack of resources at home makes it necessary to have friendly exchanges with other countries, which is very different from Japan.
Second, the religious factor
In addition, the system of Japanese religion is more complicated, such as Taoism, Buddhism, and theology. The diversity of religions makes Japanese religions complex, and Japan itself is a small territory, and each religion has limited space, which makes the religions believed by the Japanese people complex.
Once religion is complicated, the faith must not be pure enough, and multi-faith is actually non-belief, and the Japanese are like this, so their so-called confession to God is nothing more than nonsense - especially in Japan's Shintoism, which believes that everyone will become a god after death, even if they have made the greatest mistake. Therefore, for the aggressors who invaded foreign countries, they not only did not reflect on their crimes, but even felt that they were national heroes.
The German religion is relatively simple, mainly only Christianity and Protestantism, but both religions have the "confession" theory, advocating that people must repent and admit their mistakes after doing wrong things, such a doctrine tells people that they should have a sense of guilt, and once they make mistakes, they must self-examine, and they can be at ease like the Japanese. So after the war, they were able to use the shortest amount of time to repent of their mistakes. Acknowledging mistakes is not something unspeakable for them, but a salvation for themselves, and only by repenting of their mistakes can they develop better.
Third, ideological factors
With regard to thought, I personally believe that this is also the most important of all factors. Compared to the German empathy, the Japanese have a refined sense of egoism. Some of them can turn a blind eye to the disasters they have brought to other countries, and even feel that the price that others pay for their own interests is necessary.
But once they hurt their own interests, they jump out and start blaming — for example, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, they presented themselves as victims, felt sorry for themselves by other countries, and even began to distort history, packaging this misplaced behavior as "legitimate aggression." In short, it is to put yourself in the position of a victim and glorify your behavior.
Third, the gap in the impact of historical education in Germany and Japan
After the end of the Second World War, the rule of the German fascists came to an end completely, and instead a new democratic regime came to power, and everyone from the leaders of the country to the ordinary people did not shy away from history, but sincerely apologized in the image of a "perpetrator", stood on the image of a responsible country in the world, and also held an educational attitude towards the young generation. The new Germany, under the conditions of "demilitarization", "de-Nazirification" and re-education, formed a complete break with the former Nazi rule, which made the country truly a democratic country.
Especially in terms of re-education, Germany has made young people realize the cruelty of the original Nazis, and through the transmission of correct values, the new generation of Germany has developed a correct concept of nationality and a correct view of history from adolescence, which is very great.
And it is precisely because of this responsible attitude that although Germany committed many serious crimes in World War II, the people of the world are still willing to accept this new Germany. Germany's approach after World War II gained the tolerance and respect of the people of the world, and this is also an important reason for Germany's rapid development after World War II.
Compared with Germany, Japan's original militarist forces have not been swept away because of the "tolerance" of the United States, young people still receive a rigid ideological education of loyalty and patriotism, and the power of the emperor is still sacred and inviolable.
In addition, as mentioned above, Japan's thinking attitude towards this period of history is an evasive thinking, which makes the Japanese youth and the German youth have a sharp contrast, one is responsible and loves peace and reunification, and the other is mostly indifferent and ignorant.
summary
In fact, history should have been based on history as a mirror to understand the gains and losses, but Japanese historians have been deliberately concealing and even distorting history.
Even now, when some people in Japan finally "pluck up the courage" to apologize to history, they are puzzled by many young people, and even lead to many young people's distrust of the Japanese government.
A matter that could have been solved very well, Japan had to bury the truth through lies, which led to more and more lies and more and more psychological guilt.