21
THE 20TH CENTURY
THROUGH HISTORIOGRAPHIES
AND TEXTBOOKS
CHAPTERS FROM JAPAN, EAST ASIA, SLOVENIA
AND SOUTHEAST EUROPE
THE 20TH CENTURY
THROUGH
HISTORIOGRAPHIES
AND TEXTBOOKS
CHAPTERS FROM JAPAN,
EAST ASIA, SLOVENIA AND
SOUTHEAST EUROPE
EDITORS
ŽARKO LAZAREVIĆ
NOBUHIRO SHIBA
KENTA SUZUKI
Ljubljana 2018
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
ZALOŽBA INZ
Odgovorni urednik dr. Aleš Gabrič
ZBIRKA VPOGLEDI 21
ISSN 2350-5656
Žarko Lazarević, Nobuhiro Shiba, Kenta Suzuki (eds.)
THE 20TH CENTURY THROUGH
HISTORIOGRAPHIES AND TEXTBOOKS
CHAPTERS FROM JAPAN, EAST ASIA, SLOVENIA AND
SOUTHEAST EUROPE
Recenzenta dr. Danijela Trškan
dr. Shigemori Bučar Chikako
Jezikovni pregled Eva Žigon
Oblikovanje Barbara Bogataj Kokalj
Založnik Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino
Tisk Medium d.o.o.
Naklada 300 izvodov
Izid knjige je podprla Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost
Republike Slovenije
CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji
Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana
94(100)"19"(082)
The 20th century through historiographies and textbooks :
chapters from Japan, East Asia, Slovenia and Southeast Europe
/ editors Žarko Lazarević, Nobuhiro Shiba, Kenta Suzuki. Ljubljana : INZ, 2018. - (Zbirka Vpogledi ; 21, ISSN 2350-5656)
ISBN 978-961-6386-89-0
1. Lazarević, Žarko
297387008
© 2018, Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed,
hired out, transmitted, published, adapted or used in any other way, including
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form without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case
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Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
CONTENTS
Nobuhiro Shiba – Žarko Lazarević: Preface . . . . . . . . . . ...................................................... 5
1. Textbooks . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...................................................... 9
Luka Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology ................... 11
Andrej Bekeš: History Textbook Discourse from the Point of View of
Writer-Reader Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................... 33
Dragica Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in A Building
New Identity and Historical Consciousness in the Yugoslav State (1918–1941) .......... 45
Takuya Momma: Educational Policy as Propaganda for Youth in the Independent
State of Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................... 65
Shinichi Ishida: Territorial Disputes in Geography and History Textbooks:
Descriptions in East Asia and Southeastern Europe .................................................. 79
2. Historiographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................................... 95
Peter Vodopivec: Slovene Historiography on the 20th Century ...................................... 97
Hiroshi Mitani: A Japanese Historiography of Reconciliation Efforts with East Asian
Neighbors: Before and After the History Textbook Dispute in 2001 ............................ 113
Žarko Lazarević: After the Civil War: Social Divisions and History ............................... 127
Yoshihiro Endo: Some Characteristics of the Research on the War in Croatia
in Croatian and Serbian Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................... 141
Aleš Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese ........................... 149
Noboru Hirayama: The Community of “Experience” and “Mood”: Pilgrimage Tourism
to Ise Jingu in the Early 20th century Japan . . . . . . . . . . ................................................... 177
3. Personalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................... 189
Boštjan Bertalanič: Lt. Col. Yanagawa Heisuke and the Demarcation of Prekmurje:
A Japanese Account of the the Yugoslav-Hungarian Border Commission's Activities
in 1921–1922 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................................... 191
Riko Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974): a Central European Pianist
and the Japanese Reception of Western Music in the Early 20th Century ..................... 203
Nobuhiro Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović
and His Early Life: An Introduction for Studying a ‘Marginal Man’ ............................. 221
Notes on the Contributors .......................................................................................................239
4
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
Preface
Preface
This volume is a product of the four workshops we conducted as part of
the Second Bilateral Joint Research Projects between Slovenia and Japan, which
took place in Ljubljana and Tokyo from 2014 to 2016 with the financial support of the Slovenian Research Agency and Japan Society for Promotion of
Science (JSPS). Our joint research was given the title “A Comparative Analysis
of the 20th Century in Slovenia and Japan through Historiography and History
Textbooks”.
The results of the First Bilateral Joint Research Project were published in
Ljubljana in 2013 as a book entitled School History and Textbooks: A Comparative
Analysis of History Textbooks in Japan and Slovenia1. At the First Bilateral Joint
Research Project the following five points were discussed:
1) A comparison of the changes in the systems of history education and textbooks after Slovene independence in 1991 and after World War II in Japan
from the viewpoint of regional history and national history,
2) Considering Slovene history education in the Former Yugoslavia and
Japanese history education in East Asia from a wider perspective,
3) The possibility of history textbook studies as a field of area studies,
4) The formation of a network between historians and history teachers in each
country,
5) The promotion of confidence-building between historians and linguists.
The Second Bilateral Joint Research Project started on the basis of the abovementioned discussions. The main purpose of the Project was to compare the
great changes of the 20th century in Slovenia and Japan through not only the
1
Shiba, Nobuhiro, Gabrič, Aleš, Suzuki, Kenta, Lazarević, Žarko (eds.). School History and Textbooks:
A Comparative Analysis of History Textbooks in Japan and Slovenia. Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo
zgodovino, 2013.
5
6
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
countries’ respective history textbooks, but also their historiography from an
interdisciplinary point of view.
The 20th century is considered a very significant period in historiography. The
whole century was marked with deep geopolitical, economic and social changes.
State politics, economies and societies took on new shapes through many transformations, and new forms of economic and social life were introduced. In the case of
20th century we can distinguish two turning points; two watersheds which strongly affected historical developments in regional terms. The first one was WWI and
WWII and the ensuing postwar reality and the second was the end of the Cold
War (the transition period) with the subsequent collapse of the communist regimes in Europe and Asia and Soviet Central Asia, which in East Asia transformed
itself into the communist party led capitalism we see today in China and Vietnam
or remained basically unchanged, as in North Korea. Each of these events had a
significant influence on creating new historical identities on the level of societies,
interest groups and individuals, since the changes in geopolitical terms, statehoods
and political and economic regimes were far-reaching. The establishment of a new
identity framework that would enable different societies and individuals to legitimize their positions in the new social-political reality was a continuing process
and an integral part of the historical developments in this century. This process
did not emerge all of a sudden, but was created over time and under specific social
circumstances - to which it also had to adapt. History was and is still an important
factor, which we emphasize here as the assertion of our main thesis. From the aspect of society as a whole as well as its political, economic and cultural elites and
individuals, the question of the historical substantiation of the political, cultural,
social and economic character of societies had now become very important.
Such changes did not occur only on an internal level or on the level of individual states/societies, but also within the international framework. Our thesis
was that after each great change, the analyzed regions were faced with the processes of reinterpretation of history due to the changes in the societal system(s)
of values, priorities and perceptions. Furthermore, we claim that these reinterpretations were first elaborated in the historiography and gradually transmitted
to the history textbooks. In a way, we can talk about the “battle for history”, the
“battle” for the interpretation of history from the aspect of the socio-economic
positions of interest groups or individuals, with the intent of legitimizing their
current positions, relations and interactions - also on the international level
within the framework of international relations. The notion of the international
environment and international relations is very important from the aspect of
both analyzed regions. The basic concept of the project therefore represented
a comparative and multi-disciplinary research study and interpretation of the
Preface
genesis, dynamics and typological process structure of identity concepts in Japan
and East Asia and in Slovenia in comparison to the Southeast European region.
Our aim was to carry out an interdisciplinary historical and linguistic comparative analysis of changes and the prevalence of predominant historical discourses (coexistence or conflict relation) from the viewpoint of contents, re/
interpretations and linguistic structural characteristics. With this we focused
on the definition and comparison of changing re/interpretations in the national
historiographies/monographs, on inter/national history as a whole, and the reflections of these changes in the history textbooks printed after World War II
in the above mentioned two different cultural environments and sets of values.
Analyses of such societal contexts are important for the understanding of the
social mentality as well as the role of history in a given society in order to better understand the “battle for history”. The basic research issue of the project
was precisely the interaction between the social environment and the structures,
contents and interpretations of history at the level of historiography and history textbooks and their mutual interdependence in historical perspective on
both the national and the international level. We could not necessarily attain all
objectives, but are confident that some positive results may have been produced
nonetheless.
Nobuhiro Shiba – Žarko Lazarević
7
8
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
9
Predgovor
TEXTBOOKS
10
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
Luka Culiberg
SOME THOUGHTS
ON SCHOOL,
EDUCATION,
HISTORY AND
IDEOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
Ever since Cicero’s quote on history being “life’s teacher”, we keep asking
ourselves rhetorically whether we learn anything from history. At the same time,
we take great pleasure in repeating ad nauseam how history keeps repeating
itself. The two stipulations are in themselves contradictory, for if we had learned
anything from history, we surely would not keep repeating all of our historical mistakes. After every war we keep declaring emphatically how we should
#neveragain allow something like that to happen and how we certainly should
#neverforget past traumatic events. Yet before long, we seem to completely forget and do all those things to each other all over again with the same vigor and
11
12
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
passion. Wars, oppression, racism, colonialism, poverty etc. are phenomena we
witness being repeated, no matter how many times we seem to have taken their
historical lessons.
In this sense history not only repeats itself, but as Marx bitterly observed,
usually repeats itself in a farcical way. Not only did we learn nothing, but we also
tend to repeat all the same mistakes with ever greater enthusiasm and resolve.
How is that possible? Interestingly enough, we can find the answer to this question in our initial reference on history as “life’s teacher”, but we need to read that
famous quote by Cicero in its entirety. What Cicero said in that quote from De
oratore, was not that history is magistra vitae in itself, but that it becomes such
through the voice of the orator.1 History is not just there – an objective “truth”
waiting to be discovered and systematically described by a scientist. It is through
historical discourse that history is created.
Any attempt at struggling for (or at least thinking about) a conflict free society is usually ridiculed as utopian. It is widely believed that there is no perfect
system, and that liberal democracy is simply the best from among all the bad systems devised so far by humankind. In this sense, the United States of America
stand at the apex of history as the greatest system human society could ever
have produced and indeed ever has produced; not a perfect system, but the best
among all possible systems. This “no alternative” position naturally provides the
viewpoint from which we can interpret any US action; namely, it provides moral
legitimacy through a premise that the US essentially tries to do good even when
it fails in the attempt. Dropping Atomic bombs on the civilian population of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Problematic, sure, but executed in the pursuit of the
greater historical cause of stopping the evil Empire of Japan. The wars in Korea,
Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or any other military intervention? Forced regime
changes in other countries financed or carried out by US government agencies?
Extrajudicial executions? Torture? All problematic no doubt, but at the same
time necessary to achieve the goal of exporting freedom and democracy and
stopping “bad hombres”2 who try to undermine the liberty and spreading of the
American dream.
Historical discourse is of course firmly rooted in political power. As long
as the US is the world’s dominant power, history provides it with the moral
high-ground, no matter how often the noble ideals of “the land of the free” are
1
2
“Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis, qua voce
alia nisi oratoris immortalitati commendatur?”.
“President Donald Trump threatened in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart to send U.S.
troops to stop “bad hombres down there” unless the Mexican military does more to control them
itself, according to an excerpt of a transcript of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-threatens-mexico-over-bad-hombres-234524
(accessed 2018/05/23).
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
trampled upon. It is remarkable how historical discourse managed to reinvent
a country which was founded through the colonization of land and resources
while carrying out genocide against the native population and turn it through its
War of Independence from a colonist into a victim of a European colonial empire. The US renounced the King, introduced democracy and declared itself the
land of opportunities. It is indeed noble, almost utopian, to establish a society
based on the self-evident truths “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Later on, the same society even erected a
statue dedicated to Liberty, and they put a sign on it, generously inviting: “Give
me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
This is the historical narrative of the American Dream. The fact that
America is the land of the free, the land of opportunity and of liberty, is a historical fact engraved in stone, not ever to be put to doubt, not even when in the
1750s Benjamin Franklin lamented how immigrants are stupid and they don’t
learn the language, by which he was referring to Germans, or when in considering New York’s Constitution, for instance, John Jay – who was later to become
the first chief justice of the Supreme Court – suggested erecting “a wall of brass
around the country for the exclusion of Catholics.”3 Neither were we to doubt the
moral superiority of this society when by 1790 the first federal citizenship law
restricted naturalization to “free white persons” who had been in the country for
two years, nor when harsh “anti-coolie” laws later singled out the Chinese.
It may seem natural to a large percentage of US citizens that immigrants of
the Muslim religion should be perceived as a possible threat to the safety of the
country and that President Trump’s Executive Order banning the immigration
of citizens of several predominantly Muslim countries during his first week in
the office is a reasonable political decision, but few would see any sense in trumpeting the dangers Germans or Catholics pose to the safety of the US today.
Historically however, they had nevertheless been the target of similar fearmongering. The French also had warranted suspicion and there were other worrisome
“aliens”, too. A wave of “wild Irish” refugees was thought to harbor dangerous
radicals. And of course, the millions of “involuntary” immigrants from Africa
and their offspring were regarded merely as persons “held to service”.4 Yet all this
racism and xenophobia have always been declared in the name of freedom and
safety for the people.
3
4
Davis, Kenneth C. The Founding Immigrants. The New York Times (July 3, 2007) http://www.nytimes.
com/2007/07/03/opinion/03davis.html.
Ibid.
13
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
In the second half of the 19th century the Yellow Peril racism against the Chinese
became so intense that it led to physical attacks. Outbursts of violence, individual and collective, directed at the Chinese, had punctuated California’s history from the beginnings of immigration to the state. Occasionally the violence
had taken on the dimensions of full-scale riots. In 1871, for example, a major
disturbance in Los Angeles had taken nineteen Chinese lives.5 Consequently,
the “Chinese Exclusion Act” was signed into law on May 6, 1882, by President
Chester A. Arthur.
The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed
entry into the United States through a national origins quota. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia.6 The Immigration Act also included a provision
excluding from entry any alien who by virtue of race or nationality was ineligible
for citizenship. Existing nationality laws dating from 1790 and 1870 excluded
people of Asian lineage from naturalizing. As a result, the 1924 Act meant that
even Asians not previously prevented from immigrating – the Japanese in particular – would no longer be admitted to the United States.7
When Japan declared war to the US, President Roosevelt signed Executive
Order 9066 in 1942, which allowed the incarceration of Japanese Americans in
concentration camps built along the West coast. Between 110,000 and 120,000
people of Japanese ancestry living on the Pacific coast were incarcerated, 62 percent of whom were United States citizens. From a historical perspective, Trump’s
political decisions are neither unprecedented nor “un-American”. They are simply a repetition of a long history of populism and fearmongering.
THE HISTORICAL DISCOURSE IN JAPAN
Popular and institutional racism, the justified or unjustified wars that the
United States have fought and still are fighting around the world, do not call
for a revision or any kind of nation-wide contrition, because the history of the
United States is a story of success. Japan, however, is an altogether different story.
The Japanese historical discourse is much more complex in this respect. To put
it simply, it is a narrative of a country with a long history stretching back to the
Neolithic age, a country with the longest tradition of unbroken imperial lineage
beginning in the mythological times of heavenly descent to Earth, and a country
5
6
7
McLain, Charles J. In Search of Equality: The Chinese Struggle Against Discrimination in NineteenthCentury America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994, p. 173.
Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State https://history.
state.gov/milestones/1921–1936/immigration-act.
Ibid.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
with a unique and often incomprehensible culture. It is a story of a country that
has isolated itself from the rest of the world from the 17th century onwards, but
when the rest of the world became too impatient with this isolation by the middle of the 19th century, Japan decided to follow the Western course and transformed itself with almost miraculous speed from a traditional feudal society into
a modern, industrial, capitalist and imperialist nation.
At first it inspired some awe in the West for its success at beating China and
Russia and it even became an inspiration to the Asian colonies as an example of
an Asian country standing up to the West while successfully modernizing itself.
But then the Japanese imperialist and colonial appetites went too far, clashing
with Western interests while at the same time alienating the country’s Asian
admirers. The friendship between Japan and the US turned sour and instead of
conceding to Western interests, Japan decided to take its chances with a fullfledged confrontation. After years of fighting and two atomic bombs, democracy
and liberty could finally prevail in Japan as well.
The historical discourse in Japan is structured as a success story during the
time of the first modernization of the Meiji period up until the moment the
country and its people were kidnapped by the fanatic nationalistic militarists
with evil ambitions of conquering the world. They were eventually stopped by
the Allied Powers, followed by what is generally understood as the country’s
second story of success: Japan’s growing economic power and its reinvention as
a nation of peace.
The Japanese historical narrative therefore contains a break in its success
story; it is a narrative of two success stories, the one of the Meiji period and another one after the Pacific War, interrupted by the evil episode for which Japan
must admit its guilt and express feelings of remorse. However, not everyone today subscribes to this narrative, and thus, contrary to US history, the Japanese
historical narrative seems to be much more precarious. The official discourse is
being challenged – both in political discourse and through the media dispute of
alternative textbooks for school history.8
The reasons for this specific narrative structure can be explained in the following way: first, school history per se is generally understood to be the story of
the certain nation in question. The narrative is therefore by definition structured
8
Roger B. Jeans addressed what he terms as misperception in mainstream thinking about Japanese
views of their World War II record. He challenged this misperception about monolithic views on
Japanese war history by examining the exhibits and descriptive literature of Japanese “war” and
“peace” museums as well as recent struggles over how to depict Japan’s wartime record in school
textbooks showing that rather than a unified “Japanese” view of the war, the reality is a struggle in
which conservatives and right-wingers duel with moderates and leftists over the “correct history”
of the war. Jeans, Roger. Victims or Victimizers? Museums, Textbooks, and the War Debate in
Contemporary Japan. Journal of Military History, Vol. 69, No. 1, 2005, p. 149.
15
16
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
in a teleological way resulting in the only possible outcome: the present state of
the nation. It can have its ups and downs, but it can never be negated in its essence; the nation can never be bad, evil or discredited in any other fundamental
way. The story of a nation is always based on a certain amount of pride, be it in
its glorious endurance in the face of enmity, be it in its cultural achievements
and its unique tradition, or in its civilizational success of universal cultural hegemony. The nation itself is never a historical perpetrator; it is the regime taking
its nation hostage that is to be blamed.
The accounts of war from the point of view of the defeated nation are therefore always imbued with traumatic experience. Japanese historical discourse oscillates within the triad of hero/victim/perpetrator, depending on the institution
through which it is being reproduced, be it museum exhibits, textbooks, anime
films or popular comics.9 As a nation, Japan remembers itself at once as the perpetrator nation which was also victimized by the atomic bombings, yet capable
also of fighting daring battles.10 However, the balance between the triple structure of this war-time memory varies depending on the individual discourse and
there are many for whom any narrative that emphasizes the atrocities perpetrated by the Imperial Army in East Asia comes to be perceived as “masochistic history”. Any historical discourse which is self-deprecating is considered an anomaly, a perversion, like a twisted enjoyment of self-torture and thus unhealthy and
unsuitable for young generations who should grow up learning love and pride for
their nation instead of being burdened by feelings of guilt and remorse.
In this sense, historical narrative has nothing to do with “truth”, but has
everything to do with perception. It is a political question concerning the nature
of knowledge and the purpose this knowledge should serve. As Shimazu Naoko
points out, within the sphere of the “politics of knowledge” the question of how
to interpret one’s national past is a jealously guarded and highly contested territory, namely one of who gets to write the “official” national history.11 Hein
and Selden wittily observe how textbook controversies reveal one important
way that societies negotiate, institutionalize, and renegotiate nationalist narratives. History and civics textbooks in most societies present an “official” story
highlighting narratives that shape contemporary patriotism.12 History lessons
not only model behavior for citizens within their own society but also chronicle
9
Hashimoto, Akiko. The Long Defeat: Cultural Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Japan, Oxford
University Press, 2015, p. 87.
10 Ibid.
11 Shimazu, Naoko (ed.). Nationalisms in Japan. London: Routledge, 2006, p. 186.
12 Hein, Laura, Selden, Mark. The Lessons of War, Global Power, and Social Change. In: Hein, L. E.,
Selden, M. (eds.). Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United
States (Asia and the Pacific). Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, p. 3.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
relations with others. The stories chosen or invented about the national past are
invariably prescriptive – instructing people how to think and act as national
subjects and how to view relations with outsiders.13
As Nozaki and Inokuchi argue, a modern nation-state governs its people in
part by creating and disseminating narratives.14 They claim that one important
site of such efforts are school textbooks, especially history and social studies
textbooks. After all, education is one of the most effective ways to promote a
national narrative which functions as “official history”, and to make and remake
certain identities embedded into the national identity:15
The state, whether directly involved in textbook production and circulation or not, can readily reinforce dominant ideologies. In response, alternative and oppositional forces develop their own counternarratives and
identities. For the meanings attached to a given identity—in this case the
national identity—are “an unstable and ‘de-centered’ complex of social
meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle.”16
It is this “official history” rather than some kind of “objectively existing past”,
which is to become magistra vitae; for example, in Socialist Yugoslavia the historical narrative denounced the previous social formation as a capitalist bourgeois
society oppressing the working class. The society of the new socialist state was, of
course, a liberated society. The historical narrative in the independent Republic
of Slovenia, on the other hand, vilifies the undemocratic or, depending on the
discourse, even supposedly totalitarian nature of the socialist regime, from the
clutches of which the Slovene people finally liberated themselves through the
constitutional act of their Declaration of Independence. This “independence narrative” serves to construct the “liberation discourse” with much greater ease by
changing the focus from the question of simple regime change to the “victim narrative”: it was not the Slovene people who were socialists, it was the totalitarian
socialist state that made the Slovene people hostages of its regime.
Such narrative can easily circumvent the question of why Socialist Slovenia
decided to discard the project of building a socialist society in exchange for a
peripheral role within the European capitalist system, and focus on the narrative
of how Slovenia liberated itself from the clutches of her totalitarian communist
oppressor instead. There never is an objective past; there is only an ideological sphere of historical discourse and the question of who holds power over its
13 Ibid., p. 4.
14 Nozaki, Yoshiko, Inokuchi, Hiromitsu. Japanese Education, Nationalism, and Ienaga Saburō’s
Textbook Lawsuits. In: Hein, Selden (eds.). Censoring History, p. 97.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17
18
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
productive mechanisms (schools, publishers, historical institutes, museums etc.)
and for whose benefit.
THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN MODERN JAPAN
Schools and textbooks are important vehicles through which contemporary societies transmit ideas of citizenship and both the idealized past and
the promised future of the community. They provide authoritative narratives of the nation, delimit the proper behavior of citizens, and sketch the
parameters of the national imagination. Narratives of nationhood, like
textbooks themselves, are always unfinished projects, requiring revision
and reinterpretation to remain relevant in ever-changing times.17
With the transformation of Japanese society into a nation state following
the Meiji Restoration (1868), the compulsory education system was one of the
foremost new institutions of the modern state. The Meiji government issued
the School System Law in August 1872. Under Mori Arinori (1847–1889) as the
Education Minister, state control of teaching materials was tightened, and the
government adopted a certification system requiring the approval of the Ministry
of Education for all textbooks used in elementary, middle, and normal schools.18
By 1890 the purpose and content of the school system became crystalized in
the Imperial Rescript on Education which emphasized three themes: Confucian
values as the ethical foundation of the nation, the role of education in perfecting “moral power”, and the duty of the nation’s subjects to respect the national
polity headed by the Emperor.19 Eventually, in 1903, the government established
the national textbook system (kokutei kyōkasho), which lasted until 1945 and
under which the Textbook Bureau of the Ministry of Education compiled all
pre-collegiate textbooks.20
Thakur describes the prewar history textbooks and education between 1903
and 1940 as ultra-nationalistic in that they described the imperial family as descendants of gods and Japan as the divine nation, while the wartime textbooks,
published between 1941 and 1945, showed the escalation of militaristic and ultra-nationalistic tendencies which were already apparent in the 1930s.21
17 Hein, Selden. The Lessons of War, Global Power, and Social Change. In: Hein, Selden (eds.). Censoring
History, p. 3.
18 Thakur, Yoko H. History Textbook Reform in Allied Occupied Japan, 1945–52. History of Education
Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 3, 1995, p. 262.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid., p. 262, 263.
21 Ibid., p. 263.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
Without doubt, the People’s Education Order passed in 1941 was an attempt
at clarifying and making more explicit a nationalist and militarist goal for elementary education and for consolidating the formal curriculum.22 In order to
teach the Imperial Way, the curriculum of kokumin gakkō – war time elementary
schools – was revised to emphasize five principles: 1) To understand the national
spirit, maintain strong faith in the national polity, and foster awareness of the
Imperial Mission; 2) To develop intellectual skills to contribute to the Imperial
Fortune; 3) To practice physical and mental training to keep oneself fit and ready
to offer one’s services to the nation; 4) To develop the ability to express oneself
artistically to enrich national life; 5) To respect labor and to devote one’s work to
the cause of the Empire.23
But these were war times and the regime’s intensified pressure to push for
such kind of an “official history” is understandable. However, the story about
the history of Japanese education is rather more complex. It is not uncommon
in the literature on nationalism to paint a rather simplistic picture portraying
past historic discourses as monolithic and homogenous, thus creating an additional perception of the essentially un-free and propagandistic nature of such
discourses, in contrast to the pluralistic nature of liberal historical discourses.
Such a monolithic perception leads to a static and deterministic understanding of the relationship between nationalism, state and education, whereas in
reality the ideological response to social conditions is always pluralistic and is
actually being maintained through continuous renegotiation and class struggle. However, all these pluralistic ideological responses are held together by a
hegemonic ideology provided by an apparently ideologically neutral overreaching institution like the ethnic nation. Nationalism in this sense is just an empty
institutional shell – it is the contents of this shell that are being contested, rather
than nationalism itself. The hegemony of a state dictated version of nationalism
is actually never so complete as to preclude challenges from disenfranchised or
dissenting groups harboring different priorities and different conceptions of the
nation.24
Lincicome explored the so-called “international education movement”
(kokusai kyōiku undō) during the Taishō Period (1912–1926), which, in his opinion, was trying to invert the traditionally conceived relationship between education and nationalism.25 As the general story goes, in the first decade of the
22 Rubinger, Richard. Education in Wartime Japan, 1937–1945. In: Lowe, Roy (ed.). Education and the
Second World War: Studies in Schooling and Social Change. London: Routledge, 2012, p. 64.
23 Ibid.
24 Lincicome, Mark E. Nationalism, Imperialism, and the International Education Movement in Early
Twentieth-Century Japan. The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 58, No. 2, 1999, p. 341.
25 Ibid., p. 339.
19
20
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Meiji Restoration, after having ushered in a hasty program of Westernization including the establishment of Asia’s first system of universal, compulsory schooling in which Neo-Confucian metaphysics gave way to Western positivism and
utilitarianism, the Meiji oligarchs were persuaded by conservative elites that
this Westernization had gone too far. The result was a conservative counterattack that culminated in such measures as the Imperial Rescript on Education, a
stronger emphasis on moral education, the reintroduction of Confucian ethics
into the curriculum, the introduction of a military style of physical education
and increased government control over curricula and textbooks.26
The problem with such accounts, claims Lincicome, is that they fail to perceive the dynamic, even contentious history of educational development in
Japan after 1890.27 Exploring the movement to “internationalize” education, he
observes that it was not limited to reducing the amount of time that teachers, as
servants of the state, were obliged to spend inculcating loyalty and patriotism
(chūkun aikoku) in the hearts and minds of their pupils, but was rather aiming
for a different brand of nationalism that was at odds with the “official” one prescribed by the state.28 This internationalization was not a negation of the notion
of nation itself, but rather a contentious struggle to reconceptualize the nature of
Japanese national identity and Japan’s role in the community of nations.29
There were, contrary to the simplified explanations, reformist movements
seeking to liberalize and internationalize the curriculum, which questioned the
dominant and officially prescribed meaning of nationalism and the official educational practices that were designed to perpetuate it.30 However, not only were
these movements constrained by the mounting pressure by the government to
suppress any reform movements which smacked of democratic, socialist or communist influences, but also by the fact that these educational reform movements
were not, in principle, opposed to the ideology centering on the Emperor and
the national essence (kokutai).31 Eventually most of their proponents backed
away from their advocacy of liberal and international education in the increasingly hostile climate of Japanese militarism that overspread the nation during
the 1930s, following the Manchurian Incident, Japan’s censure by the League of
Nations and its withdrawal from the League shortly thereafter.32
Both this sort of ethnic nationalism as well as internationalism serve as
two sides of the same coin – the former establishing a group of individuals as a
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
Ibid., p. 340, 341.
Ibid., p. 339.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 355.
Ibid., p. 356.
Ibid., p. 356.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
national community, whereas the latter positions the nation in the world community of nations. However, just as the function of the nation as an institution is to
obscure its internal inequalities and struggles, i.e. to homogenize the imagined
community from within, so the community of nations serves to obscure structural inequalities among different nations.
Japan was confronted with a choice: there were those who, believing that
Japan could achieve an equal position in this world community of nations, stood
behind their internationalism and professed their support for the League of
Nations, while others began urging their countrymen to recognize the League
and Western appeals to democracy and internationalism for what they really
were: deceptive tactics designed to advance Western interests and Western power at the expense of Japan.33
Different regimes can impose their official history with various degrees of
repression; however, there can never be a complete uniformity of ideological perceptions concerning national history (even if they are repressed or prohibited).
History is constantly being redefined through discourses within society which
are based on the power relations among classes or interest groups. The shift in
the education policy in the wake of defeat can thus be understood not as a complete ideological reversal overnight, but as an adjustment to the new social circumstances. Let us look at this modification in the case of Japan’s defeat.
THE DAY THE HISTORY CHANGED
In the wake of defeat on August 15, 1945 and facing the occupation by the
Allied Powers, there was a rapid fire of directives and ordinances by Japanese
educational institutions. Immediately following the surrender, on August 16, the
Ministry of Education declared an end to the mobilization of students, on the
24th the cancellation of all directives concerning military education and physical
training, on August 28, a notice was issued that teaching should resume by midSeptember at the latest; on September 15, the education plan for the construction
of “New Japan” (Shin Nihon kensetsu no kyōiku hōshin) was pronounced, on the
20th a notice regarding the treatment of textbooks was issued, on September 26,
another notice was issued that all evacuated pupils should return immediately,
on October 3, the prohibition of training in bayonetting techniques was issued,
and on November 6, the martial arts were prohibited.34
Many other notices and directives were also issued, but probably the most
33 Ibid., p. 357.
34 Shirosuke, Masuda. 墨ぬり教科書 前後 (Suminuri kyōkasho zengo), 長崎大学教育学部教育科学
研究報告, 35, 1998, pp. 1–10. http://hdl.handle.net/10069/30655.
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striking consequences came from the September 20 directive “Concerning the
Handling of Textbooks in Accordance with the Post War Situation” (Shūsen ni
tomonau kyōkayō tosho toriatsukaikata ni kansuru ken) addressed to the schools
and requiring that teachers delete the militaristic content from textbooks and
other educational materials, which resulted in the so-called blacking-out (suminuri) textbooks.35 While the Ministry listed several general criteria for content
removal, it did not specify the exact items to be removed, except those contained
in the second-semester Japanese-language textbooks for elementary schools.36
This resulted in a variety of textbooks where blackened-out parts differed from
school to school and from class to class, based on the individual judgement of
each teacher as to what could have been construed as problematic militaristic
content. The items specified by the Ministry to be removed were mainly warrelated descriptions, and many stories concerning adoration of the emperors remained untouched.37
This means that from the students’ point of view the historical “truth” had
changed overnight. What was true yesterday, was no longer valid today. The
parts painted over in black ink, which sometimes covered whole pages, were not
unlike the black stripes over “indecent” parts in sexually explicit images or the
“beep” sound covering “inappropriate” language on public television – and in a
way revealed more than they concealed. The deleted parts were a visual reminder
of the relativity of historical truth, being taught as knowledge.
The textbooks were censored even before the occupational authorities
reached Japan, apparently because the Ministry of Education wanted to give a
favorable impression to the SCAP.38 The blackening out continued and was expanded in the fall of 1945 under the Civil Information and Education Section
(CI&E) of the SCAP until new textbooks became available in the spring and
fall of 1946.39 According to Thakur, Herbert Wunderlich, who was the education officer at the time, listed two main categories of contents to be deleted from
the textbooks – ultranationalism and militarism. The first category included the
Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere doctrine or any other doctrine of expansion, Japanese racial and national superiority, unquestioning loyalty to the
Emperor and the superiority of the emperor system, while militarism included
the glorification of war as a heroic and acceptable way of settling disputes, the
35 Nozaki, Yoshiko. War Memory, Nationalism and Education in Post-War Japan, 1945-2007: The
Japanese History Textbook Controversy and Ienaga Saburo’s Court Challenges. London: Routledge,
2008, p. 3.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 Thakur, Yoko H. History Textbook Reform in Allied Occupied Japan, 1945–52, p. 265.
39 Ibid.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
idealization of war heroes by glorifying their military achievements, and the
elevation of military service as a subject’s highest patriotic duty and honor.40
Wunderlich’s CI&E staff study apparently came to the conclusion that the
majority of the textbooks contained so much propaganda that deletion by the
pen-and-ink method was neither practical nor advisable, so on December 31, the
SCAP suspended textbooks and courses in history, geography and morals until
acceptable textbooks were to become available.41 Subsequently the CI&E ordered
the collection of wartime textbooks in these three subjects from all schools for
the purpose of pulping, which was, according to Wunderlich, a pretext to avoid
possible accusations of “book-burning” and violating the freedom of the press.
The censorship of the SCAP was not limited to textbooks, but encompassed all
media, including film and radio.42
If we take into consideration the fact that in 1948 the CI&E granted the Ministry
of Education temporary textbook certification authority – a system which with
some modifications continues in Japan to this day – it becomes even clearer that
the issue is not one of truth versus propaganda, but rather one of historical narratives competing for the status of truth. That is why the SCAP did not simply decentralize and democratize the textbook system, but rather introduced new policies of
censorship to promote its own agenda. And when this agenda changed again due
to the events known as the Cold War, the Occupation policy changed as well. The
real threat to liberal capitalism was no longer posed by the purged prewar militarists, but was rather seen in the spread of Soviet Communism. Consequently, the
directions that were to follow called for less punishment and control over former
enemies and a greater emphasis on their rehabilitation.43
THE PROBLEM OF SCHOOL, IDEOLOGY AND HISTORICAL
“TRUTH”
If we ask ourselves whether liberal societies such as the US or the European
powers teach patriotism, whether they glorify military achievements and build
statues to great generals or to unknown soldiers, whether being a military veteran, i.e. loyally serving one’s country and even being prepared to die for that
country is deemed the highest expression of patriotism, and whether these societies have behind them a history of territorial expansion, the answer to all these
questions must be affirmative.
40
41
42
43
Ibid., p. 266.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 272.
23
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It is therefore not patriotism, glorification of war, loyalty to the State or military expansion that are being condemned in the case of Japan, but rather the ideological version of Japanese patriotism, glorification of its unjust war, and its unacceptable expansion. Through the act of losing the war, the narrative condemning this version of patriotism, its unjust motives for war and the unacceptability
of expansion was vindicated, and the new state apparatuses were employed to
further validate and spread this new narrative – the narrative which emphasized
the fact that Japan was a perpetrator, but that at the same time the majority of its
people, including the Emperor, were actually its innocent victims. The new ideological framework was being renegotiated through various historical discourses
and, as already mentioned, the initial project of completely eradicating Japan’s
prewar militaristic and nationalistic ideology needed to be toned down in order
to prevent a threat from the other direction, namely, the threat of Communism.
The suminuri textbooks can be seen as a great symbol of the ideological nature of education systems. The real ideology is not what is concealed under the
black ink, i.e. the blatant patriotism or emperor worship, it is rather the black
ink itself. It is the perception that ideology is always what others believe, which
is truly ideological. Whenever there is a regime change, it is the previous regime
which is proclaimed ideological, while the new social order is perceived – at least
among its supporters – as ideology-free. In the case of independent Slovenia, it
is the socialist Yugoslav regime that was an ideological regime and whose school
textbooks were mere vehicles of state propaganda, while modern liberal textbooks are believed to be more or less objective. The function of this propaganda/
knowledge dichotomy is not to reveal the ideological nature of propaganda, it is
to conceal the ideological nature of knowledge.
Liberal textbooks claim to be politically neutral and scientifically objective;
however, such “neutrality” and “objectivity” are in themselves ideological mechanisms concealing the deep-rooted structure of a scientific paradigm.44 As I have
written elsewhere with regard to the question of school history textbooks, the
creation of the modern education system was instrumental in the construction
of nation-states. The role that textbooks play is the role of education which is in
the service of sustaining and reproducing the current ruling ideology. Education,
monopolized by the school system, plays the role of integrating the social structure which, in the modern perspective, means a sovereign nation-state.45
44 Culiberg, Luka. Speaking a Common Language: On the Unity in the Human Sciences and the
Question of School History Curricula. In: Shiba, Nobuhiro, et al. (eds.). School History and Textbooks:
A Comparative Analysis of History Textbooks in Japan and Slovenia, (Zbirka Vpogledi, 7). Ljubljana:
Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, 2013, p. 176.
45 Ibid.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
In the case of the propaganda/knowledge dichotomy, the difference between
the two notions is therefore not one of lie vs. truth, but rather one of discredited
ideology vs. ruling ideology. When a certain discourse falls out of sync with the
ruling ideology, it is denounced as propaganda, as was the case with the regime
change from Yugoslavia to independent Slovenia or in Japan before August 15
and after August 15, 1945. The propaganda parts get blackened-out. What remains is just knowledge. Knowledge, however, is not simply the “neutral” or
“true” awareness of some ontological “truth”; it is rather a ‘view’ of the world, i.e.
a conception based on the power relations that are at work within a particular
social formation.46
In order to understand the functioning of education, one must think beyond
the notion of opposition between ideological education (propaganda) versus
objective education (knowledge), and conceptualize education in general as an
institution rooted in the specific social relations within society, which produces
its own educational mechanisms and which maintains and reproduces them.
Historically, we can find a system of education in every society, be it through
institutions such as family, church, military or something else. The modern system of compulsory education is just one historical formation of an educational
institution, coinciding with the formation of nationally organized societies and
nation-states. Compared to the other types of social formations, national communities dissolved pre-modern hierarchic social bonds by producing atomized
individuals, unbound by institutional constraints and seemingly equal in their
social status. In order to integrate and organize these autonomous individuals
into large (imagined) communities, various integrative institutions needed to
be established, whereby the universal compulsory education system is one such
institution.
In this sense, the most classical conceptualization of school is the one
by Louis Althusser47, who defined similar institutions as Ideological State
Apparatuses (ISA), with the school being the central one in modern capitalist
societies. Althusser claimed that the educational ideological apparatus is the ISA
which has been installed in the dominant position in mature capitalist social
formations as a result of a violent political and ideological class struggle against
the old dominant ISA:48
The mechanisms which produce this vital result for the capitalist regime
are naturally covered up and concealed by a universally reigning ideology of the School, universally reigning because it is one of the essential
46 Ibid., p. 177.
47 Althusser, Louis. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation). In:
Žižek, Slavoj (ed.). Mapping Ideology, London, New York: Verso, 2012, pp. 100–140.
48 Ibid., p. 116.
25
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forms of the ruling bourgeois ideology: an ideology which represents the
School as a neutral environment purged of ideology (because it is … lay),
where teachers respectful of the ‘conscience’ and ‘freedom’ of the children
who are entrusted to them (in complete confidence) by their ‘parents’
(who are free, too, i.e. the owners of their children) open up for them the
path to the freedom, morality and responsibility of adults by their own
example, by knowledge, literature and their ‘liberating’ virtues.49
However, school is not the only educational institution. There is a whole network of institutions we could identify as educational systems, from the family
to so-called popular culture and various state-regulated institutions such as museums. Museums, like schools, are institutions which are based on “knowledge”
and “facts”. In museums, the past becomes a historical fact, yet in spite of this
“factual” basis, museums in the US and in other countries on the “winning side”
of history, for example, differ quite a bit from the so-called Japanese “peace museums”:
War and military museums around the world—far more numerous and
long established than museums for peace—are designed to venerate
past wars and events by showcasing the heroic martial achievements of
historical figures. For the most part, exhibits in those museums tend to
valorize military tradition by offering accounts of campaigns, displays of
weapons, and stories of leaders and soldiers, while limiting attention to
the lethal consequences. The Imperial War Museum in London and Les
Invalides (Musée de l’Armée of Hôtel National des Invalides) in Paris are
examples of such repositories of military accomplishments and celebrations of a heroic heritage. However, the weight of moral persuasion there
rests on the premise that the wars waged were fundamentally just and
legitimate, and it is this premise that distinguishes the battles from unruly
carnage, and the combat from arbitrary rampage.50
As Hashimoto notes, this doesn’t work in defeat cultures, where military
failures do not lend themselves readily to triumphant narratives of a just war
and consequently there are many more peace museums than war museums in
Japan.51 However, there are also “war museums” such as Yūshūkan in Tokyo
which is run by the Yasukuni shrine that proposes an alternative discourse
with the narrative of the “Greater East Asia War” as a just and necessary war by
49 Ibid., p. 119.
50 Hashimoto, Akiko. The Long Defeat: Cultural Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Japan, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015, p. 86.
51 Ibid.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
referencing the hostile geopolitical environment of the time and symbolically
equating the value of patriotic feats to samurai gallantry in feudal society.52
It is schools and wider educational material, museums, cultural media etc.,
that construct the narrative of the nation or by means of which this narrative is
remembered, reoriented and reproduced. In the case of Japan, Hashimoto argues, the transmission of a generational war memory attempts to transform the
culture of defeat into a culture of peace, not a culture of contrition as in the case
of post-war Germany.53 There is always a level of disagreement about how to
recount past events. However, there might be a more or less firmly established
dominant narrative within a certain ideological worldview. In Japan the postwar
education was introduced by the US occupation (1945–1952) as a tool to re-educate Japanese citizens in its image, under neocolonial conditions:
The occupation banned history, geography, and moral education from
Japanese schools, recognizing them as the prewar instruments of mobilizing nationalist pro-war sentiments. The old ideological canon of loyalty to the imperial state was supplanted by the new ideals of human rights
in the democratic state, framed as the “correct” ideas for the new citizenship in the new society. Thus in 1947, social studies replaced the prewar
nationalist instruction and introduced American democracy in occupied
Japan.54
If the occupation period represented a radical ideological shift in molding the arch enemy nation in the new image of the victorious side, the postoccupation period again gave birth to new contentious ideological views forming against both the prewar regime and the occupational regime. The postwar
state bureaucracy attempted to justify positive framing of the past, arguing that
in history education national stories of accomplishment should foster national
belonging and confidence in the nation’s future citizens and thus such education should explicitly serve the national interest.55 On the other side, mainly the
teachers and teacher unions maintain that education should be based solely on
academic historiography without state interference and thus Japan’s past should
be taught in all its facets, including inconvenient truths like colonial oppression,
wartime atrocities and war crimes.56 In each case, the underlying argument is
that the school is an educational institution intended for the purpose of educating national subjects in the fundamental ethical notions of what is right and
52
53
54
55
56
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 87.
Ibid., p. 89.
Ibid., p. 89.
Ibid.
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what is wrong. However, it is these notions of “right” and “wrong” which differ,
according to the underlying worldview.
It is therefore too simplistic to view prewar history as propaganda and postwar occupational history as objective and free knowledge. The history textbook
reform in occupied Japan, 1945–1952, was one of the major educational policies
implemented by the SCAP. However, as Thakur writes, since 1952 both history
textbooks and the textbook system that certifies them have been extremely controversial.57 The problematic notion of a prewar/postwar dichotomy can after all
be pointed out by the fact that the so-called liberal postwar politicians who came
to power soon after the occupation, were essentially the same people who were
in power already before the war. The narrative claiming how the occupational
authorities and the US introduced democracy into Japanese education has been
challenged on many occasions. As Yamashita and Williams write, “This belief
that the USA introduced democracy to Japan is therefore questionable. Many
of these developments can be traced back to the modernization policies of the
Meiji Era, if not earlier”, and they continue, “The roots of democracy existed
well before 1945, although not necessarily in a form that would be recognized as
Western.”58
The proponents of the view that democracy can be found in Japanese education long before the occupation authorities revised the system in the postwar
period, claim that it was a different style of democracy, based rather on consensus than voting.59 However, from the point of view of the occupation authorities,
their efforts needed to be legitimized through a discourse, which left no doubt
that it was the West that brought democracy to Japan. According to Fred N.
Kerlinger,
The American education officer working in Japan would say that a democratic philosophy of education has been encouraged in place of the old
authoritarian philosophy of education. To be more precise, a pragmatic,
scientific, democratic philosophy of education has been encouraged in
place of the old Japanese idealism based on nationalistic principles.60
In the eyes of the winning side, this “new” democracy did not simply represent a form of new ideology; it meant “pragmatic, scientific and democratic”
knowledge. At the same time, this new narrative needed to stress a radical break
57 Thakur, History Textbook Reform in Allied Occupied Japan, p. 261.
58 Yamashita, Hiromi, Williams Christopher. A Vote for Consensus: Democracy and Difference in
Japan. Comparative Education, Vol. 38, No. 3, Special Number (25): Democracy and Authoritarianism
in Education, 2002, p. 278.
59 Ibid.
60 Kerlinger, Fred N. The Modern Origin of Morals Instruction in Japanese Education. History of
Education Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1951, p. 125.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
between the old authoritarianism and new democracy, especially since it was
originally the American education system which served as a model at the time
Japan was introducing the universal education system. As Tokiomi Kaigo, a professor of education at Tokyo University at the time, wrote toward the end of the
occupation period in 1952, the American system played a major role in establishing a modern education system back in 1872.61 Experts from the US came to
Japan as consultants to the Ministry of Education and consequently, according
to Kaigo, “democratic operation of schools was laid out. At that time, the system
was said to conform to the principles of the American educational administration. It is recognized as evidence that Japan’s educational administration was
influenced by that of America.”62
It is therefore from the very beginning of the modern education system
in Japan, that this education was perceived as an ideological tool of the capitalist state. It was Fukuzawa Yukichi, one of the key intellectuals in the Meiji
Period, who had asserted that in the future, schools must teach practical knowledge which is necessary in the daily lives of the people and that students must
be taught the knowledge which will make possible the creation of a new era,
discarding the learning of Japanese poetry, Chinese poetry or the classics, etc.,
which belonged to the feudalistic society.63
The Japanese and American school systems had been tightly connected all
the way up to the 1930s, when, according to Kaigo, “a great change was to be seen
in the world situation and in our country”:
Especially after the German-Japanese relation became intimate, Japan
became (sic!) to veer away from the American educational thoughts
and practice. As incidents began to occur in various parts of Asia, ultranationalists began to criticize the free, democratic thought of education
learned from America and tried to sweep it out of the schools.64
After the war, according to Kaigo, this special relation with the American
system of education was resumed and conditions that were quite different from
the wartime ones were created which gave birth to the new postwar education
system in Japan.65 Frank N. Freeman, Dean of the School of Education at the
University of California, was a member of the US Education Mission to Japan,
and in 1946, he lamented the difficulty of the task the Mission faced, running
61 Kaigo, Tokiomi. The American Influence on the Education in Japan. The Journal of Educational
Sociology, Vol. 26, No. 1, 1952, p. 9.
62 Ibid., p. 10.
63 Ibid.
64 Ibid., p. 15.
65 Ibid.
29
30
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the “risk of undertaking to impose on another people the pattern of education of
the United States”,66 not realizing that this system already was at the roots of the
Japanese education system. At the same time, Freeman could dispel his “fears”
of cultural imposition by holding to the belief that there exist general principles
underlying any system of education in a country which aims to be democratic.67 The ideological framework of the occupation authorities’ reform plans was
therefore classical cultural relativism crossed with scientific universalism.
CONCLUSION
With Japan’s defeat in WWII and the successful implementation of liberal
democracy by the occupying authorities, the “truth” had won over “propaganda”. However, if the prewar authoritarian “propaganda” was defeated by the new
democratic “truth”, this truth was far from secure in its new dominant position;
it needed to continue its fight against various ideological challenges to its undisputable status as truth. Soon after the occupation ended, Cecil Carter Brett
detected a new threat against this liberal truth:
The propaganda tactics of the left-wing Japan Teachers’ Union have provided the occasion for the passage of two repressive pieces of legislation.
The Diet in June this year passed two “education neutrality laws” which
have as their declared aim the elimination of “biased political education”
in schools. … Recent events have placed the Yoshida government in the
anomalous position of carrying out a rearmament program and at the
same time defending a peace Constitution. The Japanese government has
thus become an obvious target for the Soviet “peace offensive”, a situation which has been exploited to the full by Communist and left-wing
elements. Conspicuous in this anti-government, anti-American “peace”
movement has been the powerful Japan Teachers’ Union …68
Brett, who was the Political Science Instructor at the International Christian
University in Tokyo, warned that this Japan Teachers Union is one of the most
radical unions and under strong Communist influence. According to him, the
union had supported or directly sponsored publications, motion picture films
and other propaganda material with the intent of discrediting the government
and fostering anti-American sentiments.69 His examples of such propaganda are
the films Hiroshima and Children of the Atom Bomb which “depict the horrors
66
67
68
69
Freeman, Frank N. Educational Problems of Japan. The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 28, No. 2, 1946, p. 72.
Ibid.
Carter Brett, Cecil. Japan’s New Education Laws. Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 23, No. 11, 1954, p. 174.
Ibid.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
of atomic warfare, ‘Children of Mixed Blood’ which deals with abandoned ‘G.I.
babies’, and ‘Red Line Base’, a film portraying sordid and immoral conditions in
a Japanese community adjoining an American army camp.”70
We need to look no further than this example to understand the workings
of the school as an ideological state apparatus. The purpose of the school system within the liberal democratic framework, which was to replace the previous
undemocratic system of education, was to teach objective knowledge instead of
propaganda. In the eyes of the liberal regime, prewar propaganda was represented by extreme patriotism, emperor worship and other forms of ultra-nationalist
and militaristic content, while postwar propaganda was recognized in discourses dealing with Hiroshima victims, depicting the horrors of atomic warfare, or
caring for abandoned children. If we ask ourselves what ultra-nationalism, glorification of war or emperor worship on one side, and the horrors of war, the
miserable lives of innocent children, or Japanese communities directly affected
by the American occupation on the other have in common, the answer is simply
that all these narratives are critical of the American regime, which apparently
automatically qualifies them as propaganda. Propaganda is not simply an “untruthful” narrative in contrast to “factual” history, but it is rather a narrative
which, in Brett’s own words, is propagated “with the intent to discredit government and foster anti-American feelings.”
The school system, be it in an authoritarian militarist state or in a liberal
democratic society, functions primarily as an ideological state apparatus, with
the aim of maintaining and reproducing the system that supports it. By insisting
on the dichotomy of propaganda vs. factual truth we actually never really take
any historical lessons, but rather keep revolving in the dialectical loop of the propaganda-truth cycle, where all the past mistakes by definition happened in the
realm of propaganda, which is why we, who are in possession of the truth, won’t
repeat them. Yet, when we do repeat them, they will retroactively be recognized
as propaganda. Instead of obsessing about truth, school, and especially history
education, should therefore strive to explain the reasons why people inevitably
succumb to propaganda and should focus on teaching how to create a better
society for the whole of mankind.
70 Ibid.
31
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
Bekeš: History Textbook Discourse from the Point of View of Writer – Reader Interaction
Andrej Bekeš
HISTORY TEXTBOOK
DISCOURSE FROM
THE POINT OF VIEW
OF WRITER –
READER
INTERACTION
INTRODUCTION
Regarding actual discourses, including discourses in history textbooks, the
following view on discourse by Fairclough is highly relevant:
In using the term ‘discourse’, I am proposing to regard language use as a
form of social practice, rather than a purely individual activity or a reflex of social variables. This has various implications … it implies that
there is a dialectical relationship between discourse and social structure,
there being a more general relationship between social practice and social
structure: the latter is both the condition for, and an effect of, the former.1
1
Fairclough, Norman. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992, pp. 63 – 64.
33
34
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
My research in the project “The 20th Century Through Historiographies and
Textbooks in Japan and Slovenia” focuses on various aspects of the organization
of discourse from the point of view of writer – reader interaction, including the
framing of content by the choice of voice (as a syntactic category, J. tai), modality and ‘voices’ (in the sense of Bakhtin’s 1981 R. golos, J. koe) in Japanese history
textbooks and history monographs.
The Linguistic Background of Writer – Reader Interaction
First it is necessary to explain some linguistic background of writer – reader
interaction. Communication implies participants, their roles in the communication process being determined by the social context of communication and the
subject matter of communication, which in the case of history writing, would be
the experiential world. Further, there are several types of meanings, conveyed
by language. In the context of history writing, the most relevant seem to be (i)
experiential meanings, like in This is a pen; and (ii) interpersonal meanings, like
in a request Could you please buy me a pack of cigarettes.2
Voice. Grammatical voice pertains to experiential meanings. As has been
pointed out by Kress and Hodge3, linguistic means, i.e., lexico-grammatical systems, are not neutral regarding their content. Particular choices within particular contexts can influence the reception of the text by the addressee (i.e., hearer/
reader). Voice4 is a means for framing the narrated segment from a particular
point of view through the choice of subject. The agent, i.e., the entity performing
an act through volition, can thus be foregrounded by the use of the active voice,
or backgrounded by the use of the mediopassive or passive voice. As Kress and
Hodge have demonstrated, this property can be used to subtly manipulate the
content. Another way to frame the content by a more brute force approach is the
choice between expressing it in the main text and delegating it to the footnotes.
Modality. Modal expressions signal to the hearer/reader what kind of language exchange is intended by the speaker/writer, i.e., a request, a question,
an assertion, a statement, a conjecture etc.5 In Japanese, modality expressions
usually appear as what we can call suffixes attached to the predicate and/or as
2
Halliday, M.A.K. Language and Context: System and Instance. In: Collected Works of M.A.K.
Halliday vol.9, London: Bloomsbury, 1991; ---, An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London:
Edward Arnold, 1994; Ruqaya, Hasan. The place of context in a systemic functional model.
In: Halliday, M.A.K., Jonathan J. (eds.). Webster Continuum Companion to Systemic Functional
Linguistics, London: Continuum, 2009, pp. 166–189.
3 Kress, Gunther, Hodge, Robert. Language as Ideology. London: Rutledge & Kegan, 1979.
4 In Japanese, the ‘passive’ judōtai, ‘mediopassive’ jihatsu and ‘active’ nōdōtai are distinguished.
5 Narrog, Heiko. Modality in Japanese: The Layered Structure of the Clause and Herarchies of Functional
Categories. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2009.
Bekeš: History Textbook Discourse from the Point of View of Writer – Reader Interaction
modal adverbs, modifying the whole sentence. This is illustrated in the example
(1) below.
(1) dōmo
ashita
wa
somehow tomorrow TOPIC
yuki
snow
ga
NOMINATIVE
furu
fall
rashii
(NON-PAST)
probably
It will probably snow tomorrow.
In the above example, dōmo (“somehow”, modal adverb) and rashii (“probably”, modal suffix) are modal expressions expressing the probability of the enunciated content. By these expressions, the speaker/writer signals to the hearer/
reader that the enunciated content is not a fact but something probable. These
particular expressions in the example above belong to the realm of so-called
epistemic modality, signaling the status of the information that the speaker is
dealing with – in this case the strength of evidence on which the statement is
based. Indeed, modality expressions can be seen as signals or a trace of an interaction, in which the speaker/writer is signaling to the hearer/reader what kind of
verbal interaction (assertion, questioning, request, etc…) is going on. This view
also corresponds to Bakhtin’s6 view of the dialogic nature of text, the nature that
is revealed even in monological texts.
Modality in expository prose, including history writing, typically encompasses epistemic modality, i.e., modality concerning the epistemic nature of the
conveyed information, i.e., whether the information is a fact, of a second hand
nature, a conjecture, a logical deduction, etc.
Voices. Another important aspect of discourse are what Bakhtin (ibid.) calls
‘voices’. Several ‘voices’ can appear in the text: the neutral narrator’s ‘voice’, the
author’s subjective/personal ‘voice’, ‘voices’ of other people, etc. ‘Voices’ thus represent another channel of interaction.
Purpose and Material
The purpose of this paper is to elucidate writer–reader interaction in history
textbook and history for general readership writing in Japan through analysis
of the use of voice (in grammatical sense), modality expressions and ‘voices’ in
Bakhtin’s sense. It is expected that the characteristics of interaction revealed
through such analysis will give us further clues as to what kind of writer–reader
interaction is envisioned by the authors and their publishers within the particular social contexts where the textbooks are used.
6
Bakhtin, Mikhail M. Discourse in the Novel. In: The Dialogic Imagination (Voprosy literatury i
estetiki). University of Texas Press, Slavic series; no. 1, 1981.
35
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
The analysis is based on a case study. To obtain a more in-depth view of the
characteristics of history textbook linguistic interaction, three sources of materials were used for the case study:7 a book for the general readership written by
an expert, i.e., Nakamura Masanori Sengoshi (Post-War History), a high school
textbook, approved by the MEXT, written by Aoki Michio and other 12 authors
(2007/2009) Nihonshi B: kaiteiban (A History of Japan B: Revised edition), and
The Japan, China, Republic of Korea three countries joint editorial committee
Atarashī Higashiajia no kin-gendai shi – jō: kokusai kankei no hendō de yomu
mirai o hiraku rekishi (New East Asia modern and contemporary history Pt. I:
History that is opening the future – as read from the changes in international
relations), hereafter referred to as “CJK joint monograph”.
ANALYSIS
Framing of the narrative as seen in the employment of grammatical
voice
Segments of texts dealing with the topic of the “Nanjing massacre” in the
high school history textbook by Aoki et al., and by the Japan, China, Republic
of Korea three countries joint editorial committee, hereafter referred to as “CJK
joint monograph” were analyzed for this purpose. In these two publications
that are quite different as far as their purpose and target readers are concerned,
there is an overall similarity in the framing of narrative via the use of voice and
the flow of information. As the Japanese textbooks have to be approved by the
MEXT8 in order to be used in schools, one would expect differences in framing
the narrative through voice, backgrounding of the agentivity of the Japanese
army side, etc., but the differences in this respect were not very conspicuous. On
the other hand, the history textbook description of the event was significantly
shorter and a lot, if not most of the relevant information was presented in footnotes, and thus made less transparent than in the “CJK joint monograph”. Not
directly connected to the choice of voice, the “CJK joint monograph” also possesses a more transparent style, uses shorter and more transparently structured
7
8
Aoki, Michio et al.. Nihonshi B – kaiteiban (History of Japan B – Revised edition), Tokyo: Sanseido,
2007–2009; Nakamura, Masanori. Sengoshi (Post War History, Iwanami shinsho series), Tokyo:
Iwanami Publishers, 2005–2008; Japan, China, Republic of Korea 3 countries joint editorial
committee. Atarashī Higashiajia no kin-gendai shi – jō: kokusai kankei no hendō de yomu mirai o
hiraku rekishi (New East Asia Modern and Contemporary History Pt. I: History that is opening the
future – as read from the changes in international relations), Tōkyō: Nihonhyōronsha, 2012, pp.
113–114.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Bekeš: History Textbook Discourse from the Point of View of Writer – Reader Interaction
sentences and presents more ample and more explicit treatment of the “Nanjing
massacre”. A more detailed consideration of the relevant factors would be necessary in order to judge where all these differences stem from.
On the other hand, the differences between the high school history textbooks
and other genres of history writing appear very clearly also in the characteristics
of writer – reader interaction expressed through the use of modality and ‘voices’
in Bakhtin’s sense. The issue regarding possible sources of such differences will
be touched upon again at the end of this paper.
The next section is devoted to an analysis of writer – reader interaction in
the above sense.
Writer – reader interaction reflected in the use of modality
and ‘voices’
For the analysis, the sections on the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal from the
Nihonshi B textbook and Sengoshi were chosen. In the analyzed material, dark
grey “underlined bold” marks the sentence’s final assertion of undisputable
(within the context of the particular discourse) facts, expressed by means of the
-ta form of the predicate. Light grey “underlined” marks other modal expressions such as conjecture, etc. The author’s voice is marked with dark grey “bold
italic” if marked with a sentence final expression such as to omou (I think) etc.,
whereas the whole sentence in the author’s voice is marked in light grey “italic”
It is interesting to observe that the quantity of text allotted to the topic is
quite different in both books. In the Nihonshi B textbook, the section is just 347
characters long, about one fourth of the length found in Sengoshi where 1,327
characters were used to cover the same topic. This hints at the fact that textbooks
have to cram an enormous amount of information into a limited space, which
also influences the type of verbal interaction evolving in the text.
As can be seen in Tables 1 and 2, this is indeed the fact – as will also be made
clear in the following section.
37
38
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
Table 1: The text on the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in the Nihonshi B textbook (p. 340–
341)
1
2
3
4
5
1945年、総司令部は
東条英機元首相ら39
人を戦争犯罪容疑者
(戦犯)
として逮捕
し、1946年5月、容疑
を審理するための極
東国際軍事裁判(東
京裁判)が開廷した。
In 1945, General Headquarters
arrested former Prime Minister
Tojo Hideki and a further 39
people as war criminal suspects
(war criminals) and in May
1946, the International Military
Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo
Trials) to try the suspects had
begun.
The 11 victorious powers of
Tōkyō saiban ni wa Ajia
東京裁判にはアジ
ア・太平洋の戦争で Taiheiyō no sensō de no senshō- the Asia-Pacific participated
in the Tokyo Trials, with the
の戦勝国11か国が参 koku 11-kakoku ga sanka shi,
Australian Webb becoming the
加し、
オーストラリア ōsutoraria hito no Uebbu ga
presiding judge.
人のウェッブが裁判 saiban-chō to natta.
長となった。
Saiban dewa, A kyū senpan to In the trials, 28 A class war
裁判では、A級戦犯
として起訴された東 shite kiso sareta Tōjō Hideki-ra criminal defendants including
条英機ら28人の被告 28 nin no hikoku < 1 > ga sensō Tojo Hideki, were prosecuted
as war criminals, with the
<1>が戦争全般に対 zenpan ni taisuru shidō-teki
する指導的役割をは yakuwari o hatashita ka dō ka trial centering on whether they
played an overall leadership role
たしたかどうかをめぐ o megutte shinri sareta.
in the war or not.
って審理された。
裁判のなかで日本軍 Saiban no naka de Nippongun During the trial, facts concerning the invasion by the Japanese
による侵略の実態が ni yoru shinryaku no jittai ga
国民の前に明らかに kokumin no mae ni akiraka ni Army became clear and were
なり、1948年11月に結 nari, 1948-nen 11 tsuki ni kes- put in front of the Japanese
審して東条英機ら7人 shin shite Tōjō Hideki-ra 7 nin public, and the trial concluded
in November 1948, with Hideki
が絞首刑となった。 ga kōshukei to natta.
Tojo and 7 other defendants
sentenced to hanging.
Mata, sensō-chū ni hijindōteki In addition, trials of indicted
また、戦争中に非人
B and C-class war criminals
道的行為を働いたと kōi o hataraita to shite kiso
accused of perpetrating acts
sa reta B C kyū senpan no
して起訴されたB・C
級戦犯の裁判<2>が saiban < 2 > ga Nippon koku- against humanity during the
war were carried out in Japan
日本国内や東南アジ nai ya Tōnan Ajia kakuchi
and Southeast Asian countries,
ア各地で行なわれ、 de okonaware, Nippongun
and many of the Koreans and
日本軍に徴用された ni chōyō sa reta Chōsen ya
朝鮮や台湾の人びと Taiwan no hitobito no naka ni the Taiwanese drafted into the
Japanese Army by the Japanese
のなかには死刑とな wa shikei to natta mono mo
military were also sentenced to
った者も多数いた。 tasū ita.
death.
1945-Nen, sō shirei-bu wa Tōjō
Hideki moto shushōra 39 nin o
sensō hanzai yōgisha (senpan)
to shite taiho shi, 1946-nen 5
gatsu, yōgi o shinri suru tame
no Kyokutō kokusai gunji
saiban (Tōkyō saiban) ga kaitei
shita.
Bekeš: History Textbook Discourse from the Point of View of Writer – Reader Interaction
Table 2: Text on Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in Sengoshi (p. 28–31)
1
2
3
4
5
6
対日占領のもう一
つの重要な柱は、ポ
ツダム宣言第10項に
もとづき
「一切の戦
争犯罪人」
を逮捕し、
厳重なる処罰を加え
ることであった。
一九四六年五月三
日から始まった極東
国際軍事裁判(東京
裁判)は、約二年半
の審理をへて四八年
一一月に閉廷した。
(
図7)。
ウエッブ裁判長は、
ニ八人の被告のう
ち、東条英機らA級戦
犯七名に絞首刑、荒
木貞夫元陸軍大臣ら
一六名に終身禁固を
宣告した。
この裁判の経過につ
いては優れた書物が
何冊も出ているので
詳しく述べる必要は
ない(朝日新聞東京
裁判記者団著『東京
裁判』上下、島内龍
起『東京裁判』、大沼
保昭『東京裁判から
戦後責任の思想へ』
など)。
むしろここでは、東京
裁判の意義について
述べておきたい。
第一に、東京裁判
の日本国民に対する
最大の影響は、満州
事変(柳条湖事件)や
南京大虐殺の事実が
法廷を通じて初めて
明るみに出たことに
ある。
Tainichi senryō no mōhitotsu
no jūyōna hashira wa,
Potsudamu sengen dai 10-kō
ni motozuki ‘issai no sensō
hanzai hito’ o taiho shi, genjū
naru shobatsu o kuwaeru koto
deatta.
Another important pillar of
the occupation of Japan, based
on Section 10 of the Potsdam
Declaration, was to arrest “all
war criminals”, and punish
them severely.
1946 nen 5gatsu 3nichi kara
hajimatta Kyokutō kokusai
gunji saiban (Tōkyō saiban)
wa, yaku ni-nen han no shinri
o hete 48nen 11gatsu ni heitei
shita. (Zu 7).
The International Military
Tribunal for the Far East (the
Tokyo War Crimes Trials),
beginning on May 3, 1946,
went on for about two and a
half years until November ‘48
(Photo 7
Uebbu saiban-chō wa,
nijūhachi nin no hikoku no
uchi, Tōjō Hideki-ra A kyū
senpan nana-mei ni kōshukei,
Araki Sadao moto rikugun
daijin-ra jūroku-mei ni
shūshin kinko o senkoku shita.
Webb, the presiding judge,
sentenced Tojo Hideki and another seven Class-A war criminals to hanging, and sentenced
former Army Minister Araki
Sadao and another fifteen people to life imprisonment.
Kono saiban no keika ni tsuite
wa sugureta shomotsu ga
nan-satsu mo dete iru node
kuwashiku noberu hitsuyō
wa nai (Asahi shinbun Tōkyō
saiban kisha-dan-cho “Tōkyō
saiban” jōge, Shimauchi
Tatsuki “Tōkyō saiban”,
ōnuma Yasuaki“Tōkyō saiban
kara sengo sekinin no shisō e”
nado).
This need not be a detailed description of the trial since there
are excellent books about it.
(Asahi Shimbun Tokyo court
reporters “Tokyo War Crimes
Trial” pt. 1, 2; Shimauchi
Tatsuki “Tokyo War Crimes
Trials”, Onuma Yasuaki “From
the Tokyo War Crimes Trial to
ideas about the responsibility
for the war”, etc.).
Mushiro koko dewa, Tōkyō
saiban no igi ni tsuite nobete
okitai.
Here, I would rather describe
the significance of the Tokyo
War Crimes Trials.
Daiichi ni, Tōkyō saiban no
Nihon kokumin ni taisuru
saidai no eikyō wa, Manshū jihen (ryūjōko jiken) ya Nankin
daigyakusatsu no jijitsu ga
hōtei o tsūjite hajimete akarumi ni deta koto ni aru.
First, the maximum impact of
the Tokyo War Crimes Trials
on the Japanese people is that
the Manchurian Incident
(Liutiaohu/Ryujoko Incident)
and the Massacre of Nanjing
came to be known for the first
time through these court proceedings.
39
40
The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
事件当時、
日本国民
は満鉄線路を爆被し
たのは中国兵の仕業
だという軍部の発表
を鵜呑みにして、中
同憎しの感情を高め
ていった。
8 新聞・ラジオも反中
国のキャンペーンを
張って戦争熱を煽り
立てた。
9 ところが実際は関東
軍の謀略であったこ
とが、東京裁判で明
らかにされた。
10 これを知った日本国
民は「だまされた」
と
心底から思ったもの
である。
11 この裁判を通じて日
本人は、権力やマス
メディアのウソに誤
魔化されず、真実を
知ることの大切さを
学んだ。
12 第二に、
古い言葉だが
「因果応報」、つまり
悪いことをすれば必
ず罰せられるという
考えを改めて国民的
規模で学んだように
おもう。
13 東京裁判では、
「平和
に対する罪」
「人道に
対する罪」
を新たに
設定して、被告人を裁
く方式をとった。
7
Jiken tōji, Nihon kokumin wa
Mantetsu senro o bakuha shita
no wa Chūgoku-hei no shiwaza da to iu gunbu no happyō o
unomi ni shite, chū dō nikushi
no kanjō o takamete itta.
At the time of the Manchurian
Incident, the Japanese people
accepted without question the
fact that it was Chinese soldiers
who blew up the Mantetsu line,
which all the more enraged
their feelings.
Shinbun rajio mo han
Chūgoku no kyanpēn o hatte
sensō netsu o aori tateta.
The newspapers and radio also
fueled the anti-China propaganda campaign with their
propaganda.
Tokoroga jissai wa Kantōgun
no bōryaku deatta koto ga,
Tōkyō saiban de akiraka ni
sa reta.
But the Tokyo War Crimes
Trials revealed that it was actually a plot by the Kwantung
Army.
Kore o shitta Nihon kokumin
wa ’damasareta’ to shinsoko
kara omotta mono dearu.
When the Japanese people
learned about this, they sincerely believed that they had
been “cheated”.
Kono saiban o tsūjite Nihonjin
wa, kenryoku ya masumedia
no uso ni gomakasarezu, shinjitsu o shiru koto no taisetsusa
o mananda.
Through these trials, the
Japanese people learned the
importance of knowing the
truth and of not being deceived
by the lies of the powers that be
and the mass media.
Daini ni, furui kotoba da ga
‘ingaōhō’, tsumari warui koto
o sureba kanarazu basse- rareru to iu kangae o aratamete
kokumin-teki kibo de mananda yō ni omou.
Second, though “retribution”,
i. e., ‘If you do bad things, you
end up being punished in the
end’, is an old expression, I
think that its truth has been
learned again on a national
scale.
At the Tokyo War Crimes
Trials, (the concepts of)
“crimes against peace” and
“crimes against humanity”
were newly introduced and the
defendants were judged according to this as well.
Apropos these new crimes, the
Kore
ni
taishite
wa,
Indo
no
14 これに対しては、
イン
defense for the Japanese side
ドのパル判事をはじ Paru hanji o hajime Nihonめ日本側弁護人(清 gawa bengonin (Kiyose Ichirō- (Kiyose Ichiro et al.), and the
Judge Pal from India argued
瀬一郎ら)が主張し ra) ga shuchō shita yō ni, hō
that in law, there is a principle
wa sono jisshi izen no jikō ni
たように、法はその実 sakanobotte tekiyō sa renai to of non-retroactivity and that
施以前の事項にさか iu fusokyū no gensoku ga aru. it should not be applied retroのぼって適用されな
actively.
いという不遡及の原
則がある。
Tōkyō saiban de wa, ‘heiwa
ni taisuru tsumi’ ‘ jindō ni
taisuru tsumi’ o arata ni settei
shite, hikokunin o sabaku
hōshiki o totta.
Bekeš: History Textbook Discourse from the Point of View of Writer – Reader Interaction
15 これに照らしてみれ
ば、東京裁判は明ら
かに不遡及の原則に
違反し、違法、無効で
あると言うのだ。
Kore ni terashite mireba,
Tōkyō saiban wa akiraka ni
fusokyū no gensoku ni ihan
shi, ihō, mukō dearu to iu
noda.
17 その意味で、私も東
京裁判は不遡及の原
則に反しており、
「勝
者の裁き」
であると考
える。
18 しかし、
ここで思考停
止に陥ってしまえば、
人類に何の進歩もな
いことになろう。
19 とくに原子爆弾をは
じめ近代科学兵器
の開発、使用により
人類は絶滅の危機に
さらされることにな
った。
20 国際法のレベルだけ
でなく、科学技術、文
化のあらゆる分野に
おいて
「核兵器時代
の思想」は不可欠と
なったのだ。
Sono imi de, watashi mo
Tōkyō saiban wa fusokyū no
gensoku ni hanshite ori,’shōsha
no sabaki’ dearu to kangaeru.
In that sense, the Tokyo War
Crimes Trials, being contrary
to the principle of non-retroactivity, can be considered to be a
(form of) “winner’s justice”.
Shikashi, koko de shikō teishi
ni ochītte shimaeba, jinrui ni
nani no shinpo mo nai koto ni
naroo.
However, if one would fall into
the trap of stopping to think at
this point, there would be no
progress for the human race.
Tokuni genshi bakudan o
hajime kindai kagaku heiki no
kaihatsu, shiyō ni yori jinrui
wa zetsumetsu no kiki ni sarasa- reru koto ni natta.
In particular, with the development and use of the atomic
bomb and weapons based on
modern science, the human
race has become exposed to
great danger.
In the light of this, the Tokyo
War Crimes Trials clearly were
in violation of the principle of
non-retroactivity, therefore
illegal and it could be said to
be invalid.
16 事実、第二次世界大 Jijitsu, dainiji sekaitaisen mae In fact, before World War II,
international law did not con戦前の国際法は侵略 no kokusai-hō wa shinryaku
sider wars of aggression as war
戦争を犯罪とはして sensō o hanzai to wa shite
crimes.
inakatta.
いなかった。
21 その意味で、私はオラ
ンダのレーリンク判
事のいうように
「国際
法は動く」
という観点
が不可欠だと考える
(
レーリンク、
ヵッセー
ゼ著/小菅信子訳『
レーリンク判事の東
京裁判歴史的証言と
展望』)。
Not only at the level of international law, but also at the
level of science and technology
and in every area of culture,
“thinking [of how to live] in
the nuclear weapons era” became indispensable.
In this sense, I think that what
Sono imi de, watashi wa
the Dutch judge Röling said,
Oranda no Rērinku hanji no
iu yō ni ‘kokusai-hō wa ugoku’ namely, that “international
to iu kanten ga fukaketsuda to law moves on” is an essential
kangaeru (Rērinku, Kassēze- point of view (Röling ‘ Cassese/
transl. by Kosuge Nobuko,
cho/ Kosuge Nobuko-yaku
“Judge Röling’s Tokyo War
“Rērinku hanji no Tōkyō
Crimes Trial: Its historical
saiban rekishi-teki shōgen to
testimony and future developtenbō”).
ment”).
Kokusai-hō no reberu dake de
naku, kagaku gijutsu, bunka
no arayuru bun’ya ni oite
‘kakuheiki jidai no shisō’ wa
fukaketsu to natta no da.
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
Tōkyō saiban no hanketsu
22 東京裁判の判決当
時、
日本国民から大 tōji, nihonkokumin kara
きな反対がなかった ōkina hantai ga nakatta no
のは、敗戦国民として wa, haisen kokumin to shite
‘yamuwoenai’ ‘tōzenda’ to iu
「やむを得ない」
「当 kanjō ga shihai-teki deatta
然だ」
という感情が支 tame dearuga, kore ni kuwaete
配的であったためで ’sensō wa kori gorida’ to iu
あるが、
これに加えて heiwa shugi no shisō ga koku「戦争はこりごりだ」 min ni hiroku shintō shite ita
という平和主義の思 tame dearu.
想が国民に広く浸透
していたためである。
23 であればこそ、のち
にアメリカがベトナム
戦争で非人道的な戦
争犯罪をおかしたに
もかかわらず、何ら
罰せられないのは不
当・不法であるという
批判が国際的に高ま
った。
24 一九六八年、
イギリ
スの哲学者ラッセル
やフランスの哲学者
サルトルが「世界法
廷」
を聞き、米国を道
義的に告発したとき
の鮮烈な印象を
私は忘れない。
At the time when the verdicts
of the Tokyo War Crimes
Trials were handed down, the
fact that the Japanese people
voiced no great opposition to
them was due to the feeling
that they were “unavoidable”,
and of it being “ natural” that
was dominant among the defeated people of Japan, and in
addition, also due to the pacifist feeling that was prevalent
among a public which was “fed
up with the war”.
On the other hand later critiDeareba koso, nochi ni
cism stating that it is unfair
Amerika ga Betonamu sensō
de hijindōtekina sensō hanzai and illegal that the United
o okashita ni mo kakawarazu, States did not receive any
kind of punishment, despite
nanra basserarenai no wa
futō fuhō dearu to iu hihan ga their having committed war
crimes against humanity in the
kokusai-teki ni takamatta.
Vietnam War has increased
internationally.
1968 nen, Igirisu no tetsugakusha Rasseru ya Furansu
no tetsugakusha Sarutoru ga
’sekaihōtei’ o kiki, Beikoku o
dōgi-teki ni kokuhatsu shita
toki no senretsuna inshō o
watashi wa wasurenai.
I will never forget the vivid impression [it made on me] when
in 1968, I heard that the British
philosopher Russell and the
French philosopher Sartre had
started the “World Court”, and
morally accused the United
States.
INTERPRETATION
Analysis in Section 2.1 hints that the framing of events such as “Nanjing
massacre” which put Japan’s past in negative light in MEXT approved Textbook
Nihonshi B does not differ essentially from the “CJK joint monograph”.
Limitations regarding length, ample usage of footnotes, and less transparent
style in the former seem to be more due to the requrements of content and style
of history textbook writing in Japan, influenced as much by the wish to convey
the relevant content as by the necessity to adapt to the formalized evaluation of
knowledge by the system of entrance exams.
This is also clear from the analysis in Section 2.2. The description of Tokyo
Tribunal in the Textbook Nihonshi B is very condensed, the whole passage being only 347 characters long. The textbook asserts only the facts, with no other
Bekeš: History Textbook Discourse from the Point of View of Writer – Reader Interaction
modality being expressed or author’s ‘voice’ being present. Thus the interaction
between the writer and the reader is limited to the writer’s one sided providing
of what is presented as unquestionable facts. There is no attempt of nuancing on
the part of the writer, or of the writer’s subjective perception being included. This
is indeed something that can be expected to happen if the amount of space is as
limited as it is in this case.
In the case of the general readership oriented postwar history monograph –
Sengoshi, the situation is diametrically opposite. The space allotted to the topic,
with 1,327 characters, is about four times more ample than in the history textbook. This fact is reflected also in the type of verbal interaction employed in
Sengoshi.
The use of modality meanings is more varied, including the narrative stream
with assertions using the assertive past -ta form of verbal predicates; there is also
background information marked with non past -ru forms of the predicate. There
are also various types of epistemic modalities, such as logical conclusions or
explanations, expressed by – noda/no dearu, generic truths, expressed by -mono
dearu, and conjectures, expressed by the predicate sufix -ō, etc.
The ‘voices’, too, are more variegated. There is of course the neutral narrator’s voice, marked by the omission of personal pronouns, detached, impersonal
use of predicates and the exclusive use of the third person. Besides the narrator’s
‘voice’, though, the author’s ‘voice’ is also present. The author’s voice is revealed
in the use of predicate forms such as -to omou (I think), -to kangaeru (I consider), -tai (I want), and the explicit use of personal pronouns such as watashi
(I),. among others.
CONCLUSION
In the case study, two pairs of texts belonging to two different genres of writing about history were examined. In the first pair, MEXT approved textbook
Nihonshi B and “CJK joint monograph” treat the topic of“Nanjing massacre” in a
relatively comparable way and, except the extensive use of footnotes in Nihonshi
B, no conspicuous discrepancies were noticed. This is true also regarding the
application of grammatical voice (J. tai) to present the critical events in Nanjing
massacre.
On the other hand, Nihonshi B and Sengoshi treatment of “Tokyo Tribunal”
was quite different. Since both texts deal with the same topic and were produced
at approximately the same time, i.e. in the second half of the first decade of the
third millennium, why should the differences be so pronounced? Why do we
43
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
find that in the textbook the absolutely predominant mode of interaction is the
omniscient presentation of facts, while other more interesting ways of getting
acquainted with historical facts are possible, as can be seen in Sengoshi.
One can think of several reasons. One is genre. General history textbooks of
the type such as Nihonshi B seem to have the sole purpose of covering as many
facts as possible, without any leeway to engage the reader in a meaningful way
into the content being presented to her or him.
Such a mechanical, unproblematic presentation of history presents no challenge to the juvenile budding intelligence. The result is that readers (in this case
high school students) perceive historical narrative as a string of undisputed facts,
and as an unappetizing burden to be memorized if they want to graduate from
high school and enter their chosen university.
One might look for the possible origins of this type of genre in many directions, the first that comes into mind being the prevalent level of efficiency required of students at entrance exams. But since the author has had a similar experience with history textbooks from his own years at high school in Slovenia –
albeit half a century ago, but nonetheless applicable – entrance exams may not
be the whole answer.
All in all, the question of how to stage the writer – reader interaction in history textbooks is without doubt a problem that deserves further serious examination in a comparative perspective.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
Dragica Koljanin
THE FUNCTION OF
HISTORY TEXTBOOKS
FOR PRIMARY
SCHOOLS IN BUILDING
A NEW IDENTITY
AND HISTORICAL
CONSCIOUSNESS IN
THE YUGOSLAV STATE
(1918–1941)
T
he principles on which the Yugoslav state was formed in 1918,
had followed the trend that was dominant in European societh
ties of the 19 century, when national states were formed based on national ideologies. The educational policy and school itself had a key role in this process. All
45
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
theorists of nation agree that a citizen is formed by school. Through the process
of socialization, whose essential tool in modern society is school, an individual
becomes a member of a particular ethnic group. National identity and national
feelings result from the assumption of common knowledge, norms and values;
they arise from the adoption of a single set of cultural models and specific values.
They define personal identity, which is inextricably linked to the collective identity, and after that, individuals find the nation in themselves.1 Primary schools
stand out by their significance because they represent the most massive type of
education. For many reasons, science sees the primary education introduced in
Europe from the second half of the 19th century as a secular equivalent of the
church.2
At the end of the 19th century, the time of the formation of nations and nationalism were formed, statements maintaining scientifically proven past events
were utilized in order to strengthen the collective identity and charge the contemporaries who were brought up to be faithful heirs of a “glorious history” with
a mission to extend the legacy of their past. National history mirrored the construction and triumph of the nation all over Europe. It imposed the point of view
that a nation must become the sole object of individual loyalty at the expense of
every other form of identity and affiliation. At the same time, in order for the abstract community which was the nation to be built and shaped, it was necessary
to support national enthusiasm by connecting the nation’s language, history and
mythology.3 Nations were constantly recreating their collections of ethnic myths
and values; they were in need of a sacred territory, a hero and a golden age in
order to encourage a form of ethnicity that was intended to strengthen the feeling of belonging to a collective. According to some nation theorists, inventing
tradition is a requirement of every nation’s existence.4
In the process of formation of nations, history teaching was entrusted with
the especially important task of creating a sense of historical unity, which was
already something inherent in the ethnic group (or groups). In effect, it was the
historians who developed some of the widely accepted national myths, more or
less loosely based on real facts. Despite the importance of teachers, history textbooks have always had a key role in the teaching of history. These textbooks tend
to be cultural patterns (models); samplers which contain everything or almost
1
2
3
4
Šnaper, Dominik. Zajednica građana. O modernoj ideji nacije. Sremski Karlovci-Novi Sad: IK Zorana
Stojanovića, 1996, pp. 177–178.
Erik Hobsbom, Masovna proizvodnja tradicija. In: Erik Hobsbom, Terens Rejndžer (eds.), Izmišljanje
tradicije, Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek, 2002, p. 395 (Hobsbawm, Eric. Mass Producing Tradition:
Europe 1870–1914. In: Hobsbawm, Eric. Ranger, Terence (eds.). Inventing Tradition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Šnaper, Zajednica građana, pp. 180–181, 184.
Šnaper, Zajednica građana.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
everything essential for a culture. They actively build and shape members of a
specific culture. The textbooks attempt to establish control over the whole person, down to the level of their finest sentiments. For cultural activity, some elements of the textbooks are essential, direct and powerful, while others are completely irrelevant or merely background material, indirect and marginal. The
agency of the history textbook works on several levels, ranging from direct influence in keeping with its proclaimed objective, to building up an unconscious
background and generating side effects that even the author of the textbook is
unaware of. The textbook serves as both formative and educational tool, whereby
the modelling of cultural experience is its directly stated goal.5
In the process of the transmission of cultural content, the textbooks facilitate
the process of self-awareness so that it becomes clear what is important for a
community, establishing the hierarchy of the cultural values, determining which
are primary and which are secondary. The study of the textbooks used at schools
gives an insight into the standard that school system wishes to achieve in a relatively objective manner.6 Historiographical analyses of history textbooks reveal
the attitude towards the Yugoslav national idea, but also the attitude towards
the Yugoslav state as such. History textbooks should be perceived as one of the
most important tools of creating a new patriotism or creating the new Yugoslav
national identity among those who were expected to soon become the most creative and most productive members of this community – i.e. the school youth.
A precondition for establishing the educational policy of the Yugoslav state
was the construction and standardization of the school system, because in this
field, there were very large differences and discrepancies in certain parts of the
country. The expansion of the school network aimed to achieve the education of
a large part of the population and the gradual inclusion of new generations in the
system of compulsory primary education.
After creating the new state in 1918, at least in the first years of its existence,
the greater part of the intellectual elite supported the building of its institutions
and its key objectives in various ways. In this sense, there was continuity with
the period before WWI. However, it soon turned out that it was most difficult to
achieve cohesion, or so-called “spiritual unity” especially on the cultural level.
The proclamation of the dictatorship of King Alexander on January 6, 1929, did
not mark a turning point in the political life of the country solely. The ideological
5
6
Plut, Dijana. Udžbenik kao kulturno-potporni sistem. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike, 2003, pp. 17,45–
46; Ivić, Ivan, Pešikan, Ana, Antić, Slobodanka. Vodič za dobar udžbenik, Opšti standardi kvaliteta
udžbenika. Novi Sad: Platoneum, 2008, pp. 19–21.
Rosandić, Ružica. Patriotsko vaspitanje u osnovnoškolskim udžbenicima. In: Plut, Dijana i dr.
Ratništvo, patriotizam, patrijarhalnost. Analiza udžbenika za osnovne škole. Beograd: Centar za
antiratnu akciju,1994, p. 43.
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
conception of Yugoslav national unity was also proclaimed at that time, replacing the earlier national unity idea. However, under the influence of the political
events at the end of the thirties, notably the creation of the Banovina of Croatia
on August 26, 1939, the concept of the state and national unity were formally
abandoned.
The creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on December 1,
1918, marked the realization of the idea of the unification of the South Slavic
peoples into a single national state. This idea had its relatively long pre-history
in the nineteenth century, and became politically current in the first decade of
the twentieth century.7 Researchers agree in their assessment that the Yugoslav
state was created with half of a century delay, and that it could not be a monolithic national state because the nations which constituted it had mostly been
formed already.8 Indeed, if we draw a comparison with the “delayed nations”
such as the Italian or the German nation, the creation of the Yugoslav nation
whose prerequisite was the creation of a unique state was in even greater historical delay. Paradoxically, the new state failed to create Yugoslavs, but it became a
suitable framework for the final shaping of the Slovenian and Croatian nations.
Mass Croatian national consciousness arose only after the establishment of the
Yugoslav state in opposition to the new state and alleged Serbian dominance in
it.9 Unlike the Slovenian, the Croatian nationalist mass movement more strongly
emphasized striving for an independent state in which the hostility of the Roman
Catholic Church towards the new liberal state played a major role.
The national ideology of the new state was based on the idea of ethnic and
cultural unity according to the European model of the nation-state. The new
nation was supposed to be a political community of citizens, or a community
of people of the same language and origin. This was supposed to harmonize the
two basic types of intellects of a nation, the civil-territorial (“French”) and the
ethnic-genealogical (“German”).10 This second type took precedence because the
new state with its borders encompassed most of the ethnically related communities which were considered to be set apart only by religion and had heretofore
belonged to different countries. It was believed that the new community would
provide the conditions for the realization of the “centuries-old aspirations” of the
South Slavs or Yugoslavs for their complete national and state unity. In support
7
8
Ekmečić, Milorad. Stvaranje Jugoslavije 1790–1918, Vol. I–II, Beograd: Prosveta, 1989, passim.
Gligorijević, Branislav. Jugoslovenstvo između dva rata (Protivrečnosti nacionalne politike).
Jugoslovenski istorijski časopis,1986, Nr. 1–4, p. 76.
9 Gross, Mirjana. On the integration of the Croatian nation: a case study in national building. East
european Quarterly, 15, 1981, p. 224 (Quoted in Erik Hobsbaum, Nacije i nacionalizam od 1780.
Program, mit, stvarnost, Beograd: Filip Višnjić, 1996, p. 154.
10 Ibid., pp. 221–250. The author criticizes the two nations idea and claims there is only one nation;
ibidem, p. 244.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
of this stance was the commitment of the Yugoslav national elite to unite at the
end of the Great War in 1918. Their resolve was increased by the aspirations of
the neighbours towards their territories, notably the Italians, who had set their
sights on the eastern Adriatic coast. Nation theorists believe that it was an attempt to construct a Yugoslav national tradition comprised of the traditions of
the Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian and other ethnic groups, and that the weakness
of this national tradition was to form the root of later conflicts.11
Apart from the political intentions, none of the necessary conditions for the
Yugoslav national integration, nor for the creation of a solid base of Yugoslav
nationalism which could result in a truly unified nation, actually existed. The
first and most important obstacle was the fact that the three “tribes” that the new
state consisted of had in fact had already been established as nations, or were on
the way to completing the process.
One of the central roles in creating a unified Yugoslav national idea and a
Yugoslav citizenry was to be played by cultural policy. Generally, the designed
cultural policy is an important part of general social modernization and the
commencement of rapid development. However, the meaning and content of the
cultural policy in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes / Yugoslavia, as
well as the whole social development, faced a number of limitations, these being mainly the undefined political relations and the major economic and cultural differences of its individual parts. In the Kingdom of SHS there were up to
37 different national and provincial laws and regulations governing the field of
education.12 Cultural policy was perceived by the authorities solely as a political
activity; a form suitable for placing the desired ideological and political content,
views and interests into.13
Researchers of the social phenomena in the history of Yugoslavia agree that
the cultural policy, including the educational policy, played a very important role
in the attempted social integration of the Yugoslav area in the period between
the two world wars as well as during the entire history of the Yugoslav state. This
applies both to historians who approached the cultural policy as a complex and
comprehensive phenomenon (Lj. Dimić), and those who understood the culture
as a set of activities carried out by state institutions with the aim of creating and
maintaining the Yugoslav state; primarily in the ideological field (E. Vahtel).14
11 Ibid., pp. 45–46.
12 Dimić, Ljubodrag. Kulturna politika u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji 1918–1941. Beograd: Stubovi kulture,
1996, Vol. II, Škola i crkva, p. 118.
13 Dimić, Kulturna politika, Vol. III, Politika I stvaralaštvo, pp. 412–413.
14 Endru Baruh Vahtel. Stvaranje, razaranje nacije. Književnost i kulturna politika u Jugoslaviji, Beograd
2001, passim (Wahtel, Andrew Baruch. Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation. Literature and Cultural
Politics in Yugoslavia. Standford: Standford University Press, 1998)
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
According to one point of view, culture was an essential factor in maintaining
the existence of Yugoslavia.15 Thereby the idea of national unity of the Yugoslav
nations was achieved in four major ways: 1) by conducting a language policy
with the aim of creating a single language; 2) by imposing a Yugoslav literary
and artistic canon upon all the nations comprising the state; 3)by implementing the planned policy of education, particularly with regards to the teaching
of literature and history in schools; and 4) through the creation of new literary and artistic works that expressed a Yugoslav ideology.16 Since the beginning
of the 20th century, and later in the Yugoslav state, the cultural foundations of
the Yugoslav ideology were synthetic and based on the best from each of the
Yugoslav “tribes”, i.e. cultures. The interwar Yugoslavia was dominated by two
cultural models: the multi-cultural, in which the new culture was created by
combining elements of the existing “tribal” cultures, and the supranational, in
which the culture was created beyond the existing ones.17 Although this opinion
exaggerated the importance of culture in relation to the other (dis)integrative
social factors, primarily religion, it was completely justified from the standpoint
of emphasizing the undeniable importance that the idea of Yugoslav national
unity had in school history teaching.
Basically, the decreed Yugoslavism meant the defeat of the Yugoslav idea,
because it turned into its opposite. In essence, it was one of the models of inventing tradition – of the kind that established or legitimized institutions, status or
relations of identity.18 The integral Yugoslav ideology was based on a structure
in which the entire history of the country was actually the history of Yugoslavs
and a kind of preparation for unification or the final realization of the idea of a
single Yugoslav nation.
For the new state, just like any other nation-state, the leading question was
how and for what purpose to educate the young generations. The importance of
the schools was increased even more because they were supposed to create a new
Yugoslav national consciousness; Yugoslavia had been created and Yugoslavs
were supposed to be created, too. Although the generations that were meant to
create and comprise the new country had not been educated in the Yugoslav,
but in the national (in the new terminology: “tribal”) spirit during the course
of their educations, at least the schools in the new country would have the main
goal of building and nurturing an awareness of the new national and state unity. However, there were major obstacles in the path of this strategy in the very
school system.
15
16
17
18
Ibid., pp. 12–13.
Ibid., p. 14.
Ibid., pp. 90, 99–100.
Hobsbom, Kako se tradicije izmišljaju, pp. 17–18.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
To begin with, there were several school systems on the territory of the new
state, which was a serious obstacle to achieving the proclaimed “spiritual unification”. In accordance with the liberal ideological principles on which it rested,
the Yugoslav state was making efforts to implement a unique concept of public
schools and curricula in the field of education in line with the main objectives of
its policy.19 The Government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes endeavored to equalize educational policy and to place all the most important tasks
in this field within the competence of the Ministry of Education. A significant
role in creating and implementing educational policies within the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was held by the General Educational Council as an
expert advisory body to the Minister of Education. Following the formation of
the state and the subsequent restructuring, the Council expanded so that it was
now comprised of prominent experts from all parts of the new state. The main
tasks of the Council were related to creating a unified school system. It also dealt
with issues such as the conception and implementation of primary and secondary school curricula, textbooks, teachers’ status issues and many others.20
There were also significant differences in the applied formal legal and pedagogical-methodological terminology among the school systems in the different
parts of the country. At the same time, there were differences even in the more
significant things which had to be altered. It was proclaimed that schools need
to change their “spirit” or their national-ideological orientation in accordance
with the new national and state ideology and the school curricula and textbooks,
as well as the teachers’ understanding and commitment, were also expected to
adjust to it. All these problems were perhaps best portrayed in the system of
primary education and were reflected in the textbooks, including the history
textbooks, as the best representative of substantial changes in the ideological and
political sphere. From the creation of the new state onwards, the professional
public had advocated the harmonization of the legislation and primary school
teaching.
In schools, particular importance was given to the teaching of history in
which, as before, Western European models were followed. In the European education systems of the 19th century, during the construction of the nation-states,
history teaching was delegated the role of nurturing the love of the motherland
and a civic spirit. According to this “classical” theory of history teaching, its
task was to transfer moral lessons by using examples, which is why this kind
of history was also called “moralizing history”. This theory of history teaching
19 Dimić. Kulturna politika, Vol. II, Škola i crkva, pp. 117–120.
20 AJ, 66–485–490, Zapisnici Glavnog prosvetnog saveta; Tešić, Vladeta i dr., Sto godina prosvetnog
saveta Srbije 1880–1980, Beograd: Zavod za učbenike SR Srbije, 1980, passim.
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
presupposed a high degree of consensus regarding the nature of the classical
values to be conveyed by the curriculum, i.e. which were the implicit virtues,
which ones were common and eternal. With the escalation of the political differences that culminated in World War I, this concept was subjected to serious
criticism. Therefore, in the period between the two world wars, in response to
the moralizing history, a new attitude was formed, according to which schools
were supposed to primarily transmit knowledge about history, to impart knowledge about the past, and the content of the national cultural heritage.21
The main role in achieving the educational task of strengthening the awareness and national unity of the Yugoslav nations was carried by a “national group
of subjects” which were comprised of the “state” language (Serbo-Croatian,
Slovenian or Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian), Geography and History. Special methodological instructions regarding the teaching of this national group of subjects
were also issued.22
At the end of the war in Serbia, in 1918, the printing of primary school textbooks in which the unification of the Yugoslav peoples was unequivocally announced commenced. This was in accordance with the Yugoslav programme
that the Serbian government adopted on December 1914, which it consistently
followed. It was clear that textbooks should be one of the means of national education and in a way, the “bearers of the state idea”.23 With the language policy of
unification imposing Yugoslav literary and artistic canons and the creation of
new literary and artistic works that expressed Yugoslav ideology, the education
policy, especially the teaching of literature and history, were the most important methods for the realization of the idea of national unity.24 Subsequently, the
creation of the new national identity was based on a collectivist, rather than an
individualist approach.25
The idea of Slavic mutuality and solidarity affected the policy on upbringing and education, as well as the history textbooks. Highlighting of the common Slavic origin could already be found in the history books of the Kingdom
of Serbia, and became even more pronounced after the establishment of the
Yugoslav State. The first teaching units of all history textbooks for primary
21 Knut Ćelstali, Prošlost nije više što je nekad bila, Uvod u istoriografiju, Beograd: Geopoetika, 2004,
pp. 300–303 (Kjeldstadli, Knut. Fortida er ikke hva den engang var. En innføring i historiefaget, Oslo:
Universitetsforlag, 1992).
22 Petrović, Đ. Pomoćna knjiga za obradu nacionalnih predmeta (izrađeno u smislu naređenja
Ministarstva prosvete ON. BR. .34360/21), Novi Sad,1926.
23 Dimić, Ljubodrag, Alimpić, Danko. Stereotipi o narodnom i državnom jedinstvu u udžbenicima
istorije u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji. Nastava istorije, 3, Novi Sad, 1996, p. 144.
24 Vahtel, Stvaranje nacije, razaranje nacije, p. 14.
25 Golubović, Zagorka. Ja i drugi. Antropološka istraživanja individualnog i kolektivnog identiteta.
Beograd: Republika, 1999, pp. 20–22.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
schools were devoted to the common Slavic origin, life and social organization
of the Slavs, as well as to discussing the fact that at that time the Slavic nations
were very close to each other.
The students in the Kingdom of SHS first encountered history teaching in
the third and fourth grade of the four-year elementary school. They studied the
“people’s history”, or the national history of the Yugoslav nations.26 Since 1922,
there were always multiple history textbooks for the same grade of primary
school in the Yugoslav state. The competition among the authors of textbooks
further increased in the thirties, when a new generation of textbooks was developed. At the same time, the old textbooks were adapted to the new curriculum
and were still in use. There were sometimes misunderstandings or conflicts regarding the selection of textbooks that were recommended to students, certainly
due to the substantial financial profits the publishers and authors hoped for from
the reprints. It should be noted that all the textbooks were published as private
editions by different publishers – including the largest publishing houses of the
time. Further evidence of this big rivalry can also be found in the numerous advertisements in the professional and elite publications, as well as in the reports
of school supervisors.
At the beginning of the twenties, the history textbooks for primary schools
were actually textbooks of Serbian history (mostly Serbia as a country) which
included short additions on the history of the Croats and the Slovenes.27 At
the same time, we also see the beginning of the printing of textbooks which
showed the most important events, processes and individuals from the histories of all three “tribes”: the Serbs, the Croats and the Slovenes.28 The histories
of the Slovenes and the Croats were presented simultaneously and successively
together with Serbian history, the latter of which still held the largest amount of
space. However, the mutual history of all three “tribes” was given increasingly
more space. This can be seen in the quantification of the content of some representative textbooks of this period. In one of the most common textbooks of this
period, a total content percentage of 83.9 was dedicated to Serbian history, 12.7%
to events from the mutual history of all three “tribes”, 3.3% to Croatian history
and less than half a percent (about half of a page) to the history of the Slovenes.29
In the 1920s, the official policy of a national unity of the three Yugoslav
“tribes” gradually gained its expression in a synchronized presentation of their
26 Aranicki, Kosta A., Karadžić, Stevan (eds.). Najnoviji učiteljski zbornik svih zakona, uredbi, Pančevo,
1936.
27 Todorović, Čedomilj. Istorija srpskog naroda za četvrti razred osnovnih narodnih škola. Istorijske slike
po programu sa slikama u tekstu, Četvrto izdanje, s istorijom Hrvata i Slovenaca, Beograd, 1922.
28 Rabrenović, Milan. Istorija Srba, Hrvata I Slovenaca za IV razred osnovnih škola, Beograd,1922.
29 Jović, Mihailo. Srpska istorija sa kratkom istorijom Hrvata i Slovenaca za četvrti razred osnovne škole
sa slikama po novom programu, Četrdeset prvo izdanje, Beograd, 1922.
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particular histories in the primary school textbooks, with increasing emphasis on what had brought them together in the past. Ever since then, the name
“Yugoslavs” was used for the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as a synonym and a
common name. However, most often they were identified by the phrase “all
our people, Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes,” which outlined the common origin
as the basis of national unity whose natural expression was the unification on
December 1, 1918. The closeness of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was pointed
out, as members of one branch of the Slavic, South Slavic (together with the
Bulgarians) nations, and then as belonging to one Yugoslav nation. In some textbooks, this was aligned with the titles of the teaching units (“The religious beliefs
of the old Yugoslavs”, “The Baptism of the Yugoslavs”).30 The history of the Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes was portrayed as having been Yugoslav and mutual from
the early Middle Ages.
Since 1922, the concept was built into the textbooks that the entire history of
the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes or Yugoslavs, had led to solely one goal: national
liberation and unification. As they were one nation, albeit with three names,
their natural tendency had been to achieve their national unity. The unification
was thus portrayed as the realization of the tendency of “all our people” and supposedly marked the end of their unnatural separation which had existed under
the influence of external and internal factors. The creation of a common state
was shown as a fateful watershed of their history because it had ended a long and
bloody, but at the same time glorious period, and started a new era personified
by the common people’s state. In this state, all national forces – now united –
were in the service of the people and not foreigners; all three peoples were now
completely free and with equal rights, judged and managed by the laws passed by
the national representatives (the National Assembly). The state that transcended
all earlier divisions had been created, and it was the duty of all its citizens to
guard it, to work and to be united and consequently, everyone would be happy
and satisfied. In line with this concept, the contents which referred to the common history, and then to the history of the Yugoslav state, would gradually take
up more and more space in the textbooks.
The Teachers’ Association, including the Association of Teachers of the
Yugoslav State, took part in fostering these Pan-Slavic feelings and their institutionalization. A new impetus to these efforts was given by the Pan-Slavic Teacher
Education Congress held in Poznanj from July 8 to 11, 1929. Among the key
issues at the Congress was the reform of primary school teaching and organizing Pan-Slavic teaching. It was decided that this had a deep significance, “even
in terms of the wider, national, Slovene,” and that this was a “great movement
30 Ibid.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
for the formation of the unified spirit and of one Slovenian ideology in the organization of education and teaching.” One of the main tasks of the Congress
was to determine the principles for a “Slavic pedagogy, which would create in
primary and secondary schools the place and the feeling for social equality and
democratic education”. On the last day of the Congress, the Pan-Slavic Teacher
Alliance, based in Warsaw, was formed.31
Yet despite the efforts of the Ministry of Education to unify the curricula
of all the primary schools throughout the Kingdom, the educational goals proclaimed in the Constitution were not achieved. The discussions on several drafts
of the new unified law on primary schools had lasted from the creation of the
Yugoslav state itself.32 In the debates that were held in the professional media
over the national schools, an almost unbridgeable gap between the desired and
the existing reality was pointed out. Professor J. Turić from Zagreb at this time
highlighted that the draft law which anticipated an eight-year national school
was completely unrealistic, stating the following facts: 1) 70% of the nation was
illiterate; 2) the intelligentsia did not understand the necessity of educating the
masses; 3) people did not know the value of education and science; and 4) the
extant political and economic circumstances did not allow larger investments in
education.33
Among the public there was also a continuous and ongoing debate on the
need for a fundamental reform of the school system. At the time of the Minister
of Education Kosta Kumanudi, in the early days of December 1927, a wider commission of educators from across the country was established, with a mandate
to draft a national educational program. One of the main demands was for a
reform of the primary school system and the introduction of a unified curriculum and program. One of the resolutions made by the commission was that they
had to implement the systematic openning of primary schools. As the existing
four-year primary school did not suit this purpose, it was requested that primary
school would last for 8 years: 4 years to cover the lower course, and 4 years for
the higher, and that the lower course would be the same everywhere. The request
was also issued to adapt primary school education to the “local and national
needs.” Special requirements also referred to the development of curricula and
textbooks for primary schools.34 However, all the relevant key legislation in the
field of education was not drafted until the proclamation of the dictatorship of
King Alexander on January 6, 1929.
31 Sveslovenski učiteljski kongres u Poznanju. Učitelj, 1. septembar 1929, pp. 75–76.
32 Dimić. Kulturna politika, Vol. II, reference 127; Projekat zakona o narodnim školama za Kraljevinu
Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca. Narodna prosveta, 1. septembar 1921, p. 2.
33 Turić, J.. Nacrt zakona za narodne škole. Prosvetni glasnik, 5–6, maj–juni 1922, pp. 353–357.
34 Novitović, Jerotije. Rad na stvaranju državnog prosvetnog programa. Beograd, 1928, pp. 1, 3, 25–27.
55
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
In the period after the proclamation of the royal dictatorship on January 6,
1929, there was a unification of the educational policy of the state as well. This
unification was manifested by adopting a number of laws, including the Law on
Textbooks and the Law on Public Schools. The Law on Textbooks for national
civic school teaching and high schools adopted on September 27, 1929, stipulated
that only the state editions of textbooks could be used. It turned out, however,
that this provision was impossible to implement, and in 1938 the concept of a
state monopoly on textbook publishing was abandoned. This meant that for public schools, an unlimited number of textbooks could be approved, and that every
part of the country could have its own textbook adapted to the local conditions.
The Law on Public Schools was passed on December 5, 1929. In the spirit of
the “sixth January idea”,35 i.e. the ideology of integral Yugoslavism, the national
schools were defined as “state institutions, with the task of teaching and education
in the spirit of the state and national unity and religious tolerance, to prepare students to be moral, loyal and active members of national, ethnic and social communities; to spread the national education programme directly and indirectly through
cooperation with cultural institutions for cultural enlightenment”. The classes in
public schools became general and compulsory throughout the Kingdom, and
were free as well. The state took care of opening schools, i.e. the creation of a
school network, as well as paying the teachers’ wages.
It was determined that primary school would last for four years, and higher
national schools the next four years. The education in all eight grades was compulsory. With the passing of such a law, the state authorities sought to unify primary education throughout the territory of the Kingdom, both in terms of duration as well as in terms of educational content. In the unified primary schools, a
total of 14 subjects was taught. In addition to those provided by the curriculum
from 1926, the new subjects of Housekeeping and Hygiene were also added; and
for the children who did not speak the national language as their mother tongue,
there might have been another class in language studies, which was not included
in the compulsory education curriculum (Article 9).36
Although the regulations determined that only the state-editions of textbooks could be used in primary schools,37 there was not always consensus regarding this issue. Throughout the interwar period, not a single state-edition
textbook was published for use on the entire national territory and discussions
were also held regarding this issue by the General Education Council.
The introduction of the Sixth-January Dictatorship brought significant
changes in virtually all fields of political and social life, including the field of
35 Adžić, Svetozar. Pravni položaj narodnih škola (Ph.D.manuscript). Beograd, 1941, pp. 41–42.
36 Službene novine Kraljevine Jugoslavije, Nr. 289, 1929; Dimić, Kulturna politika, Vol. II, pp. 122–128.
37 Pravila o štampanju udžbenika za narodne i srednje škole, pp. 107–112.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
education. The main ideological thread of these changes was complete equalization and possibly the deletion of the existing differences in, what had been until
then, the “three-named people”, in the spirit of the integrational Yugoslav nationalism. It was believed that the new generations, born after the Great War in
the new country, without the burden of the older generations, would be the bearers of a new national life, whose core values would be acquired in schools organized on the new conceptual foundations. Particular importance in this process
was given to the role of national (primary) schools and textbooks. It turned out,
however, that it was not so easy to put the set norms into practice.
In history textbooks for primary schools, in the period after the proclamation of the royal dictatorship, changes were made which are visible in the adaptations to the new national policy, although the curriculum had already been
adopted in 1927 and was in force until 1934. The fil rouge in these textbooks was
historical content that testified to the closeness, connection and cooperation of
the Yugoslavs. It was a historical argument of state national policy that needed
to be incorporated into the awareness of primary school students. These changes
were reflected on the terminological level as well, so that the name Yugoslav
largely replaced national names.
Programming the teaching of history was consistently based on the principle
of concentric circles which could be seen in the textbooks for the fourth grade
of primary school. Only national history was taught in this grade as in the third
grade, but at a higher level, so that the history textbooks had a richer content and
more detailed chronology than the textbooks for the third grade. Although they
were all based on the same curriculum, the textbooks of different authors varied
noticeably, in their overview of Yugoslav history, as well as in other areas.
The concept of the curriculum and the textbooks for the third grade were
entirely based on the biographical method, which was considered to be more
appropriate for the transmission of historical knowledge to children at that age.
History was taught according to the biographies of the nine most important
figures in the history “of the Yugoslav people” who set the appropriate example for children to identify with, with the intent of effecting the formation of
a mutual historical consciousness. These were: Cyril and Methodius, St. Sava,
Kraljević (Prince) Marko, Knez (Duke) Lazar, Nikola Subic Zrinjski, Karađorđe,
Štrosmajer, King Peter the Great and King Alexandar Karadjordjevic. All the
textbooks were illustrated with these characters, as visualization was meant to
reinforce the message that the biographies transmitted to the students.
The important historical events were shown as well to some extent within
the biographies, but most of the presentations were devoted to the works done by
these and other personalities for the national good, and to facilitate all aspects of
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the national unity of the Yugoslav peoples. This primarily related to the biographies of Karadjordjevic, Strossmayer, King Peter I and King Alexander I, which
were allotted more than half of the contents of the textbooks. These biographies
suggested to the students implicitly and explicitly, that the greatest achievement
of the entire history of the Yugoslav people was the creation of the single state,
the greatest good of the Yugoslav nation. Moreover, the country of Yugoslavia was
presented in the textbooks as an important international political factor because
it advocated cooperation and friendship with all peoples and peace in the world.
The historical knowledge that was supposed to be adopted was in the form of
isolated images (islands of history), most of which were related to each other. It
was characteristic that the first two figures in a row, the two brothers Cyril and
Methodius, were important for broader Slavic history, especially the history of
the South Slavs. Other personalities were also allocated their significance for the
histories of the individual Yugoslav nations, with examples where cooperation
and unity were emphasized, especially in landmark events such as the Battle of
Kosovo. Only the last three biographies, those of Strossmayer and, above all,
Kings Peter and Alexander were clearly linked to the history of Yugoslavia. It
stands out that there was not one person from Slovenian history. The disparity
in the scope and structure of the individual biographies was also noticeable. All
the biographies had in common an emphasis on the human and moral qualities
and, above all, the protagonists’ striving for the national well-being – even at the
cost of their life.
The decisions of the educational authorities that the publication of textbooks
should respect the particularities of certain parts of the country show that the
model of cultural policy adopted by the royal dictatorship in 1929 had been abandoned. According to the new concept, distinctiveness was not in conflict with the
idea of community and unity, and did not delineate boundaries in the spiritual
life shared by the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.38 It was also a kind of announcement of major political changes in managing the country – including the education system – which was brought about by the creation of the Banovina of Croatia.
After the proclamation and legal implementation of the integrated Yugoslav
ideology, history textbooks for primary schools were designated an extremely
important role in its implementation. A new subject name was introduced for
the teaching of history instead of the former name of the History of the Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes: National history. The selection of the teaching units and
their content placed even greater emphasis on all that joined together or was
common to some or all parts of the single Yugoslav nation, on everything that
built the idea of the community realized by the unification of December 1, 1918.
38 Dimić, Kulturna politika, Vol. I, pp. 376–377.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
This can also be seen in the predominance of lessons that relate to the mutual
history of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.39
Historical contents referred to the closeness, connection and cooperation of
Yugoslavs from the earliest times even more than previously. The state national
policy was supposed to be internalized by students already in primary school,
and its full expression was reached in the history textbooks. At the beginning of
the thirties, especially following the implementation of the new curriculum for
primary schools which came into effect in 1934, a new generation of history textbooks that fully reflected the new national educational policy appeared. Then
the history of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes became even more emphatically
Yugoslav history, and the change was also mirrored on the terminology level.
The name of Yugoslav largely replaced national names, and it marked national
history from the early Middle Ages. Some authors even introduced the term “the
ancient Yugoslav”,40 but it was not widely accepted.
In the fourth grade history textbooks, national history was studied at a higher level. These had a richer content and more detailed chronology than the third
grade textbooks. There were significant differences between the textbooks by
various authors, including the overview of the history of Yugoslavia, although
they were all based on the same curriculum. In their presentations of what had
unified Yugoslavs during the course of history and created their (imaginary)
common history, some authors indulged in making hypothetical and ahistorical
statements41 which reflected the even more emphasized integrative role intended
for primary school history textbooks.
In the early thirties, the first textbooks that were able to analyze the relations
in the new state appeared but, as always, the emphasis remained on the decisive
role of the ruler and the Karadjordjevic dynasty. Despite the idealization of the
past and the claim that the new state was the result of the aspirations and actions
of all Yugoslavs, it could be concluded that there were serious difficulties in its
functioning. In some textbooks, it was clearly emphasized that the new state was
suffering from an old trouble, namely, discord among its leading figures. This
was the main argument used to explain the necessity of introducing the royal
dictatorship in 1929.
It was observed in professional circles that the history textbooks for primary
schools were very comprehensive according to the curriculum of 1927, with a
large number of new facts and words that were not adapted to the age of the
students they were intended for. This was particularly the case with regard to
39 Vujanac, Milorad. Istorija za III razred osnovnih škola u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Beograd, 1932.
40 Prica, Dušan. Istorija jugoslovenskog naroda (Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca) za III razred osnovne škole po
novom nastavnom programu. Beograd, 1932, p. 12.
41 Vujanac, Milorad. Istorija za IV razred osnovnih škola u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Beograd, 1931, p. 8.
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the textbooks for the third grade of primary school. After numerous debates in
public and professional circles, the new curriculum for primary schools of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia was adopted on July 17, 1933, with the provision that
it was to be implemented in the following academic year of 1934/1935.42 The
main objective of history teaching was defined in the spirit of the Yugoslav national ideology: “Introducing students to the past of the Yugoslav peoples and
education in the national spirit.” According to the new curriculum, history
teaching was organized somewhat differently than before because not only the
ideological-political reasons were taken into consideration, but also the didactic-methodological remarks by the experts. The creators of the new curriculum
fundamentally changed the concept of studying history in the third grade of
primary school and adapted it to the reduced number of history classes in that
grade, because instead of the former two there was now only one class a week.
As before though, the history classes in the fourth grade still took place three
times a week.43
Out of 41 teaching units in the fourth grade, 16 (39%) were dedicated to
the mutual history of the Yugoslav nations, 14 (34,1%) to Serbian, 6 (14,6%)
to Croatian, 1 (2,5%) to Slovenian and 2 (4,9%) to the histories of Bosnia and
Montenegro. The authors mostly adhered to the guidelines of the curriculum
so that the mutual proportions of the units in their textbooks were similar to
the listed ones. In one of the textbooks, the proportions were as follows: out of
40 units, 16 (40%) were allotted to the shared history, 13 (32,5%) to Serbian, 7
(17,5%) to Croatian, and 1 (2,5%) to Slovenian history, 2 (5%) to the history of
Bosnia and 1 (2,5%) to the history of Montenegro.44
From 1935 onwards, a whole new series of history textbooks for the third
and fourth grade were published and the existing ones were adapted to the new
curriculum. The year 1939 stood out by the number of published textbooks. In
this period, the history textbooks for primary schools were finally shaped by
the ideological postulates of the integral Yugoslav policy. The textbooks for the
third and the fourth grades, though written using two different methods: the
biographic and the chronological-progressive, were in many ways complementary and comprised a well rounded off whole. Together, they built a relatively
complete system of historical knowledge of Yugoslav national history on a clear
ideological basis – which was certainly what the educational authorities had intended, as in a predominantly agrarian society such as the Yugoslav one at the
42 Nastavni plan i program za osnovne škole u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji. Narodna prosveta, 11, 10.
Septembar 1933, p. 3.
43 Aranicki, Karadžić, Najnoviji učiteljski zbornik svih zakona, uredbi, p. 58.
44 Rabrenović, Milan. Istorija Jugoslovena (Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca) za IV razred osnovnih škola
izrađeno po najnovijem nastavnom programu, Dvadeset prvo izdanje. Beograd, 1935.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
time, the education of the majority of the students ended upon completion of the
fourth grade of primary school.
Chart 1: Structure of the textbook
(Source: Rabrenović, Istorija Jugoslovena/Srba, Hrvata i Sloveneca, 1935)
This generation of textbooks for the first time mentioned historical facts
which explained some of the important events in greater detail. The image of the
Yugoslav past, especially the most recent, was less idealized and was given more
realistic contours. On the other hand, the presentation of some of the key historical events was reduced by ignoring some important facts; without doubt due
to the influence of political reasons, especially the fact that a number of disputes
reached their peak in those years. These were temporarily silenced by creating
the Banovina of Croatia, but at the cost of abandoning the unitary state structure
and the Yugoslav national ideology as well as the concept of a unified education
policy. These changes were also visible at the terminological level because the
term Yugoslavs (or “our people”) was re-used as an aggregate name for the Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes. Compared to the previous curriculum, the new content was
more comprehensive. Therefore the textbooks written in keeping with it were
much more extensive.45
45 Matović Miloš S. Istorija Jugoslovena za četvrti razred narodnih škola, Beograd, 1938; Prica, Dušan M.
Istorija jugoslovenskih naroda (Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca) za IV razred osnovnih škola po najnovijem
nastavnom programu, Beograd, 1940.
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
In the history textbooks for the largest, primary school student population,
history was almost completely identified with national history and was meant
to consolidate and preserve the state and above all national harmony and unity.
This way the history textbooks fulfilled the role assigned them – that of facilitating an emphatically patriotic upbringing. However it remains questionable
whether and to what extent history textbooks were able to fulfill the tasks allotted them. Their success primarily depended on the attitude of the content of the
textbooks and the cognitive ability of children aged 9 to 11, since research has
shown that at this age students have difficulty in understanding the concept of
historical time and orientation in it. At the same time, it is also difficult for them
to understand general historical terms if they are not connected with clear and
close associations.46
Although some textbooks displayed noticeable efforts of explaining the
events of national history and some key events of general history, for most students, history consisted mostly of centuries-old struggles (mostly by the sword,
but also by music, poetry and pen) of their people against external enemies and
their rule, which ended with the epochal act of unification of December 1, 1918.
This general picture was used to build the image of the history of the Yugoslav
state, which was presented as the beginning of a new era of peace, development
and comprehensive progress that could not be fettered. It was suggested to the
students, implicitly and explicitly, that the greatest achievement of the entire history of the Yugoslav people was the achievement of this unified state and that it
served their ultimate good. Their ancestors had fought and died for it for centuries and its creator, King Alexander I the Unifier, who was its personification,
had also given his life for it. This dimension of universality was added to this
image of national history in order to present the Yugoslav state as an important
international political factor because of its commitment to cooperation, world
peace and friendship among all peoples. The Yugoslav state was idealized as a
largely conflict-free community of equal citizens, who enjoyed all-round progress under its auspices. The conflicts that nevertheless occurred were merely the
result of discord among the people’s representatives, but the King as the supreme
authority was bringing back and strengthening national unity.
In the second half of the thirties, the social and national contradictions
in the Yugoslav state were more manifested. These contradictions were largely
articulated in the so-called Croatian issue, in regards to which the ruling and
opposition forces on the Serbian political scene were determined to hold their
46 Pešikan, Ana Ž. Nastava i razvoj društvenih pojmova kod dece. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike, 2003, pp.
118–130; Pešikan, Ana Ž. Shvatanje istorijskog vremena kod dece. Nastava istorije, 3, 1996, pp. 113, 119.
Koljanin: The Function of History Textbooks for Primary Schools in Building a New Identity …
ground.47 The discussions on restructuring the state were inseparable from the
debate on Yugoslav national unitarism, which increasingly competed with the
idea of the national individuality of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Some were of
the opinion that the reorganization of the state on the federal principle, or giving
lease to broad and unconstitutional governments were not mutually exclusive,
and that centralism was dangerous to the idea of national integration.48 The better organized Croatian nationalism, however, supported by the highly influential
Roman Catholic Church, strongly emphasized the Croatians’ right to their national identity and individuality, as well as their own statehood – whether within
or outside of the Yugoslav state. The national homogenization of the Croats and
their political demands were destroying the concept of Yugoslav national unitarianism and encouraging the organization of Serbian cultural and political
factors. One of the most influential among them was the Serbian Cultural Club.49
By proclaiming the Banovina of Croatia on August 26, 1939, the remodeling
of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began. Centralist state organization was rejected, even though there was not a clear concept of the new state’s organization.
Since the Banovina was created on ethnic (national) principles, the concept of
Yugoslav national unitarianism which was inextricably linked with the belief in
the centralist state was abandoned. This reorganization of the state meant finally
dismissing the unitarian-centralist system of the country, or the victory of the
principle of federalism and national distinctiveness.50
In the process of the realization of the educational policy in the Kingdom
of SHS / Yugoslavia, history textbooks for primary schools were one of the most
important means of creating the new patriotism, and of the formation of the
Yugoslav national identity among school youth. In order to achieve the projected
goals, History was a compulsory subject in the third and fourth grade of primary
school. The history textbooks for the third and fourth grade were designed according to the basic requirements of the state’s national policy. Their contents
aimed to build and shape proponents of the Yugoslav national idea.
With the introduction of the dictatorship of January 6 and the ideology of
integral Yugoslavism, the year 1929 marked a turning point in the school system and in achieving the proclaimed state principles in schools. Obligatory
eight-year primary school education was introduced in 1929 when the Law on
Textbooks was passed for national, civic and teacher’s schools. Resultantly, the
47 Dimić, Ljubodrag. Istorija srpske državnosti, Vol. III, Srbija u Jugoslaviji. Novi Sad: SANU, 2001, pp.
162–182.
48 Petrović,Milan. Naš nacionalni paradoks: Jedan ili dva naroda? Novi Sad: Jovanović i Bogdanov, 1938,
pp. 8–10.
49 Ibid., pp. 197–206; Pavlović, Stevan K. Hitlerov novi antiporedak. Drugi svetski rat u Jugoslaviji,
Beograd: Clio, 2009, p. 27.
50 Ibid., p. 192.
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basic ideological premises based upon which the history textbooks in primary
schools implemented the state’s national policy, appeared in their “pure” form.
From the beginning of the thirties onwards, especially following the introduction of the new curriculum for primary schools which came into effect in 1934,
a new generation of history textbooks that fully reflected the new national educational policy appeared. During this time, the history of the Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes became even more emphatically Yugoslav history, and the change was
also mirrored in the terminology used. However, the proclaimed goal of publishing uniform national textbooks was never achieved in practice. Privately
published textbooks saw massive issues and the political events in the late thirties brought about the formal abandonment of the concept of state and national
unity and broke the unique ideological basis of the school system in the country.
Momma: Educational Policy as Propaganda for Youth in the Independent State of Croatia
Takuya Momma
EDUCATIONAL
POLICY AS
PROPAGANDA FOR
YOUTH IN THE
INDEPENDENT
STATE OF CROATIA
INTRODUCTION
This article mainly focuses on the ideological discourse employed in educational policy in the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska,
NDH), which was constructed as a Nazi puppet state within the larger part of
present-day Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, after the Axis invasion of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Because of its close relationship with Nazi
Germany, the notorious Croatian political group called the Ustasha obtained
power over this country. The Ustasha organization was founded and commenced its radical activities around the first half of the 1930s, led by “Poglavnik”
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(Commander-in-Chief) Ante Pavelić, with the goal of establishing an independent Croatian state. Core members of the group followed the Fascist movement
between the two world wars in Europe and forged ahead with a similar totalitarian policy in the NDH, replacing previously-established systems of government,
for the military affairs and education, and among others.1
The foremost aim of these reforms was the achievement of national unity
and a flowering of the “Ustasha spirit” throughout the whole nation.2 Therefore,
it is certain that the regime placed particular emphasis, among other methods of
nationalization, on “education,” with the object of building up a new generation
to embody the ideology of the Ustasha.
In addition, taking into account this characteristic of “education” as practiced in the Ustasha regime, it is interesting to note that its leadership established
an institution called the Ustasha Youth (Ustaška mladež) to mobilize the younger generation of Croats. The Ustasha Youth was a typically fascistic institution
for the education and cultivation of youth and emulated similar organizations
in Italy and Nazi Germany.3 Although they are few in number, excellent studies
on educational policy and propaganda in the NDH are available. However, they
treat academic teaching and edification within the Ustasha Youth as separate
subjects for investigation and interpretation.4 In contrast to such an approach,
this article demonstrates the relationship between these two forms of “education” that was constructed by the regime. In other words, I analyze both types of
propaganda—school-based and Ustasha Youth based—intending to draw a clear
picture of the educational policy and its practice inside the NDH.
Undoubtedly the Ustasha modeled its ideology from the very beginning after
Fascism in Italy and National Socialism in Germany, showing an inclination
towards the leadership principle, political violence, and ultra-nationalism.5 In
terms of educational policy, the Ustasha also shared with these countries the
political value of emphasizing the importance of raising a new generation of
1
2
3
4
5
Jelič-Butič, Fikreta. Ustaše i Nezavisna država hrvatska, 1941–1945. Zagreb: Liber, 1977, pp. 99–123,
203–214.
This Ustashe project was called “The Cultural Revolution.” See Labus, Alan. Politička propaganda i
kulturna revolucija u “Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj”. Informatologija, 44, 2011, 3, pp. 214–220.
Tomasevich, Jozo. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration.
Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2001, p. 341.
Yeomans, Rory. Visions of Annihilation, The Ustasha Regime and the Cultural Politics of Fascism,
1941–1945. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013; Petrungaro, Stefano. Pisati povijest
iznova, hrvatski udžbenici povijesti 1918–2004 godine (Riscrivere la storia. Il caso della manualistica
croata (1918–2004), Aosta: Stylos, 2006) Zagreb: Srednja Europa, 2009. Besides that, for a brief
discussion of the relation between the school system and Ustasha Youth, see Miljan, Goran. Young,
Militarized, and Radical: The Ustasha Youth Organization, Ideology and Practice, 1941–1945 (Ph.D.
diss.). Budapest: Central European University, 2016, pp. 154–164.
For a succinct definition of Fascism see Payne Stanley G. A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. London:
Routledge, 2001, p. 14.
Momma: Educational Policy as Propaganda for Youth in the Independent State of Croatia
“elites.” However, it is questionable whether the ideology of the Ustasha regarding education was simply an imitation of Fascism and National Socialism, or
whether it demonstrated its own uniqueness.
For example, recent studies indicate that the “Ustasha spirit” was a hybrid
combination of nationalisms, originating from currents within Croat ethnic society and the Fascist movements in Europe during the interwar period.6
Following this re-examination of the “Ustasha spirit,” I explore how the regime
formulated its ideology regarding education by analyzing several school textbooks and official bulletins of the Ustasha Youth. This analysis constitutes the
first aim of this article.
On the other hand, what must also be investigated is how the regime was able
to put its educational policy into practice. In truth, most of the Croat people were
favorable towards the establishment of the NDH. They saw the birth of their own
“independent” country as a realization of the desire to liberate the nation from
political suppression based on Yugoslavism. However, in contrast to the projected idealized image of an “independent” state, the NDH was immediately divided
into two territories, over which Nazi Germany and Italy had military authority.
Moreover, the Axis powers annexed a part of the “ethnic and historical territory”
of Croatia.7 Ultimately, upon becoming aware that the regime had embarked
upon the brutal persecution of Serbs, Jews, Roma, communists, and dissident
groups, the Croat populace itself became disillusioned with the Ustasha.8
Similarly, the implementation of the educational policy within the NDH
begs the question of how Croat teachers felt about the regime. According to a
study by Miroslav Hroch, which divides the process of spreading nationalism
into three stages, teachers were to be designated, as the role of intellectuals, for
the function of promulgating amongst the general public the ideology shaped by
political leaders.9 To be sure, a certain number of Croat teachers also considered
the educational policy in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia a restraint against national
education within Croat ethnic society.10 Accordingly, it is conceivable that they
6
Kallis, Aristotle. Recontextualizing the Fascist Precedent: The Ustasha Movement and the
Transnational Dynamics of Interwar Fascism. In: Yeomans, Rory (ed.). The Utopia of Terror, Life and
Death in Wartime Croatia. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2015, pp. 260–283.
7 Tomasevich, War and Revolution, pp. 61–64.
8 Ibid., pp. 342–356.
9 Hroch, Miroslav. Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of the
Social Composition of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nation. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1985, pp. 144–147. However, the author has noticed that the designated role of
teachers “depended on the level of the individual’s material wealth,” as well as “a threat of political
conflict between national commitment and the attitude of the state authorities or the autonomous
local administration.”
10 Troch, Pieter. Nationalism and Yugoslavia: Education, Yugoslavism and the Balkans before World War
II. London and New York: I.B.Tauris, 2015, pp. 196–198.
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voluntarily carried out the essential educational role designated them within the
NDH, especially when adopting new textbooks for use as propaganda.
However, even if they were inclined, along with the Ustasha, to help accomplish the goal of national unity, it is not obvious whether they concurred with the
regime in every respect regarding the instruction of youth. Namely, it remains
an unsettled question how Croat teachers actually responded to the regime, particularly with regard to the mobilization of pupils through the activities of the
Ustasha Youth. For that reason, as a secondary aim of this study, this article also
considers the political stance and role of teachers in carrying out the educational
policy of the regime.
THE SCHOOL SYSTEM AND TEXTBOOKS
IN THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA
The establishment of the new government in the NDH was followed by a
series of actions concerning educational policy. The absolute authority of the
Ustasha centered on Pavelić, who possessed the position of Premier and took
command of the Supreme Ustasha Headquarters, which served as the leading
body concerning all activities of governance. Below this highest level, administrative districts were set up throughout the whole territory, and Pavelić held
the power of appointing directors and members in each administrative unit.11
Parallel to the founding of this hierarchical system, the Ministry of Education
initiated the nationalization of schooling. A number of Serb teachers were
purged from educational institutions12 and, although almost no change was introduced in the school system that the NDH had inherited from the period of
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, new textbooks that had the aim of implanting the
“Ustasha spirit” in the youth of Croatia were adopted.13
The distinct desire to nationalize educational content is visible in the official guidelines called the “Educational Basis for Elementary Schools,” which
included the following goals: 1) Upbringing in a patriotic and social way based
11 Tomasevich, War and Revolution, p. 340.
12 Dulić, Tomislav. Utopias of Nation: Local Mass Killing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1941–42. Uppsala:
Uppsala University Library, 2005, p. 156.
13 The school system in the NDH prescribed four years of compulsory and free education in elementary
school (pučka škola) for every child from the age of 6. After completing this elementary education,
pupils could attend secondary school or professional-training school. Secondary schools were
divided into four years of lower (civic school), four years of higher secondary education and 8 years of
gymnasium. See Naša domovina, sv. 2, Zagreb: Glavni ustaški stan, 1943, pp. 851–878. The statistical
figures on the secondary and elementary schools in the NDH in the school year of 1941/1942 show
that there were 39,872 pupils in secondary schools and 489,072 in elementary schools at the time. See
Brojitbeni izvještaj, lipanj–srpanj 1942, br. 9–12, pp. 92.
Momma: Educational Policy as Propaganda for Youth in the Independent State of Croatia
on the Principles of the Croatian and the Ustasha movement; 2) Religious and
refined upbringing; 3) Education and preparation for life in accordance with
the conditions and needs of the students’ native place of abode, homeland, and
state; 4) Development and strengthening of Croatian citizens’ awareness.14 These
discourses on educational policy indicate that the chief aim of schooling in
the NDH was the cultivation of loyalty to the state among its youth. In fact, as
described in previous studies, the importance of an independent state to the
Croatian nation was a distinguishing feature in the teaching conducted in secondary schools. Newly-authorized history textbooks underscored the invented
tradition of the Croatian national movement, connecting it with the founding
of the Ustasha and the NDH. Based on such a perception of national history,
these textbooks also emphasized that the Ustasha and Pavelić inherited the political ideas and activities of Croat “nationalists,” such as Ante Starčević, Eugen
Kvaternik, and Stjepan Radić, in the period of the Habsburg monarchy and the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia.15
One of the notable characteristics of the “Ustasha spirit” was the introduction of an assimilation policy for Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since before
the establishment of the NDH, the Ustasha and a segment of Croat nationalists
claimed that their own “ethnic and historical territory” included the critical area
of Bosnia-Herzegovina and that the forefathers of most Bosnian Muslims were
Croats who were converted to Islam under Turkish rulership. This type of nationalism was justified in a history textbook through Starčević’s assertion that
Bosnian Muslims were the purest Croats.16
In contrast, the Ustasha did not conceal its own unyielding stance against the
Serbs in one history textbook. In it, centralization as a system of governance with
regard to the history of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a target of criticism because according to the text, the Croats had suffered both political and economic
pressure during the period. Furthermore, the struggle of the Croat nation against
the Serbs was highlighted as the historical background for the founding of the
Ustasha and the birth of the NDH, disregarding the fact that the NDH would not
have been formed had Nazi Germany not occupied the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.17
Another topic taught in school was the Croatian geopolitical position, derived from the country’s peculiar experience of existing on the border between
“West” and “East.” During World War II, the Ustasha repeatedly propagated
14 Nastavna osnova za obće pučke škole, seoske i gradske produžne pučke škole, Zagreb: Hrvatska državna
tiskara, 1943, p. 5.
15 Petrungaro, Pisati povijest iznova, pp. 127–130, 145–147.
16 Srkulj, Stjepan. Hrvatska poviest za VIII razred srednjih škola, II svezak. Zagreb: Hrvatska državna
tiskara, 1944, p. 250.
17 Jakić, Živko. Poviest hrvatskog naroda sa svjetskom poviešću za IV razred srednjih škola, dio II. Zagreb:
Hrvatska državna tiskara, 1943, pp. 119–123.
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the idea that the political stance of the Croats should be joined with that of the
“West,” namely the Axis Powers of Nazi Germany and Italy, and considered the
Serbs and Partisan forces inferior figures belonging to the “East.” However, according to an explanation provided in a geography textbook, this structure of
binary opposition was not applied to the definition of Croatian uniqueness:
It must be mentioned here that the territory of Croatia (both Pannonian
and Balkan), according to its quality, has been closely linked to Western
political and cultural development. Therefore the Croats came into being
as a Western nation, whereas Croatia may not reject the “East,” according to its characteristics. The boundary which divided these two worlds
passed through the eastern part of the Croatian lands along the Drina
River. The undeniable effect of the powerful influences on the eastern
side had an impact on their spiritual discipline (especially in the case of
the Croatian Muslims).18
In light of the suggestion that, as mentioned earlier, Ustasha ideology demonstrated a combination of generic Fascism and Croatian nationalism, it should
come as no surprise that schooling in the NDH displayed an inclination toward
finding a Croatian national identity somewhere in the area between the two.
This tendency became even more pronounced in lessons about the relationship between race and nation. While the Ustasha declared that the Croats, as a
nation, were included in the Aryan race by laws enacted at the beginning of the
NDH,19 this did not mean that Croatian national identity had been substituted
for a single, biologically based racial affiliation. The concept of “Aryan race” was
differentiated from other races in Europe and, parallel to this interpretation,
Croatian national identity embodied its own uniqueness.
Because the tribal characteristics of all the European nations were fully
blended, this mixed feature of the modern European is designated by the
name of “Aryan race” which is differentiated from other tribes which do
not possess their own roots within the European living space. The “Aryan
race” originated from the historical development of the European nations, in which all the best and most complete spiritual features of human
beings were gathered in the greatest and most profound way.20
18 Lukas, Filip, Peršić, Nikola. Zemljopis nezavisne države hrvatske za više razrede srednjih škola, Zagreb:
Hrvatska državna tiskara, 1943, p. 11.
19 “Zakonska odredba o državljanstvu,” “Zakonska odredba o rasnoj propadnosti,” “Zakonska odredba
o zaštiti arijske krvi i časti hrvatskog naroda,” In: Požar, Petar (ed.). Ustaše: dokumenti o ustaškom
pokretu. Zagreb: Zagrebačka Stvarnost, 1995, pp. 160–164.
20 Babić, Krunoslav, Fink, Nikola. Nauka o čovjeku za više razrede srednjih škola. Zagreb: Hrvatska
državna tiskara, 1944, p. 163.
Momma: Educational Policy as Propaganda for Youth in the Independent State of Croatia
As to this textbook’s definition of race, other European races, such as the
Nordic, Baltic, Mediterranean, Alpine, and Dinaric, were replaced with the term
“tribe,” and only the Aryan race was granted the special, spiritual status of a
mixture of “tribes.” In the same way, Croats, being a group of people associated with a common language, civilization, and customs, were a compound of
European “tribes,” and maintained their individual complexity, even though
part of the “Aryan race.”21
Undoubtedly, the notion of state and nation took on great importance in
schooling in order to encourage the development of an ideal younger generation.
However, before investigating how the “education” of the Ustasha Youth was linked
to totalitarianism, it is worth mentioning how loyalty to the state and nation were
prescribed in a reading textbook. Olga Osterman, a female teacher in a gymnasium, and later a commander of a women’s group within the Ustasha Youth,22 described the relationship between the individual and the community thusly:
The human being is the essence of society. Because of this, the individual’s
life is connected to the life of human communities. In order to make the
lives of individuals and communities bearable and useful, the former must
be in harmony with the latter. Therefore, the upbringing of the individual must be as follows: When one begins to work in a community, his or
her general aspiration may not be in conflict with that of the community.
What’s more, he or she must work for the benefit of human communities.23
This statement makes it clear that the regime considered youth to be subjects
of the state for the purpose of establishing national unity. However, the more
significant point is that, following these sentences, Osterman alludes to a general
discontent with schooling:
All the knowledge which is gathered in school, from the lowest to the
highest, and all the specialization in every field which can possibly be
studied, do not always make the whole individual from people which
wholesome and advanced human communities demand. It is because
that selection of knowledge, just like a conglomeration of facts, do not
guarantee adequate development and ennoblement, or the association
and coordination of somebody’s social and substantive ability as an individual; nor do they further a human being towards more advanced personal and refined social goals.24
21 Ibid., pp. 156, 162–163.
22 Tko je tko u NDH. Hrvatska 1941.-1945. Zagreb: Minerva, 1997, p. 303.
23 Ujević, Mate (ed.). Plodovi srca i uma: hrvatska čitanka za više razrede srednjih škola, treći dio.
Zagreb: Hrvatska državna tiskara, 1941, p. 614.
24 Ibid.
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It may be assumed that Osterman here argues the possibility of the founding of another educational institution being effective for training youth outside
the school system. On the other hand, it is questionable whether teachers at that
time accepted such an educational policy without objection. For instance, Vlado
Petz, who was a professor at the Higher School of Pedagogy of the University
of Zagreb, repeatedly maintained that suitably conducted lessons entailed the
cooperation of teachers, pupils, and parents.25
In order to examine more carefully the reaction of teachers, the next chapter
deals with the strategy adopted by the Ustasha Youth in comparison with the
content of regular schooling.
THE USTASHA YOUTH AS AN EDUCATIONAL POLICY
The Ustasha Youth was established as a structured organization by legal decree published on behalf of Pavelić in July 1941. The group’s plan encompassed all
Croatian male and female youth from 7 to 21 years of age, divided into four sections: ages 7 to 11 [Ustasha Mainstay], 11 to 15 [Ustasha Hero], 15 to 18 [Ustasha
Starčević Youth], and University Students. At its head was an administrative
commander, whose operational responsibility was directly under Pavelić’s direct
supervision. Each administrative unit in the NDH had its own branch of the
Ustasha Youth and a commander. Also, managers served in positions as heads of
their own respective sections, which were: a) Military advance training; b) Moral
education; c) Propaganda; d) Gymnastics; e) Technical training; f) Health; g)
Social-economic care; and h) Housekeeping (only for females).26 It is evident
that the leadership assigned a particular value to moral education within these
various sections, in line with the Ustasha Youth goal of cultivating the “Ustasha
spirit” among the youth of Croatia.
There were two main methods of education in the Ustasha Youth: lectures
and practical lessons in physical training. History and Geography were the main
subjects taught through lectures. Commanders introduced various sports activities such as soccer, volleyball, basketball, and other sports for physical training. Although a course of physical education was also adopted in schools, the
Ustasha Youth leadership considered this only an adequate foundation for more
advanced education through sports activities in the Ustasha Yout.27 In practice,
25 Petz, Vlado. Smisao i zadatak škole. Zagreb: Hrvatsko sveučilišno društvo, 1941; Petz, Vlado. Analiza
obrazovnog oblikovanja — u svezi s nastavom. Napredak, 1–2, 1944, pp. 11–21.
26 Ustaša — vijesnik hrvatskog ustaškog oslobodilačkog pokreta, 19 srpnja 1941, br. 4, p. 11.
27 Miljan, Goran. Fašizam, sport i mladež — ideja i uloga tjelesnoga odgoja i sporta u odgoju i
organizaciji Ustaške mladeži, 1941.-1945. Radovi – zavod za hrvatsku povijest, 46, 2014, 1, p. 364.
Momma: Educational Policy as Propaganda for Youth in the Independent State of Croatia
these two paths of edification were not separate but were combined to foster the
appropriate ideological national consciousness among members.
An ideal image of youth was depicted in “Basis of moral education for
Ustasha Youth,” published in February 1942 under the name of Julije Makanec,
who was the chief commander of the section for moral education in Zagreb.28
This document refers to the indispensable obligation of political elites being subject to the state:
Whereas it is characteristic of spiritual plebeians that they do not to
recognize any values above their pursuit of comfort and enjoyment, the
following is an essential characteristic of elites: that they feel a kind of
calling deep within them, as though from a higher sphere, which places
them under the obligation to dedicate their life to the realization of certain supra-personal values, for which they are willing to sacrifice their
own personal happiness and comfort.29
The state is an indispensable means for a nation to live its national life
freely and to develop all its abilities to their full potential. To be concrete:
In fact, without the Croatian state, the Croatian nation could not fully
develop its personality; some of their essential characteristics would become stunted, and their future would not be secured.30
This guiding principle was reflected in history and geography courses within
the Ustasha Youth. Its official organ of command, the Dužnostnik, reported on its
members’ progress according to a directive on the moral education of Hero level
Ustasha, whereby the curriculum encompassed: 1) The behavior of a Ustasha
Hero at school and at home, 2) Croatia during the age of the Kings, 3) Croatian
Bosnia, and 4) Croats as fighters, heroes, and warriors. Concerning the behavior
of an Ustasha Hero, it was emphasized that pupils must be polite to their superiors in the Ustasha Youth as well as at home. Next came the lesson plans for the
history of Croatia during the time of the medieval Kingdom – which comprised
parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina – was presented. The third series of lectures accentuated the importance of Bosnia to the state of Croatia and its emotional value
as the heart of Croatia’s “ethnic and national territory.” Based on this historical
foundation, the last section of these courses illustrated the age-old struggle of
the Croats, their courage, and their military prowess.31
Although a more comprehensive study of the various activities in the Ustasha
Youth is outside the scope of this article, as far as the content of these lectures is
28
29
30
31
Tko je tko u NDH, pp. 252–253.
Makanec, Julije. Temelji duhovnog odgoja ustaške mladeži. Zagreb: Tipografija, 1942, p. 2.
Ibid., p. 4.
Dužnostnik, ožujak 1942, br. 1, p. 13.
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concerned, there is no appreciable discrepancy between lectures delivered in the
Ustasha Youth and in the schools. It is understandable that the Ustasha Youth,
in their pursuit of the ideology of nation-building, would rely on a curriculum
similar to that of the school system to seamlessly mobilize youth in cooperation
with teachers. In fact, the Ustasha leadership, in preparing a defense against the
opposition to the Ustasha Youth in December 1941, formulated a Circular for
secondary schools titled “Harmonization (coordination) between school work
and the Ustasha Youth.” It included a request from the Ministry of Education
that commanders belonging to the Ustasha Youth practice moderation when
participating directly in schooling. As stipulated in a provision of this Circular,
the commander deployed to each secondary school was required to obey the
school’s disciplinary regulations. Furthermore, it was prohibited for the commander to wear an official uniform or carry arms when participating in school
teaching.32
However, as previously mentioned, it is unclear how teachers responded to
this seemingly reasonable behavior on the part of commanders of the Ustasha
Youth. Considering that the leadership could change its stance toward schooling
at any time, it is necessary to examine the teachers’ view of educational policy in
the process of mobilization.
REACTION FROM THE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION
TOWARD THE EDUCATIONAL POLICY
Dating from the period of the Habsburg monarchy, two main Croatian
teachers’ associations were active: the Association of the Croatian Teachers’
Societies (Savez hrvatskih učiteljskih društva, SHUD), organized in 1885 and
composed of elementary school teachers, and the Croatian Secondary School
Teachers’ Society (Društvo hrvatskih srednjoškolskih profesora, DHSP), established in 1904.33 In the academic year of 1941–1942, the number of elementary
school teachers was 8,852, while secondary school teachers numbered 1,700.34
However, it should be noted that the education system in the NDH faced a management crisis because of the conflict with the Partisan and the Chetnik forces.
Moreover, the political views of these Croatian teachers’ associations were not
homogeneous. In fact, it is fair to say that a distrust of the regime on the part of
teachers gradually developed.
32 “Uskladjivanje (koordinacija) rada škole i ustaške mladeži.” Službeni glasnik ministarstva nastave, br.
1, 1942, pp. 19–20.
33 Naša domovina, sv. 2, pp. 926–929.
34 Brojitbeni izvještaj, br. 9–12, p. 92.
Momma: Educational Policy as Propaganda for Youth in the Independent State of Croatia
According to the minutes of a meeting held by the SHUD in April 1942, there
was of yet no discontent with the educational policy. On this occasion, after Ivan
Tomašić, the president of the SHUD, insisted that teachers needed to lend their
efforts to the realization of the goal of national education, the establishment of
the autonomy of Croatian education was confirmed as a program of the SHUD.35
Taking into account that Croat teachers frequently resisted the school system which was based on Yugoslavism during the period of the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia, one may say that the “autonomy” of Croatian national education was
partly accomplished as a result of the birth of the NDH. Despite this, though,
coinciding with the worsening of the war situation, the regime increased its political pressure on teachers. In January 1943, the Ministry of National Education
proclaimed its requirements for educators in a publication entitled “Instructions
for Teachers on School Work,” which requested more obedience to the regime
from secondary level teachers:
All educators must comply with the official duties and obligations of
the Clerks’ Oath. Furthermore, they must be spontaneous and genuine
guardians of the spiritual and material good of our nation and homeland.
Every teacher should also clearly express their own loyalty and devotion
to the Poglavnik, the state, and the nation on all occasions such as conducting training sessions and lessons for students, as well as when they
are in mutual contact while conducting other official and special duties.36
Although it is not clear whether Croat teachers considered the order an intervention in the course of school education, this educational policy still confronted
numerous difficulties in the attempt to convert it into practice. An inspection report about the conditions of secondary schools in Zagreb issued for the Ministry
of National Education in November 1943 informed on the lack of healthcare
for students, the deterioration of school buildings, and an absence of pupils because of their obligation to attend civil service. Moreover, despite the order issued in January, some teachers did not adhere to the prescribed Ustasha manner
of greeting with the phrase “ready for the homeland (za dom spremni).”37 Also,
because teachers were increasingly drafted into military service, the educational
environment in the NDH became too disjointed to manage regular schooling.
35 Hrvatski školski muzej (HŠM), A 267 Savez hrvatskih učiteljskih društva (SHUD), Zapisnici
skupština, 216–221.
36 Hrvatski državni arhiv (HDA), F 216 Ministarstvo narodno prosvjete nezavisne države hrvatske
(MNP NDH), kut. 7, tajni spisi 1943, br. T 181–1943.
37 HDA, F 216 MNP NDH, kut. 7, tajni spisi 1943, br. 3349.
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As the war situation evolved, an uncooperative attitude on the part of teachers toward the Ustasha Youth began to be noted by the authorities. In March
1944, representatives of the DHSP from throughout the country gathered in
Zagreb to discuss problems with the school system. Ivan Oršanić,38 the administrative commander of the Ustasha Youth, was present at the meeting and demanded that teachers improve their relations with the Ustasha Youth. Concerned
about the report of the confrontation between the two groups, Oršanić encouraged teachers to become members of the Ustasha and directors in the Ustasha
Youth.39 When compared to the content of the Circular issued in December
1941, it is certain that the leader of the Ustasha Youth took this initiative in order
to mobilize teachers.
However, this attempt did not achieve its desired outcome. From August to
September 1944, the DHSP carried out a survey of secondary school teachers regarding school conditions. The results revealed the pitiful condition of education
all over the country: all school buildings were occupied by military forces, 3,000
teachers were thrown out onto the streets, and most of the pupils had joined the
Partisan forces.40 Although, inasmuch as my examination of archival sources
indicates, Croat teachers did not voice any ideological problems with the educational policy, it may be fair to say that they finally realized the insufficiency of
“autonomy” in the school system.
It appears that the Croat teachers who engaged in the “purification” of
schools at the inception of the NDH shared the Ustasha political viewpoint on
the establishment of national education. Nor were the effects of fascistization
surrounding education limited to the revision of textbooks. The regime initiated the forced recruiting of students into the Ustasha Youth and, by the end of
the war, the target of this mobilization had changed to teachers. Consequently,
Croat teachers’ disaffection toward the deficiencies in the school system was revealed with their refusal to assist with the activities of the Ustasha Youth. This
breakdown of the educational system was caused by the fragility of the regime in
the NDH as a puppet state in wartime.
38 Tko je tko u NDH, pp. 302–303.
39 HŠM, A 672 Društvo hrvatskih srednjoškolskih profesora (DHSP), kut. 2, b.b.
40 HDA, F 216 MNP NDH, kut. 1472, “Zaključci prihvaćeni na zajedničkom sastanku svih nastavnika
srednjih škola dne 11. rujna 1944. kao rezultat anketa.”
Momma: Educational Policy as Propaganda for Youth in the Independent State of Croatia
CONCLUSION
In summary, this article analyzed the problem concerning the educational
policy in the NDH, focusing on the ideological discourse found in textbooks,
the function of the Ustasha Youth, and the reaction of Croat teachers to the fascistization of the school system. It is evident that the Ustasha failed to create
a totalitarian state because of the chaotic situation not only inside the country,
which was occupied by Italian and Nazi troops as well as Partisan forces which
were increasing in strength, but also because of the internal structure of the regime. This weakness was clearly visible in the characteristics of their educational
policy.
The plan of national education which was desired by both the leadership and
the Croat teachers took definitive shape in the content of the newly-adopted textbooks. As I have examined in this article, this educational content highlighted
Croatian uniqueness with regard to the “betweenness” of its geopolitical existence and the “complexity” of the European race. Compared to the general school
system, the Ustasha Youth, as a fascistic organization, were meant to serve the
function of inculcating nationalism into the youth of Croatia. However, the
Croat teachers, who bore the responsibility for implementing the educational
policy in the NDH, were not tabulae rasae, open to silent subordination to the
regime. Although I did not investigate their idea of pedagogy and its dissimilarity with the “Ustasha spirit,” there is no doubt that they did not align themselves
with the Ustasha’s totalitarian policy on education. This tendency within the
teachers’ associations began to surface when the school system was thrown into
disorder during wartime. After all, fascistization through education in the NDH
had resulted in failure. Subsequently, it can be concluded that the tension between the teachers and the Ustasha is one of the reasons for this outcome.
When I extend this argument to the relationship between education and
politics in the 20th-century history of Croatia, it can be seen that “Yugoslav”
and “Serbian” ideas were recognized as the subjects of the oppression of Croats
when national education was politicized. Such an antagonism against the “other” was also present in the history textbooks adopted in the period of the NDH.
Although some Croat teachers refused to cooperate with the Ustasha, this did
not mean that they changed their political stance to ally with the Communist
groups, which were identified with “Yugoslav” or “Serbian” manner. Further
research is required to discover how Croat teachers in the period of socialism
interpreted their experience of the educational practice in the NDH and how its
legacy influenced the subsequent rise of nationalism.
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Ishida: Territorial Disputes in Geography and History Textbooks …
Shinichi Ishida
TERRITORIAL
DISPUTES IN
GEOGRAPHY AND
HISTORY TEXTBOOKS:
Descriptions in East Asia
and Southeastern Europe
INTRODUCTION
“Most of the textbooks and history teaching in Southeastern Europe, as elsewhere, have been developed as part of the enterprise of creating nation states.”1
As a result, they often have caused or even fomented dissension between neighboring countries. We have the same problem in East Asia – including Japan.
In this article, the characteristics and controversial points of territorial disputes which can be seen in school textbooks for history and geography shall
1
Carras, Costa. Preface. In: Koulouri, Christina (ed.). Clio in the Balkans. The Politics of History
Education, Thessaloniki: Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe, 2002, p. 13.
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
be examined.2 To begin with, an outline of this issue in East Asia, chiefly from
the viewpoint of Japan will be given, followed by an examination of the case in
Southeastern Europe, especially Croatia and its neighboring countries.
JAPANESE TERRITORIAL DISPUTES WITH ITS NEIGHBORING
COUNTRIES IN EAST ASIA
Overview
In recent years, the relationships between Japan and its neighboring countries such as Korea and China have deteriorated. The situation has been getting
worse since the Japanese Ministry of Education revised the Commentaries on
Courses of Study or Guidelines for school textbooks for junior high school and
high school in January 2014.3
One of the causes of the conflict is Japan’s renewed manifestation of territorial claims and the objections against it. According to the Commentaries, history
and geography textbooks are required to express such territorial claims. For example, the Commentaries mention that “the Northern Territories” (the Southern
Kuril Islands), Takeshima (Dokdo in Korean, Liancourt Rocks in English), and
the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu Islands in Chinese) are inherent parts of the territory of Japan. Though many school textbooks (Social Studies for elementary
school, History and Geography for junior high school, and World History,
Japanese History and Geography for high school) have mentioned the problem
of “the Northern Territories” since the 1970s,4 descriptions of Takeshima and the
Senkaku Islands have only appeared in the textbooks quite recently.
In April 2015, the Japanese Ministry of Education announced newly approved textbooks for junior high school, which will be used in 2016. As a result, in addition to “the Northern Territories,” Takeshima and the Senkaku
Islands were described in all (eight) new textbooks for history for the first time,5
2
3
4
5
See also 石田信一「旧ユーゴスラヴィア諸国の国境問題――地理・歴史教科書を通じて」(Ishida,
Shinichi. Territorial Disputes between the Yugoslav Successor States: Reflections in Geography
and History Textbooks).『跡見学園女子大学文学部紀要』(Journal of Atomi University Faculty of
Letters), 50, 2015, pp. 1–18.
文部科学省 (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MEXT) (http://www.
mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/new-cs/youryou/1351334.htm).
浪本勝年「教科書における千島・
「北方領土」問題」(Namimoto, Katsutoshi. On the Kurile Islands
and "the Northern Territorial Issue" in School Textbooks). 『立正大学人文科学研究所年報』
(Annual report of the Institute of Cultural Science, Rissho University), 20, 1982, pp. 123–135.
藤井譲治ほか50名『中学社会歴史的分野』(Fujii, Joji et al.. Social Studies for Junior High School:
History). Osaka: Nihon Bunkyō Shuppan, 2016, p. 265; 深谷克己ほか25名『中学社会歴史』
(Fukaya, Katsumi et al.. Social Studies for Junior High School: History). Tokyo: Kyōiku Shuppan, 2016,
Ishida: Territorial Disputes in Geography and History Textbooks …
whereas only one out of seven currently used textbooks which were approved
in 2011 mentioned Takeshima and the Senkaku Islands.6 Some textbooks show
detailed maps of the territorial evolution of Japan after WWII also depicting
“the Northern Territories,” Takeshima and the Senkaku Islands. Naturally, in all
(four) geography textbooks for junior high school, we can see the same territorial
claims more clearly depicted as well in maps and pictures.7
Certainly, these Japanese government-approved textbooks and atlases often
show a one-sided, official view on territorial disputes. However, the school textbooks and atlases in the neighboring countries such as Russia, Korea, and China
have a similar tendency under the strict textbook authorization system. As we
can see below, they reflect the official views of each country, including the controversial ones.
The Japanese-Russian Territorial Disputes in School Textbooks
The Government of Japan officially uses the name “the Northern Territories”
for the Southern Kuril Islands, which are composed of the islands of Habomai,
Shikotan, Kunashiri and Etorofu. It considers that the Northern Territories were
taken unilaterally by the Soviet Union soon after WWII and remain under Russian
administration to date. According to the Statement of the Prime Minister of Japan,
S. Yoshida, at the Conference in San Francisco in 1951, Japan’s ownership of the
two islands of Etorofu and Kunashiri of the South Kuril Islands was not questioned
at all by the Czarist government, and the islands of Habomai and Shikotan were a
p. 257; 伊藤隆・川上和久ほか25名『新編新しい日本の歴史』(Ito, Takshi, Kawakami, Kazuhisa et
al.. New History of Japan). Tokyo: Ikuhōsha, 2016, pp. 173, 273; 黒田日出男ほか9名『社会科中学生
の歴史』(Kuroda, Hideo et al.. Social Studies: History for Junior High School Students). Tokyo: Teikoku
Shoin, 2016, pp. 246–247; 三谷博ほか8名『中学歴史日本の歴史と世界』(Mitani, Hiroshi et al..
Social Studies for Junior High School: Japanese History and the World). Tokyo: Shimizu Shoin, 2016,
p. 178; 坂上康俊・戸波江二・矢ヶ﨑典隆ほか49名『新編新しい社会歴史』(Sakagami, Yasutoshi,
Tonami, Koji, Yagasaki, Noritaka et al.. New Social Studies: History), revised edition. Tokyo: Tokyo
Shoseki, 2016, pp. 252–256; 杉原誠四郎・西尾幹二・藤岡信勝ほか11名『新版新しい歴史教科
書』(Sugihara, Seishiro, Nishio, Kanji, Fujioka, Nobukatsu et al.. New History Textbook for Junior High
School), revised edition. Tokyo: Jiyūsha, 2016, pp. 272–273; 安井俊雄ほか25名『ともに学ぶ人間の
歴史――中学社会歴史的分野』(Yasui, Toshio et al.. Learn History of Mankind Together – Social
Studies for Junior High School: History). Tokyo: Manabisha, 2016, pp. 195, 199.
6 笹山晴生・竹内裕一・中村達也ほか36名『中学社会歴史』(Sasayama, Haruo, Takeuchi, Yuichi,
Nakamura, Tatsuya et al.. Social Studies for Junior High School: History). Tokyo: Kyōiku Shuppan,
2012, p. 251.
7 水内俊雄ほか50名『中学社会地理的分野』(Mizuuchi, Toshio et al.. Social Studies for Junior High
School: Geography). Osaka: Nihon Bunkyō Shuppan, 2016, pp. 118–119; 坂上康俊・戸波江二・矢
ヶ﨑典隆ほか49名『新編新しい社会地理』(Sakagami, Yasutoshi, Tonami, Koji, Yagasaki, Noritaka
et al.. New Social Studies: Geography). Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki, 2016, pp. 133–135; 竹内裕一ほか21名
『中学社会地理』(Takeuchi, Yuichi et al.. Social Studies for Junior High School: Geography). Tokyo:
Kyōiku Shuppan, 2016, p. 131; 谷内達ほか17名『社会科中学生の地理』(Taniuchi, Toru et al..
Social Studies: Geography for Junior High School Students). Tokyo: Teikoku Shoin, 2016, p. 127.
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
constituting part of Hokkaido (one of Japan’s main islands).8 The Government of
Japan declares that the Northern Territories are an inherent part of the territory of
Japan, without ever having been a part of other countries’ territory.9
In accordance with this official view of the Japanese Government and the
Guidelines for school textbooks, one geography textbook for junior high school
describes the Northern Territories Issue in a chronological table as follows:
The Northern Territories in the east of Hokkaido are composed of the
islands of Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashiri and Etorofu. The Northern
Territories are an inherent part of the territory of Japan where many
Japanese once lived. However, the Soviet Union occupied them immediately after the end of WWII, and Russia has continued to occupy
them after the breakup of the Soviet Union without any legal grounds.
Negotiations between Japan and the Russian Federation are under way,
but the return of the Northern Territories has not yet been realized.10
This textbook shows a map of the whole of the Kuril Islands including the
Northern Territories with commentaries. A column article on them is published
in this textbook, along with other maps and a photo of Mt. Chirip in Etorofu
(Iturup).11
In addition, all history textbooks for junior high school mention the problem
of the Northern Territories without exception. One textbook gives the following
detailed explanation:
The Northern Territories – Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashiri and Etorofu –
are an inherent part of the territory of Japan, which was confirmed by the
Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation between Japan and
Russia in 1855.
The Soviet Union occupied the Northern Territories in 1945 and continued the illegal occupation thereafter. Japan has been continuing negotiations with the Soviet Union (today’s Russian Federation) for the return of
them, but this has not been realized to date. Japan considers that a conclusion of the Peace Treaty is needed for the resolution of this issue, and
it is continuing to engage in vigorous negotiations, based on the results
achieved to date and the principles of law and justice.12
8
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan: Northern Territories, Reference Room, Joint Compendium of
Documents on the History of the Territorial Issue between Japan and Russia, IV. San Francisco Peace
Treaty (http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/russia/territory/edition92/period4.html).
9 Office of Policy Planning and Coordination on Territory and Sovereignty, Cabinet Secretariat: The
Northern Territories Issue (http://www.cas.go.jp/jp/ryodo_eg/ryodo/hoppou.html).
10 坂上ほか『新編新しい社会地理』(Sakagami, New Social Studies: Geography), p. 133.
11 Ibid., p. 135.
12 深谷ほか『中学社会歴史』(Fukaya, Social Studies for Junior High School: History), p. 257.
Ishida: Territorial Disputes in Geography and History Textbooks …
Incidentally, we can also see strange borderlines between Japan and Russia
in the government-approved school atlases. One borderline is drawn between
Etorofu (Itrup) and Urup, and another borderline is drawn between Shumushu,
the northernmost island of the (Northern) Kuril Islands, and Cape Lopatka,
the southernmost point of the Kamchatka Peninsula.13 The former in particular indicates the official view of the Government of Japan, while the latter suggests that the Kuril Islands Issue is still unresolved and that even Russia doesn’t
have legitimate control over these territories. In a similar fashion, a borderline is
drawn down the middle (at a latitude of 50°N) of Sakhalin (Karafuto in Japanese)
Island.14 The reason is almost the same as in the case of the Kuril Islands, i.e. because the portion of the island south of the 50°N meridian was under Japanese
sovereignty before the end of WWII.
On the contrary, the Russian textbooks don’t mention the existence of these
territorial disputes between Japan and Russia. They describe the whole area of
“the Northern Territories,” the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin as Russian territory.
The Russian history textbooks only mention the “liberation” of South
Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands at the end of WWII, and they don’t give any
explanations of Soviet–Japanese relationships in this regard thereafter. For example, one history textbook narrates: “In the course of the landing operations
[in August 1945], South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were liberated,”15 while
another textbook states: “In the course of the landing operations of the Soviet
Army, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were occupied.”16 Exceptionally,
in one historical atlas for pupils (not a textbook), there is an explanation that
“South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were given to the USSR as part of the decision made at the Potsdam Conference.”17
The Japanese-Korean Territorial Disputes in School Textbooks
Japan and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) both claim sovereignty over
Takeshima/Dokdo, a group of small islets in the Sea of Japan. The islets have
been administered by South Korea since 1954 by the Korea Coast Guard.
13 帝国書院編集部編『中学校社会科地図』(Teikoku Shoin (ed.). Atlas of Social Studies for Junior
High School). Tokyo: Teikoku Shoin, 2016, pp. 56, 176; 矢ヶ崎典隆ほか11名『新編新しい社会地
図』(Yagasaki, Noritaka et al.. New Social Studies: Atlas). Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki, 2016, pp. 48, 182.
14 Ibid.
15 Торкунова, А. В.. История Россий. 10 класс. Часть 2 (Torkunova, A. V.. History of Russia for 10th
grade, Part 2). Moskva: Prosveshchenie, 2016, p. 4.
16 Данилов, А. A.. История. Россия в XX – начале XXI века, 9 класс (Danilov, A. A.. History for 9th grade.
Russia in the 20th and at the Beginning of the 21st Centuries). Moskva: Prosveshchenie, 2011, p. 129.
17 Максимов, И. И.. Атлас школьника. История России с древнейших времен до начала XXI в.
(Maksimov, I. I.. Atlas for Pupils: History of Russia from the Ancient Times to the Beginning of the 21th
Century). Moskva: Drofa, 2009, p. 207.
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
The Government of Japan officially declares that “Takeshima is indisputably
an inherent part of the territory of Japan, in light of historical facts and based on
international law. The Republic of Korea has been occupying Takeshima with no
basis in international law. Any measures the Republic of Korea takes regarding
Takeshima based on such an illegal occupation have no legal justification.”18
In accordance with the official view and the Guidelines for school textbooks,
one geography textbook for junior high school states:
Takeshima on the Sea of Japan is an inherent territory of Japan, but the
Republic of Korea occupies it illegally. Japan protests against this occupation, while it continues to make diplomatic efforts, calling for a settlement by international institutions.19
One history textbook for junior high school explains:
In 1952, the Republic of Korea unilaterally established its boundary and
occupied Takeshima illegally, declaring that Takashima belonged to
Korean territory. Japan protests and calls for taking the case jointly to the
International Court of Justice, but the Republic of Korea refuses to do so.20
On the contrary, the Government of (South) Korea asserts: “Dokdo
[Takeshima] is an integral part of Korean territory, historically, geographically
and under international law. No territorial dispute exists regarding Dokdo, and
therefore Dokdo is not a matter to be dealt with through diplomatic negotiations
or judicial settlement.”21
The Korean Government’s official view is reflected in the school textbooks in
(South) Korea. History and social studies textbooks and atlases for elementary
school, junior high school, and high school contain maps of Takeshima/Dokdo
with detailed commentaries. One history textbook for high school gives the following description:
Dokdo, as an attached island of Ulleungdo, has been a part of our country
since the Three Kingdoms Period of Korea. When the unlawful entry of fishermen from Japan increased in the middle of the 19th century, our government sent
officials to Ulleungdo and forced the residents of the land to immigrate there.
Then it raised Ulleungdo to the status of a county and placed Dokdo under its
18 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan: Japan’s Consistent Position on the Territorial Sovereignty over
Takeshima (http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/takeshima/index.html).
19 坂上ほか『新編新しい社会地理』(Sakagami, New Social Studies: Geography), p. 133.
20 黒田ほか『社会科中学生の歴史』(Kuroda, Social Studies: History for Junior High School Students),
p. 247.
21 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea: The Korean Government’s Basic Position on Dokdo
(http://dokdo.mofa.go.kr/eng/dokdo/government_position.jsp).
Ishida: Territorial Disputes in Geography and History Textbooks …
jurisdiction. During the Russo-Japanese War, the Empire of Japan forcibly annexed Dokdo as a part of its territory. This was clearly an act of illegal annexation
of the territory under international law.22
Another history textbook for high school has a chapter entitled “Friction
and Reconciliation in East Asia,” and explains territorial disputes in East Asia
such as the problems of “the Northern Territories,” the Senkaku Islands, and the
Spratly Islands (between China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, and
Malaysia).23 The information it gives regarding Takeshima/Dokdo is just the same
as the official view of the Government of (South) Korea; mainly, that it is an integral part of Korean territory. Furthermore, the textbook gives detailed information of Japan’s standpoint and the counterargument by (South) Korea, and it sets
pupils the task: “Let’s offer a counterargument to the problem of Japan’s claim.”24
As we can see above, the official views or territorial claims concerning
Takeshima/ Dokdo by Japan and South Korea are faithfully reflected in the respective school textbooks and atlases of both countries. Because diplomatic relations between Japan and (South) Korea have been deteriorating, we cannot expect any improvements or mutual concessions in the descriptions of Takashima/
Dokdo in the school textbooks of either country for the time being.
The Japanese-Chinese Territorial Disputes in School Textbooks
As for the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands issue between Japan and China, the
Japanese Government officially declares the following:
There is no doubt that the Senkaku Islands are clearly an inherent territory of Japan, in light of historical facts and based upon international law.
Indeed, the Senkaku Islands are under the valid control of Japan. There
exists no issue of territorial sovereignty to be resolved concerning the
Senkaku Islands.25
In accordance with the official view and the Guidelines for school textbooks,
one of the above-mentioned geography textbooks for junior high school states:
Japan maintains effective control over the Senkaku Islands on the East
China Sea as an inherent part of the territory of Japan. Though China
22 『検定版韓国の歴史教科書――高等学校韓国史』(The Government-Approved History Textbook
of South Korea: History of Korea for High School, Japanese translation). Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2013,
p. 188.
23 『東アジアの歴史――韓国高等学校歴史教科書』(History of East Asia: History Textbook for High
School in South Korea, Japanese translation). Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2015, pp. 242–248.
24 Ibid., p. 248.
25 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan: Senkaku Islands Q&A (http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/
senkaku/qa_1010.html).
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
claims territorial sovereignty over them, they are widely recognized as a
part of Japan’s territory by the international community.26
One history textbook for junior high school explains it as follows:
The Government of Japan conducted its investigation of the Senkaku
Islands with the greatest care from 1885 to 1895, and it incorporated them
into its territory, confirming that they were not occupied by any country.
Though China has claimed territorial sovereignty over them since 1971,
the position of the Government of Japan that they are an inherent part of
the territory of Japan is internationally recognized.27
On the contrary, China claims that the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands are China’s
inherent territory. On the official website, China claims:
Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated Islands (hereinafter referred to as Diaoyu
Dao) are an inseparable part of the Chinese territory. Diaoyu Dao is
China’s inherent territory in all historical and legal terms, and China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over it.
Any unilateral step taken by Japan regarding Diaoyu Dao will not change
the fact that it belongs to China. China’s position on Diaoyu Dao has been
clear and consistent. China will firmly defend its national sovereignty and
territorial integrity. China’s resolve to uphold agreements made after the
global anti-fascist war will not be shaken by any force. China has the confidence and ability to stand up to Japan’s illegal acts, which have ignored
historical facts and international legal principles. Yet, China remains dedicated to safeguarding and maintaining regional peace and order.28
The Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands issue is not clearly described in China’s history textbooks at the moment. Some geography textbooks, however, explain
that Taiwan, Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated Islands have been integral parts of
China’s territory from ancient times, advocating China’s territorial sovereignty
over them. Unlike the descriptions in Japanese textbooks, Chinese geography
textbooks mention that along with Taiwan, Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated Islands
were annexed by Japan in 1895 as a result of the Sino-Japanese War.29
26 坂上ほか『新編新しい社会地理』(Sakagami, New Social Studies: Geography), revised edition, p.
133.
27 黒田ほか『社会科中学生の歴史』(Kuroda, Social Studies: History for Junior High School Students),
p. 247.
28 National Marine Data and Information Service: Basic Facts on Diaoyu Dao (http://www.diaoyudao.
org.cn/en/index.htm).
29 Wang, Min (ed.). Geography for 7th grade, Part 2. Beijing: Zhōngguó dìtú chūbănshè, 2012, p. 72.
Ishida: Territorial Disputes in Geography and History Textbooks …
TERRITORIAL DISPUTES IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
The Croatian-Bosnian Territorial Disputes in School Textbooks
In general, Croatian geography textbooks for secondary school (gymnasium) describe the formation and current problems of the border between Croatia
and neighboring countries. Actually, border disputes and other unresolved issues between Croatia and other Yugoslav successor states have existed since
their separation in 1991–92, while their origin can be traced to the late 1940’s
when the new communist authorities fixed the inter-republican borders of the
Yugoslav Federation.30
There are discussions between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina on various
sections of the border, which is also the longest border for each of the two countries. The most popular textbook among the Croatian ones, published by Školska
knjiga, describes the situation of the Croatian-Bosnian border as follows:
Croatia has the longest border with Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is 1,011.4 km
long and it comprises 42.6 % of Croatia’s land borders. This border has
been established as a result of the separation of the territory of BosniaHercegovina from the Croatian state during the time of the ChristianOttoman wars. The border was formed in stages, chiefly in the 18th century.
… The border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina was not formed
ethnically, leaving many Croatian inhabitants on the other side of the border, especially in Herzegovina and Posavina. Croatia has some border disputes with Bosnia-Herzegovina among which the course of the river Una
at Hrvatska Kostajnica, the Zavalja region (east of Plješevica), and the tip of
the Klek peninsula in South Dalmatia are the most distinctive.31
Another geography textbook provides the item of information that “there
are disputed areas between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina dating back to the
international recognition of these two countries, and a ratification of the Treaty
on the State Border is to be expected in the future.”32
30 See Zečević, Miodrag, Lekić, Bogdan. Državne granice i unutrašnja teritorijalna podela Jugoslavije.
Beograd: Građevinska knjiga, 1991; Degan, Vladimir Đuro. Međunarodno pravo kao osnova
rješavanja preostalih sporova na području bivšeg SFRJ. In: Adrias : zbornik radova Zavoda za
znanstveni i umjetnički rad Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti u Splitu, No.12, 2005; 定形衛
「旧ユーゴスラヴィアと国境線問題の諸相」(Sadakata, Mamoru. Border Problems in the Former
Yugoslavia).『名古屋大学法政論集』(Journal of Law and Politics), 245, 2012.
31 Gall, Hermenegildo, Kralj, Predrag, Sljunjski, Robert. Geografija 4: udžbenik geografije u četvrtom
razredu gimnazije. Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 2014, p. 38.
32 Feletar, Dragutin, Vuk, Ružica. Geografija 4. Udžbenik iz geografije za četvrti razred gimnazije.
Samobor: Meridijani, 2014, p. 31.
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In Addition, one Croatian history textbook describes the formation of the
current borderline between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as follows, “The
narrow littoral corridor of Neum was not incorporated into Croatia, even though
this was to separate Dubrovnik from the other part of Croatia, and the corridor
was inhabited by Croatian inhabitants only.”33 This textbook also mentions the
territorial gains and losses of the postwar Croatia in comparison with the prewar
Banovina of Croatia. It explains that Croatia lost “Herzegovina, Central Bosnia,
and Bosnian Posavina.”34
In a similar manner, another textbook mentions: “In relation to the territories
which belonged to the Banovia of Croatia and the Independent State of Croatia,
Croatia lost Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH) and the littoral corridor at Neum, which
belonged to BH, and by which Croatia was divided into two parts.”35
In short, these history textbooks look on Bosnia-Herzegovina as a “lost”
territory of Croatia and pay attention to the Neum corridor which separates
Dubrovnik from the Croatian mainland.
On the other hand, the Bosnian school textbooks for history and geography
usually don’t mention the existence of territorial disputes.36 However, there are
some exceptions. There was a history textbook for the Bosnian Muslims (published in 2007) which insisted that “Bosnia-Herzegovina ceded Sutorina (an
outlet to the Sea at Herceg Novi) to Montenegro [after WWII], and that BosniaHerzegovina lost this outlet to the Sea without recognition by the peoples of
Bosnia-Herzegovina and without authorization of its Parliament.”37 Another
history textbook of the Croats (published in 2010) also pointed out that “BosniaHerzegovina experienced its territorial change [after WWII]. Sutorina was given to Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina lost its outlet to the Sea at Herceg
Novi.”38 In both textbooks, we can see the Bosnian (potential) territorial claim
for the Sutorina region against Montenegro. In contrast, neither of them mentions the problem of the Neum corridor, another outlet to the Adriatic Sea, which
some Croatian history textbooks regard as a disputed area between Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
33 Petrić, Hrvoje, Raguž, Jakša. Povijest 4: udžbenik iz povijesti za 4. razred gimnazije. Samobor:
Meridijani, 2014, p. 170.
34 Ibid., p. 171.
35 Akmadža, Miroslav, Jareb, Mario, Redelić, Zdenko. Povijest 4: udžbenik za 4. razred gimnazije.
Zagreb: Alfa, 2009, pp. 167–168.
36 In Bosnia-Herzegovina, there are three kinds of school textbooks. Three constituent peoples, the
Bosnian Muslims, the Serbs, and the Croats publish their own textbooks. The textbooks for the Serbs
and the Croats tend to mention the connection with their respective “Homelands” (Serbia and Croatia),
whereas those for the Bosnian Muslims underline the formation of the Bosnian state and its boundaries.
37 Valenta, Leonard. Historija-Povijest za 8. razred osnovne škole. Sarajevo: Bosanska riječ, 2007, p. 174.
38 Erdelja, Krešimir, Stojaković, Igor, Madžar, Ivan, Lovrinović, Nikola. Tragom prošlosti 8: udžbenik
povijesti za osmi razred osnovne škole. Mostar: Školska naklada, 2010, p. 212.
Ishida: Territorial Disputes in Geography and History Textbooks …
The Croatian-Serbian Territorial Disputes in School Textbooks
The Danube border between Croatia and Serbia is in dispute, particularly in
Baranja, along with some river islands.39 In some cases, the Srijem/Srem region
is also regarded as the subject of a dispute between the countries.40
One Croatian geography textbook for secondary school describes the formation and current problems of the Croatian-Serbian border in detail as follows:
The state border with Serbia is 317.6 km long (13.4%), and it was recently
formed. It was established after WWII at the cost of Croatia. Central and
Eastern Srijem (between Ilok and Zemun), as well as Croatian historical
territory which was part of Slavonia (County of Srijem) and the Military
Frontier of Slavonia (Petrovaradin Regiment) since the beginning of the
18th century, were annexed to Serbia at the time. The Danube demarcates
the northern part of the border with Bačka, but the borderline is not
identical to its course. Because of the meandering of the river, a part of
Croatian territory remains on the left bank and is, along with the river
island Šarengradska Ada, regarded as a matter in dispute between Croatia
and Serbia. After WWII, the border was demarcated on the principle of
ethnicity, but many settlements where the Croatian or Serbian national
minorities live remain on the opposite side.41
This textbook shows a detailed map of Šarengradska ada.
Another geography textbook mentions: “…there are some disputed border
points between Croatia and Serbia, especially at Apatin and Šarengrad.”42 This
textbook also contains the following commentary: “…the border with Serbia on
the Danube is still not entirely defined.”43
In addition, history textbooks mention the problems of internal divisions in
the Yugoslav Federation and the predominance of Serbia in it as follows:
After the war, the unsolved problem remained – the definition of borders
between the federal republics and demarcation of the border with Italy.
A combination of the historical and national rights of each nation was
39 See Štambuk-Škalić, Marina. Hrvatska istočna granica u dokumentima 1945–1947. Fontes: izvori za
hrvatsku povijest, 1, 1995; Dimitrijević, Duško. A Review of the issue of the border between Serbia
and Croatia on the Danube. Megatrend revija: međunarodni časopis za primenjenu ekonomiju, 9,
3, 2012; Dimitrijević, Duško. Državne granice nakon sukcesije SFR Jugoslavije. Beograd: Institut za
međunarodnu politiku i privredu, 2012.
40 For the Serbian border disputes, see, Antić, Čedomir. The Borders of Modern Serbia (1804–1999).
In: Nećak, Dušan (ed.). Borders in Southeastern Europe: Culture and Politics between the 18th and 21st
Century. Ljubljana: Oddelek za zgodovino Filozofske fakultete, 2004.
41 Gall, Geografija 4, pp. 39–40.
42 Feletar, Geografija 4, p. 33.
43 Ibid., p.32.
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adopted as the criteria for the demarcation line between the republics.
The Federal Commission at the end of 1945 took the whole of Eastern
and Central Srijem and a part of Western Srijem away from Croatia and
gave them to Serbia.44
Another Croatian history textbook also describes the formation of the current borderline between Croatia and Serbia in a similar fashion: “Croatia, due
to national criteria, lost the whole of Eastern and Central Srijem and a part
of Western Srijem in the interests of Serbia.”45 On the other hand, it mentions
that Baranja, which didn’t historically belong to Croatia, was incorporated into
Croatia based on the criterion of national rights.46 In any case, the Croatian geography and history textbooks regard Srijem as a “lost” territory of Croatia.
On the other hand, Serbian history textbooks underline the creation or existence of the Autonomous Province and Region in Serbia, which divides the
Serbian population. One history textbook for secondary school describes the issue as follows:
Serbia assembled its territory in 1945, by annexing some districts of
Sandžak, which was divided, and by incorporating Vojvodina and
Kosmet, both of which were given special status. By the decision of the
Presidency of the Peoples’ Liberation Committee of Vojvodina, however,
Baranja, which was predominantly inhabited by Serbs, was taken away
from Vojvodina and annexed to Croatia on May 16. 1945.47
One history textbook for primary school by the same author and publisher
describes these events in a similar manner.48
Another history textbook for secondary school states: “Western Srem
[Srijem] with Vukovar, Vinkovci, and Županja, as well as Baranja with the districts of Darda and Batina, were separated from Vojvodina.”49 It also criticizes
the Communist Party which made this decision and thus accepted the provision of the Cvetković–Maček Agreement and the territorial extension of the
Independent State of Croatia.50
44 Bekavac, Stjepan, Jareb, Mario. Povijest 8: udžbenik za osmi razred osnovne škole. Zagreb: Alfa, 2014,
p. 137.
45 Petrić, Povijest 4, p. 170.
46 Ibid., pp. 170–171.
47 Đurić, Đorđe. Pavlović, Momčilo. Istorija za treći razred gimnazije prirodno-matematičkog smera i
četvrti razred opšteg i društveno-jezičkog smera. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike, 2010, p. 235.
48 Đurić, Đorđe, Pavlović, Momčilo. Istorija za osmi razred osnovne škole. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike,
2010, p. 174.
49 Radojević, Mira. Istorija IV. udžbenik za treći razred gimnazije prirodno-matematičkog smera, četvrti
razred gimnazije društveno-jezičkog smera i opšteg tipa, i četvrti razred srednje stručne škole za
obrazovne profile pravni tehničar i birotehničar. Beograd: Klett, 2014, p. 355.
50 Ibid.
Ishida: Territorial Disputes in Geography and History Textbooks …
One popular geography textbook for secondary school has a section entitled
“the Serbs in Croatia” comprised of four pages of very detailed narrative on the
topic..51 However, it contains no descriptions of the border issue between Serbia
and Croatia. It concentrates on the problem of Kosovo, showing the history of
the Serbian-Albanian border.52
The position of Baranja and Western Srem [Srijem] in these Serbian textbooks is described in a similar manner to that of Eastern and Central Srijem in
the Croatian history textbooks. They also consider that they had “lost” their own
(historical) territories.
The Croatian-Montenegrian Territorial Disputes in School Textbooks
Croatia and Montenegro have a border dispute over the Prevlaka Peninsula.53
Jurisdiction over Boka Kotorska, the region around the Bay of Kotor, is also an
item of controversy. One Croatian geography textbook describes this as follows:
Croatia shares its shortest state border with Montenegro. The border in
Konavle region is 22.6 km long (1%), and it corresponds with the border
of the Republic of Dubrovnik. Austrian Dalmatia (1815–1918) was extended southwards, and it contained Croatian historical territory in the
Boka Kotorska region and the coastal area to Paštrovići near Bar. After
WWII, Boka Kotorska was annexed to Montenegro with the Sutorina
corridor. The Prevlaka Peninsula (the southernmost part of the Croatian
mainland) was occupied by the Yugoslav Army for strategic reasons after
the proclamation of Croatian independence.54
This textbook also shows a detailed map of the Prevlaka region.
In addition, one history textbook explains the annexation of Boka Kotorska
after WWII briefly as: “Croatia definitively lost Boka Kotorska, in the interests of
Montenegro.”55 Another history textbook regards Boka Kotorska as a Croatian
historical territory, because it was a part of Dalmatia (with its capital in Zadar).
It also mentions that Croatia lost Boka Kotorska.56
51 Grčić, Mirko, Stanković, Stevan, Gavrilović, Ljiljana, Radovanović, Svetlana, Stepić, Milomir, Đurđić,
Snežana. Geografija za III razred gimnazije. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike, 2008, pp. 209–212. All
geography textbooks in Serbia mention the Serbs outside of Serbia in detail.
52 Ibid., p. 19.
53 See Pavić, Radovan. Analysis of "Protocol" about the Border between the Republic of Croatia
and Montenegro. Geoadria, 15, 2, 2010; Jović Mazalin, Sandra, Faričić, Josip. Geografske osnove
društveno-gospodarskoga vrednovanja poluotoka Oštre (Prevlake). Ekonomska i ekohistorija: časopis
za gospodarsku povijest i povijest okoliša, 9, 1, 2013.
54 Gall, Geografija 4, p. 40.
55 Petrić, Povijest 4, p. 170.
56 Akmadža, Povijest 4, p. 167.
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On the other hand, the history textbooks in Montenegro don’t refer to the incorporation of the Boka Kotorska region into Montenegro (after WWII). Nor do
they refer to the Prevlaka issue. However, one geography textbook for primary
school explains the formation of today’s Montenegro as follows: “After liberation, in the new socialist Yugoslavia, Montenegro (including the Boka Kotorska
region) became one of the six republics (autonomous federal units) which had
equal rights.”57 In this textbook, there are some inaccurate maps, in which the
Croatian territory near Boka Kotorska has disappeared entirely.58
The Croatian-Slovenian Territorial Disputes in School Textbooks
Border disputes between Slovenia and Croatia have existed since Slovenia
gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. The most notable border issue is
the division of the former Yugoslav territorial waters around the Bay of Piran.59
One Croatian geography textbook describes the border between Croatia and
Slovenia as follows:
The land border with Slovenia mostly also delineates the ethnic boundary between the Croats and the Slovenes. It is 667.8 km long (28.1%), and
predominantly a natural one. … The border in Međimurje was formed
between the Drava and the Mura rivers, partly along the course of the
Mura. It was established in 1920, and it was slightly corrected in 1945 at
the cost of Croatia. The most recent part of the Croatian-Slovenian border is in Istria, which partly corresponds with the course of the Dragonja
River. The line of demarcation was a result of the division of the Free
Territory of Trieste in 1954, with a little correction at the cost of Croatia
in 1956. Among the border disputes between Croatia and Slovenia, the
Bay of Piran, Žumberak (the Sveta Gera Peak), and Međimurje (meander
of the Mura) are the most important.60
57 Tadić, Milutin, Nikolić, Gojko, Grgurević, Osman. Geografija: udžbenik za deveti razred osnovne
devetogodišnje škole. Podgorica: Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, 2010, p. 16.
58 Ibid., pp. 103, 107.
59 There are many researches on this topic. See Darovec, Darko. Borders in Istria. In: Nećak (ed.).
Borders in Southeastern Europe; Avbelj, Matej, Letnar Cernic, Jernej. The Conundrum of the Piran
Bay: Slovenia v. Croatia – The Case of Maritime Delimitation. The University of Pennsylvania Journal
of International Law and Policy, 5, 2, 2007; Vidas, Davor. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,
the European Union and the Rule of Law. What is going on in the Adriatic Sea?. Lusaker: Fridtjof
Nansen Institute, 2008; Klemenčić, Mladen, Topalović, Duško. The Maritime Boundaries of the
Adriatic Sea. Geoadria, 14, 2, 2009.
60 Gall, Geografija 4, p. 39.
Ishida: Territorial Disputes in Geography and History Textbooks …
This textbook has a detailed commentary on “the conflict in the Bay of
Piran”, which has been ongoing since the independence of Croatia and Slovenia,
including Slovenia’s blockade of the EU accession negotiations of Croatia in
2008–09.61 It also shows a detailed map of the Bay of Piran, with the territorial
claims (maritime borders) of both Croatia and Slovenia.
Another geography textbook also mentions the border disputes between
Croatia and Slovenia such as the Bay of Piran (Savudrijska vala in Croatian), the
Sveta Gera Peak, Međimurje (the meander of the Mura).62 Though it mentions
that the international arbitral tribunal will settle the dispute regarding the Bay
of Piran, Croatia withdrew from arbitration after alleged breaches of the arbitration rules committed by Slovenia in 2015.63 Both geography textbooks make the
assertion that Croatia ceded part of its territory to Slovenia in Međimurje and
Istria after WWII.
In contrast, there are no descriptions of the border issues between Croatia
and Slovenia in the Croatian history textbooks.
Similar to the Croatian and Serbian school textbooks, the Slovenian school
textbooks make much account of the Slovenes outside of Slovenia. In connection
with this, there are some descriptions of the territorial disputes between Slovenia
and neighboring countries. In one history textbook for secondary school, there
is a chapter entitled “The Slovene border and the Slovenes outside Slovenia,” including “Open border issues with Croatia.” It explains the border disputes between Slovenia and Croatia in detail. It mentions that there are points of dispute
such as the border on the Mura River, the border at Razkrižje and Štrigova, part
of the border in Bela Krajina and the Snežnik forests, the border on the Dragonja
River, and the maritime border in the Bay of Piran.64 The textbook also explains
that Slovenia and Croatia entrusted the solution of the maritime border dispute
to an international arbitral tribunal.65
In one history textbook for primary school, there is a description of the border issue in the Bay of Piran.66 Another history textbook for primary school also
mentions the unsolved border problem with Croatia.67
61 Ibid., p. 42.
62 Feletar, Geografija 4, p. 32.
63 “Termination of the Arbitration Process between Croatia and Slovenia: Causes and Consequences,”
Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (http://www.mvep.hr/en/other/
termination-of-the-arbitration-process/).
64 Gabrič, Aleš, Režek, Mateja. Zgodovina 4. Učbenik za četrti letnik gimnazije, Ljubljana: DZS, 2012, pp.
225–226.
65 Ibid., p. 226.
66 Razpotnik, Jelka, Snoj, Damjan. Raziskujem preteklost 9. Učebnik za zgodovino v 9. razredu osnovne
šole, Ljubljana: Rokus Klett, 2013, p. 138.
67 Gabrič, Aleš, Rode, Marjan, Galonja, Tadeja, Dolenc, Ervin. Koraki v času 9. Učbenik za zgodovino v
9. razredu osnovne šole. Ljubljana: DZS, 2013, p. 99.
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Moreover, in one geography textbook for primary school, there is a commentary entitled “How to resolve the border issues with Italy and Croatia.” It
shows a brief history of the border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia since
their independence in 1991, up to the arbitration agreement in 2009.68 Another
geography textbook for primary school also explains that the arbitral tribunal
will settle the dispute on the Bay of Piran.69
CONCLUSION
In general, school textbooks for history and geography in Croatia and other Yugoslav successor states explain the territorial evolution (increase and decrease) of each nation state. As an exception, the Croatian geography textbooks
describe the current territorial disputes in detail. Unlike other Yugoslav successor states, Croatian history textbooks emphasize the territorial losses, such as
Eastern Srijem (Serbia) and Boka Kotorska (Montenegro). It is worrying that the
reference to unresolved territorial disputes in school textbooks may interrupt
the reconciliation process in Southeastern Europe.
Moreover, the same seems to be true of Japan and its neighboring countries
in East Asia. They often make one-sided assertions without objective analyses,
which tends to provoke antipathy between the nations involved. Such situations
related to school textbooks must be improved step by step through international
academic exchanges and joint research activities.
68 Senegačnik, Jurij. Geografija Slovenije. Učbenik za 9. razred osnovne šole. Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2015,
p. 122.
69 Verdev, Helena. Raziskujem Slovenijo. Učbenik za geografijo v 9. razredu osnovne šole. Ljubljana:
Rokus Klett, 2011, p. 92.
Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
HISTORIOGRAPHIES
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Vodopivec: Slovene Historiography on the 20th Century
Peter Vodopivec
SLOVENE
HISTORIOGRAPHY
ON THE
20TH CENTURY
T
he Mayor of Ljubljana and the leader of the Slovene Liberal
Party Ivan Hribar argued in 1899 that the beginning of the
20th century should, as in many western European countries, be celebrated on
January 1, 1901 and not on January 1, 1900 as was the case at the time in the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the German Empire. Mayor Hribar was a great
admirer of technological and scientific progress and agreed with the expert horologists, who claimed that the new century began on January 1, 1901 and not
with January 1, 1900. His view, though, that the new century began a year later
than it was officially celebrated in the Habsburg Monarchy and in the German
Reich also had a political and national background. Hribar was deeply convinced that aggressive German nationalism and German national pressures were a
great danger for the future of the Austrian Slavs, and this was also his way of demonstrating his opposition to the government and court in Vienna and to what
he deemed their one-sided pro-German and anti-Slav policy.1
1
Slovenska kronika XX.. stoletja (Slovene Chronicle of the 20th Century). Ljubljana: Nova revija, 1995,
p. 17.
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Slovene historians (just like historians elsewhere in former Yugoslavia) have
traditionally focused on the history of their own national community in their
research and only rarely have they discussed matters in a wider Yugoslav or
European context. This also was (and still is) the norm in their research and publications dealing with the 20th century, resulting in their assessment (both in the
past and the present) of also both Yugoslav states (i.e. the post WWI Yugoslav
Kingdom and the post WWII communist Yugoslav Federation) above all from
their own national perspective. However, the historical traditions and experiences of the nations united in 1918 in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
differed significantly, and so did their national historical perspectives and narratives. Subsequently, there were as of 1918 numerous controversial and conflicting historical views and interpretations of the national and common past of the
Kingdom, causing a rift between the Serbian, Croatian and Slovene historians
and their respective national communities.
One such divisive topic was WWI, which from 1918 onwards presented an
unpleasant problem for the Slovene and Croatian historians. While the Serbian
historians could proudly point out the resistance of the Serbs against the AustroHungarian, German and Bulgarian aggression, as well as the Serbian military
activities on the side of the Entente, the Slovene and Croatian historians were
confronted with the problem of Slovene and Croat soldiers fighting in Galicia,
along the river Isonzo (Soča in Slovene) and partly in Serbia on the AustroHungarian side. As early as the autumn of 1914, around 33,000 Slovenes were
involved in Austro-Hungarian military operations in Eastern Galicia, which was
the most massive Slovene military engagement outside the territory populated by
the Slovene speaking population ever. Many Slovene soldiers lost their lives on
the battlefield and many of them became Russian prisoners. There were of course
also Slovene volunteers, who joined the Serbian Army and fought on the Serbian
side, but they were relatively few, while the Slovenes who were Italian citizens
had fought in the Italian Army along the Italian-Austro-Hungarian border since
1915 – also against the Slovenes on the Austrian side.2 At the same time, during
the war, some Slovene politicians were secretly in touch with the powers of the
Entente, and a few of them even migrated to Western Europe, where they joined
the Yugoslav Committee in London. What’s more, the idea of the reorganization
of the Habsburg Monarchy into a federal state and the unification of the South
Slavs in an autonomous Yugoslavia within it received massive popular support
2
Luthar, Oto. Men Who Marched Away. WWI in the Memories of the Slovenian Soldiers. In: Luthar,
Oto (ed.). The Great War and Memory in Central and South-Eastern Europe. Leiden-Boston: Brill,
2016, pp. 18–38; Svoljšak, Petra. The Social History of the Soča Region in the First World War.
Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts fur soziale Bewegungen, 41, 2009, pp. 89–91.
Vodopivec: Slovene Historiography on the 20th Century
in 1917–1918 in the Slovene regions and the collapse of Austria-Hungary on 29
October 1918 was welcomed in Ljubljana with huge celebrations.
WWI, the demise of the Habsburg Monarchy and the formation of the
Yugoslav Kingdom in 1918 were radical turning points in Slovene history, yet
in the interwar period, Slovene historians paid nearly no attention to the First
World War and to their recent past. The first and founding publications of the
Slovene scientific historiography and the first large-scale synthesis of Slovene
history were only published at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th
century, respectively, as in the 1920s and 1930s, Slovene historiography was still a
young academic discipline, which mainly dealt with medieval and early modern
Slovene history. In the interwar period, WWI was presented as a Yugoslav unifying experience by the official Yugoslav war memory, which focused mainly on
the Serb military resistance against the German and Austro-Hungarian aggression, the heroic withdrawal of the Serbian Army over the Albanian mountains to
the Greek island of Corfu, and the activities of the South Slav volunteers in the
Serbian Army. Most of the Slovene articles and publications dedicated to WWI
and published in the 1920s and 1930s were thus written by Slovene volunteers
who had joined the Serbian Army during the war, or by Slovene war prisoners in
Russia, who had joined the South Slav volunteer groups there. Some authors also
discussed the Slovene parties’ politics during the war, the Yugoslav movement
in 1917–1918 and the uprisings of the Slovene soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian
Army, while life stories representative of the majority of the Slovene population and the often very tragic destinies of the Slovene soldiers in the AustroHungarian Army and on the Isonzo (Soča) front3 were mostly marginalized and
overlooked.4
The official and public memory of WWI in Slovenia and Yugoslavia did
not change significantly after 1945, either. Rather the opposite. The post WWII
Yugoslav and Slovene communist politics regarding historical memory focused
on revolutionary movements and events in the Yugoslav and Slovene past, while
the memory and narratives of the WWI military and the political confrontations of that time were overshadowed and replaced by the much closer wartime
3
4
The Isonzo (Soča) front was the crucial 90 kilometers long southern part of the front between Italy
and Austro-Hungary, which cut through the mountains the territory populated by the Slovene and
Italian speaking population in 1915–1917.
Svoljšak, Petra. Prva svetovna vojna in Slovenci, 1. del (The First World War and the Slovenes, Part
1). Zgodovinski časopis, 47, 2, 1993, pp. 263–287; ---. Prva svetovna vojna in Slovenci, 2. del (The
World War I and the Slovenes, Part 2). Zgodovinski časopis, 47, 4, 1993, pp. 547–562; Svoljšak, Petra.
Prva svetovna vojna in Slovenci 1994–2014 (The First World War and the Slovenes 1994–2014).
Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino 15, 2, 2015, pp. 143–171. In English: Svoljšak, Petra. The Slovenian
Remembrance of World War I (www.konferencija2014.com.ba/wp-content/uploads/Petra-Svoljsakpaper.pdf)
99
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experiences of WWII and the victorious communist narratives of the Partisan
resistance against the occupying forces and the social revolution during 1941–
1945. Until 1968, when the first original Slovene book dedicated to the Isonzo
(Soča) front5, along which 250,000 Italian, German and Austro-Hungarian
(among them 2,000–3,000 Slovene) soldiers had lost their lives between 1915 and
1918, was published, the First World War had indeed been a much overlooked
and neglected topic in Slovene historiography. This was followed two years later
by the first book presenting and discussing the politics of the Slovene political
parties and the Yugoslav movement in the Slovene regions during WWI.6
Starting in the1970s, a growing number of articles and books dealing with
the Isonzo (Soča) front and its consequences for the population of the nearby
Slovene regions were published. These were at first prevalently based on war
memoirs and their authors were non-professional and mainly local historians.
From the 1980s onwards, however, they were increasingly often written also by
professional historians and based on the systematic research of the military activities and living conditions at the front, and the life stories of the war refugees
from the region and of the Slovenes fighting in the Serbian and Italian armies.7
In 1988, to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWI, the first Slovene exhibition dedicated to the Isonzo (Soča) river battlefield was organized. Two years
later, the first Slovene WWI museum opened its doors at Kobarid in the Upper
Isonzo (Soča) Valley and in 1998, the first Slovene history student, today a leading Slovene WWI expert, Petra Svoljšak, completed a PhD thesis on the history of WWI at the Department of History of the University of Ljubljana. With
the establishment of the National Committee for the Commemoration of the
100th Anniversary of WWI in 2012, Slovene historians joined the Pan European
Commemoration of the Centenary of WWI. Since 2014, there have been numerous exhibitions, book presentations, public lectures, commemorations and other
events organized on the topic of the First World War. Today, WWI themes are
well researched and popular subjects of Slovene historiography, yet Slovene historians continue to focus on Slovene national experiences and topics: on the war
experiences of the Slovene soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian Army, on the life
stories of the war prisoners and refugees, and on the political orientation of the
Slovene political parties and Slovene population in the years 1914–1918.8
5
6
7
8
Hmelak, Ivan (Janez Mesesnel). Soška fronta (The Isonzo – Soča front). Koper: Lipa 1968.
Pleterski, Janko. Prva odločitev Slovencev za Jugoslavijo (The First Decision of the Slovenes for
Yugoslavia), Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1971.
More about recent and contemporary Slovene historiography regarding WWI in: Svoljšak, Prva
vojna in Slovenci, 2. del, pp. 547–561; Svoljšak, Prva vojna in Slovenci 1994–2014 (The First World
War and the Slovenes 1994–2014), pp. 149–170.
Most recent publications by the Slovene authors dealing with these themes: Lukan, Walter. Iz
“črnožolte kletke narodov” v “zlato svobodo”: Habsburška monarhija in Slovenci v prvi svetovni vojni
Vodopivec: Slovene Historiography on the 20th Century
In the first two decades of the socialist Yugoslavia, Slovene historians paid
only a limited amount of attention to the interwar period and to the Yugoslav
Kingdom. The official communist views and interpretations of the first Yugoslavia
and its history were rather dark, and such were also the historians’ presentations
in the historiography. The prevailing opinion was that the Slovene decision in
favor of Yugoslavia had been massively supported by the Slovene population in
1918, which, despite the disappointments and dissatisfaction with centralism
and the national-unitarist policies of the Serbian parties, had remained loyal to
Yugoslavia during the entire interwar period. However, the centralist state system gradually became a straitjacket for all non-Serbian ethnic groups (as well as
for the Vojvodina Serbs and the federalist Montenegrins) and the main reason
for the political instability and national antagonisms in the Kingdom. The main
focus of the post WWII Slovene (and Yugoslav) historians dealing with the interwar period was primarily on topics related to the communist and labor movement, the political activities of the trade unions, and the social position of the
laboring classes. Subsequently, until the 1970s and the 1980s, there was nearly
no serious research on the interwar Slovene middle-class political parties or on
the political orientation and views of their political leaders, and there were only
a few and partial research projects carried out on the interwar Yugoslavia, which
mainly presented its negative aspects with a focus on the economic and cultural
history conducted at the time.9
In the mid-1980s however, under the influence of the new historiographic
approaches, socio-anthropological research in Western Europe, and the aggravated political situation in Yugoslavia, important changes occurred also in
Slovene historiography. Mostly younger scholars applied themselves to the study
of the less researched or heretofore un-researched political, social, cultural and
economic historical issues of the recent and more distant past in a more politically, ideologically and nationally relaxed and open way than previous generations had.10 Those who dedicated themselves to the research of the Yugoslav
Kingdom continued to see the main reason for the interwar Yugoslav antagonisms and misunderstandings in the authoritarian centralist state system and
Yugoslav national unitarism, but at the same time, they also pointed out the
(From the “Black-Yellow Prison of Nations” into the “Golden Freedom”? The Habsburg Monarchy
and the Slovenes in the First World War). Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta, Zveza zgodovinskih društev
Slovenije, 2014; Svoljšak, Petra, Antoličič Gregor (eds.), Leta strahote. Prva svetovna vojna in Slovenci
(The Years of Horror, The First World War and the Slovenes). Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 2018.
9 Dolenc, Ervin. Slovensko zgodovinopisje o obdobju 1918–1991 po razpadu Jugoslavije (Slovene
Historiography of the 1918–1991 Period after the Disintegration of Yugoslavia). Prispevki za novejšo
zgodovino, 44, 2, 2004, pp. 114–115.
10 Vodopivec, Peter. Historiography in Slovenia Today. Slovene Studies, Journal of the Society for Slovene
Studies, 25, 1–2, 2003, pp. 6–7.
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positive sides of the development and the great progress which the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia had brought to the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in all aspects (national,
political, economic and cultural).
In the Yugoslav state, the Slovene regions which until 1918 had been part
of the poorly developed southern territory of the Habsburg Monarchy, became
a part of the developed West of the new Yugoslav kingdom virtually overnight
– as demonstrated by the economic historian Žarko Lazarević.11 In the 1920s
and 1930s, as Ervin Dolenc and other Slovene cultural historians noted, despite
their dissatisfaction with the authoritarian and centralist political system, the
Slovenes also experienced a dynamic cultural development open to Europe,
which they had not known before.12 Both major Slovene political parties, the
Liberals and the Catholics, actively cooperated in Yugoslav political life, albeit
following different strategies. The Liberals supported centralism in association
with the Serbian Democrats, fearing that the transformation of the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (after 1929 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in the federation would lead to the dominance of the much stronger Catholic Party in the
Slovene part of the country, while the autonomist and anti-centralist oriented
Catholic Party adapted to the short term political conditions and traded for various concessions – in part by means of its frequent alliances with Serbian radicals, as through most of the interwar period and with only some short breaks
in between, well-known Slovene Catholic politicians lobbied in Belgrade and in
the court. Their leader Anton Korošec was twelve times minister, twice deputy
prime minister and once (the only non-Serbian) prime minister of the royal
government.13 A modest result of such a policy was also a short term extended
11 Lazarević, Žarko. Od regionalnega k slovenskemu narodnemu gospodarstvu (From a Regional to
the Slovene National Economy). In: Slovenija 1848–1898: Iskanje lastne poti (Slovenia 1848–1898:
Looking for Its Own Way). Ljubljana: Zveza zgodovinskih društev Slovenije 1998, pp. 278–281;
Lazarević, Žarko. Plasti prostora in časa: Iz gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije prve polovice 20. stoletja
(The Layers of Space and Time, From the Economic History of Slovenia in the First Half of the 20th
Century). Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, 2009.
12 Dolenc, Ervin. Kulturni boj: slovenska kulturna politika v Kraljevini SHS 1918–1929 (“Kulturkampf ”,
Slovene Cultural Policy in the Kingdom of SHS 1918–1929. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1996;
Dolenc, Ervin. Med kulturo in politiko: Kulturnopolitična razhajanja v Sloveniji med obema vojnama
(Between Culture and Politics, Cultural and Political Confrontations in Slovenia in the Interwar
Period). Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino 2010.
13 Perovšek, Jurij. Liberalizem in vprašanje slovenstva,: nacionalna politika liberalnega tabora v letih
1918–1929 (Liberalism and the Slovene National Issue, National Politics of the Liberal Party in the
Years 1918–1929). Ljubljana: Modrijan, 1996; Rahten, Andrej. Slovenska ljudska stranka v beograjski
skupščini (Slovene People’s Party in the Belgrade Parliament). Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2002; Perovšek,
Jurij. “V zaželeni deželi”: slovenska izkušnja s Kraljevino SHS/Jugoslavijo 1918–1941 (“In the Desired
Land”, Slovene Experience with the Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia 1918–1941). Ljubljana:Inštitut za
novejšo zgodovino, 2009; Gašparič, Jure. Slovenska ljudska stranka pod kraljevo diktaturo (Slovene
People’s Party under the Kings Dictatorship), Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2007.
Vodopivec: Slovene Historiography on the 20th Century
Slovene regional autonomy from 1927 to 1929, which had a beneficial influence
on Slovene economic and cultural development.14
It may be surprising, but there has been much more interest in the research
of the history of the first Yugoslavia and the Slovene position within it in the
last two to three decades than in the period of the socialist Yugoslavia, and the
picture of the interwar period painted in Slovene historiography today is much
more complex and less nationally biased than thirty of forty years ago. New, politically and ideologically balanced research was done on the Slovene opposition
against the Serbian and Yugoslav centralist and authoritarian political pressures,
on the Liberal and on the Catholic People’s parties and their political strategies,
on the People’s Front and Communist movement and on the political orientation of the Catholic Church during the interwar period. Economic and social
historians published innovative studies on the economic modernization, industrial development, banking system and social conditions in the Slovene part of
the Yugoslav kingdom.15 Cultural historians studied the political orientations
and ideological divisions of the intelligentsia more extensively than before. And
at the same time, political historians continued and still continue to argue that
the unsolved national issues and what was until 1939 a rigid centralist system
were the main reasons for the quick Yugoslav defeat and disintegration in 1941.
Political and national passions, as is well known, did not calm down even
during the war. At the fateful moment, when WWII spread into Yugoslav territory, there was only very little understanding to be found anywhere for the idea
expressed by the Slovene poet Edvard Kocbek in 1941, that a “free person who
wants to act reasonably in today’s world, must first take up a historical and only
then an ideological position”. This fact, upon which most of the historians agree,
tragically marked the course the Second World War was to take on the territory of Yugoslavia and has had a long term influence on post-war Slovene and
Yugoslav development.
The greatest discord in Slovene historiography and amongst the public is
still caused by differing views on the situation in Slovenia and Yugoslavia during
WWII and on the resistance against the German and Italian occupying forces
in the years 1941–1945. In socialist Yugoslavia, only one single interpretation
of the developments during WWII on Yugoslav and Slovene territory prevailed
14 Stiplovšek, Miroslav. Slovenski parlamentarizem 1927–1929 (Slovene Parliamentarism 1927–1929).
Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta, 2000.
15 Lazarević, Žarko. Kontinuitäten und Brüche: Der lange Weg zu einer slowenischen Wirtschaftsgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts fur soziale Bewegungen
(Bochum) 41, 2009, pp. 51–69. Fischer, Jasna, Lazarević, Žarko, Prinčič Jože published also a review
of the history of the economy on Slovene territory in English (The Economic History of Slovenia
(1750–1991). Vrhnika: Razum, 1999).
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from 1945 onwards, and this was drawn from the communist victor’s point of
view. There were thousands of books and articles written and published describing and glorifying the Partisan resistance which was organized and led by the
Communists. The majority of these works was produced by non-professional
historians as well as authors who had actively participated in the Partisan resistance, but there were also professional historians producing valuable and credible
works based on facts and doing more or less positivist research on the organization, strategies and activities of the Partisan units, on the system of the German
and Italian occupation and on the politics and violence of the occupiers. Much
less or nearly no attention was paid to the opposition to the resistance and to
the collaboration with the occupiers, which had also had large public support in
some parts of Yugoslavia and Slovenia.16
In the late 1970s, evaluations of the developments in Slovene regions during
WWII began to diverge noticeably. In the 1980s, the first politically and ideologically balanced studies of the collaboration and deteriorative consequences of
communist radicalism and violence during the war were published, and starting
with the 1990s, the picture and the interpretations of WWII in Slovenia were
extensively and essentially broadened by research conducted mainly by the then
younger generation of historians. They demonstrated in a persuasive way that
the political conditions in Slovenia during WWII were much more complex than
presented since 1945. Their focus was (and still is today) on the national, political
and revolutionary strategies of the communists and their seizure of power; the
relations between the communists and the other political groups that formed
the Liberation Front in 1941; the relations between the resistance leadership in
Slovenia and Yugoslavia; the traditional political parties, their policies and strategies; and the reasons for the collaboration with the occupiers.17
16 Godeša, Bojan. Social and Cultural Aspects of the Historiography on the Second World War in
Slovenia. Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen (Bochum), 41, 2009, pp. 111–125.
17 Among the first historians to engage in the systematic research of the anticommunist groups and
collaboration was Boris Mlakar, who published many articles and several books, among others
also the comprehensive monograph Slovensko domobranstvo 1943–1945 (Slovene Home Guards
1943–1945) (Ljubljana: Slovenska Matica, 2003). Jera Vodušek Starič analysed in his book Prevzem
oblasti 1944–1946 (The Seizure of Power 1944–1946) (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1992) the
principal stages of the communist seizure of power in the last two years of the war and the first years
after the war. Bojan Godeša, today a leading Slovene expert on the conditions in Slovenia during
WWII, produced numerous articiles and several books on the political development and ideological
confontations in Slovenia in the years 1941–1945, among them: Kdor ni z nami, je proti nam,
Slovenski izobraženci med okupatorji, Osvobodilno fronto in protirevolucionarnim taborom (Whoever
is not with Us, is Against Us. Slovene Intellectuals bewteen the Occupiers, the Liberation Front and
the Antirevolutionary Side) (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1995), Slovensko nacionalno vprašanje
med drugo svetovno vojno (Slovene National Question during the WW II) (Ljubljana: Inštitut za
novejšo zgodovino, 2006), Čas odločitev (Time of Decisions) (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 2012).
More about other authors and publications on WW II was writen by Bojan Godeša in Social and
cultural aspects of the historiography of the Second World War in Slovenia, see note 14.
Vodopivec: Slovene Historiography on the 20th Century
Although there are still substantial interpretive differences, the prevailing
Slovene historians’ views of the situation during WWII in the Slovene regions
can be summed up as follows: after the German and Italian occupation of the
Slovene part of Yugoslavia in 1941, the Slovene middle class parties (the Liberal
and the Catholic Party) underestimated the determination of the population to
resist the occupiers. Therefore, instead of organizing an anti-occupation resistance themselves, they attempted to establish a modus vivendi with the occupiers, which allowed what was still a very small group of communists to take the
initiative in organizing the resistance against the occupying forces, which they
subsequently turned into a social and political revolution during the war. This
led to a ruthless internal Slovene conflict between communists on the one side,
who violently eliminated their political and ideological opponents, and militant,
prevalently Catholic anti-communists on the other, who with the assistance of
the occupying forces organized anti-communist (which, however, were in fact
also anti-resistance) armed units, thus collaborating with the occupiers.
The consequences of the conflict between the resistance and the collaborationists (some authors speak and write about a civil war in this case) were additionally tragic, because most of the people who joined the resistance were not
communists and the anti-occupation movement had, from the very beginning,
much wider popular support than the communist revolution. Both sides entangled in the conflict – the one supporting the resistance and the other opposing it –
also tried to establish contacts with the Allies in the hope that they would win
the war. The price of the violent political and military struggle, the repression of
the occupying forces and the post-war communist retribution against the opponents of the resistance and communism was very high. According to the latest research carried out by the Institute of Contemporary History in Ljubljana,
between 1941 and 1946, around 100,000 people living on the territory of the
present state of Slovenia in 194118 lost their lives because of the war and the communist retribution after the war (about 15,000 real or alleged opponents of the
resistance and communism were executed secretly and without any trial whatsoever by the communist authorities from May 1945 to January 1946).19
These interpretations of developments in Slovenia during and immediately
after WWII have their opponents, although – at least among the historians –
they are a minority. Some researchers still object to any critical assessment of the
communists’ co-responsibility for the intra-Slovene fighting, whereas another,
18 The population of this territory was about 1.4 milion people in 1941.
19 Deželak-Barič, Vida. Smrtne žrtve druge svetovne vojne in zaradi nje na Slovenskem (Victims of
World War II in Slovenia). In: Troha, Nevenka (ed.). Nasilje vojnih in povojnih dni (The Violence of
the War and Post-War Years), Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino 2014, pp. 11–48. Smrtne žrtve
druge svetovno vojne – Zgodovina Slovenije, www.sistory.si
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smaller group attribute all the responsibility exclusively to the communists, insisting that from the very outset, the Slovene and Yugoslav Partisan resistance
was a communist manipulation and an instrument of the communist revolution.
At the same time, though, there is also a greater unity at least among the historians, in their evaluations of the communist mass killings of the opponents of the
resistance and communism in 1945, since the majority of them agree that this
was an incomprehensible and unjustifiable crime, which should be investigated
in detail. The communist authorities succeeded in keeping the post WWII mass
killings secret until the mid-1970s, when the poet Edvard Kocbek, the leading
figure among the Slovene Catholic intellectuals, who had joined the resistance
during WWII, publicly admitted that he had known about the mass killings as
early as 1946. However, the systematic research of the post WWII communist
violence and the secret mass executions in 1945 could nevertheless only begin
after the collapse of Yugoslav communism and Slovenia’s achievement of independence in 1991.20
At the center of the historical debate on the developments during WWII
in Slovenia and Yugoslavia – as evident from what has been said – lie mainly
political, ideological and military questions, while methodological and conceptual issues of research and interpretation have been pushed to the background.
Modern methodological and conceptual approaches, more than in political and
military history studies, have been established in the study of economic, demographic, migrational and cultural developments and everyday life during and
after the war, which have become the subject of more intensive and methodologically innovative research in the last two or three decades.21
Critical historical research of the period of socialist Yugoslavia could only
start in Slovenia and the other successor states of Yugoslavia after the fall of the
communist regime. Naturally, this caused public disagreements among historians, who had and still have very different opinions on how authoritarian the
Yugoslav communist regime was in the different post WWII periods and how to
assess it in general. For the majority of researchers, it was and still is clear, that
after the break of the Yugoslav communists with Moscow, i.e., from the early
1950s onwards, the regime in Yugoslavia was very different from that in other
communist countries and in the Soviet Union. However, there were and still are
20 Vodopivec, Peter. Slovenia in 1945. Slovene Studies, Journal of the Society for Slovene Studies, 28, 1–2,
2006, pp. 53–56.
21 Godeša, Social and Historical Aspects, pp.122–125. There were also a number of politically balanced
and methodologically innovative regional and local studies conducted, which demostrated the
diversity of the conditions and developments in differents parts of Slovenia during the war. An
important achievement in English, based on a detailed study of sources and historical literature, is a
critical survey of the history of WWII on the territory of Slovenia by Gregor J. Kranjc, To Walk with
the Devil, Slovene Collaboration and Axis Occupation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.
Vodopivec: Slovene Historiography on the 20th Century
continuing disagreements regarding the assessments of the degree of authoritarianism and political repression in Yugoslavia, everyday political practices, the
functioning of the federation, the role of the Slovene politicians in it and their
reform initiatives and goals. In the recent studies of the actual functioning of the
Yugoslav federation, there has been an increasingly prevalent opinion that efficient decision making in socialist Yugoslavia was hindered not only by national
misunderstandings and ongoing conflicts between centralist and federalist tendencies, but above all by communist politics, which was fully committed to the
principles of democratic centralism and ideological unity.
This is believed to be a convincing confirmation of the belief that “true federalism is not compatible with authoritarian power”. Besides, some authors also
argue that the Slovene leaders, headed by Edvard Kardelj, one of Josip Broz Tito’s
closest collaborators and post WWII Yugoslav politicians, had in fact been active
co-creators of the Yugoslav political and economic system and were therefore coresponsible for its successes and failures. In this sense, the decade-long process
of the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the period of 1980–1990 was not only the
result of economic crises and obviously insurmountable national tensions, but
above all of a deep crisis of the communist system, whose “useful term” literally “expired” two decades after the so-called “liberal” communist reform had
been violently suppressed in the early 1970s. The tragic break-up of the Yugoslav
federation was at the same time accelerated by the differences between the democratization processes in various parts of the country and an irreconcilable
nationalism which spread through Serbia after Slobodan Milošević seized political power in 1986.22
Nevertheless, the picture of the socialist Yugoslavia in modern Slovene historiography is not just one-sided and dark. Slovene historians mostly agree that
in the four and a half decades of Yugoslav communism, the more authoritarian
periods were interspersed with less authoritarian ones and that after 1965, when
it opened its borders, Yugoslavia was far more open to Europe and the world
than any other communist state. The 1960s and 1970s in particular were marked
by relatively favorable social and economic conditions, and Slovenia is believed –
despite the dissatisfaction of its politicians and population with federal economic and financial policies – to have developed into a modern industrial society precisely in the time of the second Yugoslavia. Systematic analyses of the
22 Repe, Božo. Slovenci v osemdesetih (The Slovenes in the 1980s). Ljubljana: Zveza zgodovinskih društev
Slovenije; 2001; Slovenska novejša zgodovina 1848–1992 (The Recent History of Slovenia 1848–
1992), Volume II. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, 2005, pp. 930–1219;
Vodopivec, Peter. Od poskusov demokratizacije do agonije in katastrofe (From the Democratisation
Attempts to the Agony and Catastrophe). In: Čepič, Zdenko (ed.). Slovenija – Jugoslavija, krize in
reforma (Slovenia and Yugoslavia, Crises – Reforms). Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, 2010,
pp. 15–28.
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development of the Slovene economy and its inclusion in the Yugoslav economy
since 1945 are among the most important achievements of recent Slovene historiography.23 Moreover, it was also in the period of the socialist Yugoslavia that
Slovenes experienced diverse and comprehensive cultural development. Studies
of Slovene and Yugoslav cultural and educational policies show that cultural and
intellectual life progressively opened to Western Europe starting at the beginning of the 1950s and particularly from the 1960s onwards.24 This development
was accompanied by the recurring attempts of (still scarce) groups of critical
intellectuals to expand the margins of freedom and democracy, which, however,
were not widely accepted by the public.
The communist regime in Slovenia did not have any serious opposition until the 1980s. Throughout the communist period, the opposition intellectuals
had been victims of political pressures and persecution, which is why their life
stories have been given special attention in the recent decades. Since the beginning of the 1990s, a large number of well-received works have been published,
which deal with the bloody post WWII communist settling of accounts with
real and imaginary opponents, the political trials in Slovenia, the violent communist policy towards the Catholic Church and priesthood and the functioning
of the Slovene and Yugoslav secret police.25 At the same time, particular attention has been paid to the repeated attempts of reforming the Yugoslav economy
and political system, including the question of whether the reforms that the socalled communist liberals in Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade proposed in the
second half of the 1960s would have succeeded in prolonging the life of communist Yugoslavia, or at least enabled its more peaceful dissolution.26 The Slovene
departure from Yugoslavia and the latter’s disintegration have been discussed
and presented by several authors, who observed that Slovene independence was
23 Prinčič, Jože. Kapitalna, ključna kapitalna in temeljna investicijska izgradnja v Sloveniji 1945–1956:
slovenska industrija v jugoslovanskem primežu (The Development of Capital Importance and the
Investments in Slovenia: Slovene Industry in the Yugoslav Vice 1945–1956). Novo mesto: Dolenjska
založba; 1992; Prinčič, Jože. V začaranem krogu: slovensko gospodarstvo od nove ekonomske politike
do velike reforme 1955–1970 (In the ‘Circulus Vitiosus': Slovene Economy from the New Economic
Policy until the Great Reforms 1955–1970). Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1999; Prinčič, Jože, Borak,
Neven. Iz reforme v reformo: slovensko gospodarstvo 1970–1991 (From Reform to Reform, Slovene
Economy 1970–1991). Ljubljana: Fakulteta za družbene vede, 2006; Borak, Neven. Ekonomski vidiki
delovanja in razpada Jugoslavija (Economic Aspects of theFunctioning and Demise of Yugoslavia).
Ljubljana: Znanstveno in publicistično središče, 2002.
24 Gabrič, Aleš. Slovenska agitpropovska kulturna politika 1945–1952 (Slovene Cultural and Agitprop
Policy 1945–1952). Ljubljana: Mladika, 1991; Gabrič, Aleš. Socialistična kulturna revolucija: slovenska
kulturna politika 1953–1962 (Socialist Cultural Revolution: Slovene Cultural Policy 1953–1962).
Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1995.
25 Ivanič, Martin (ed.). Dachauski procesi: raziskovalno poročilo z dokumenti, (The Dachau Trials, The
Reasearch Report with the Documents). Ljubljana: Komunist, 1990; Jeraj, Mateja, Melik, Jelka.
Criminal Suit against Črtomir Nagode and the co-Accused. Ljubljana. Arhiv Slovenije, 2015; Griesser
Pečar, Tamara. Cerkev na zatožni klopi (The Church in the Court). Ljubljana: Družina, 2005.
26 Repe, Božo. “Liberalizem” v Sloveniji (“Liberalism” in Slovenia). Ljubljana: RO ZZB NOV, 1992.
Vodopivec: Slovene Historiography on the 20th Century
a result of the Yugoslav government’s inability to find a way out of the deep economic, social and political crisis in which Yugoslavia found itself in the 1980s
and, simultaneously, of Serbian nationalism and the highly strained relations
between Serbia and Slovenia that had ensued by the end of the 1980s.
In researching the period of 1945–1991, the center of attention of Slovene
historians has continued to be the position of Slovenia and its development within Yugoslavia rather than Yugoslavia as whole. The only original Slovene history
of the two Yugoslavias was thus published in 1995 by Jože Pirjevec, a Slovene historian from Trieste.27 Pirjevec did not doubt the long term allegiance of Slovenia
to Yugoslavia, but presented Yugoslavia as an explicitly controversial formation,
more prone to division than to cohesion from the very start. Although his book
received favorable reviews, it did not provoke any particular professional discussion or ambition to follow his example. Pirjevec’s second book, The Yugoslav
Wars 1991–2001 (2003), in which he analyzed the military confrontations and
wars in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s, shared the
same fate.28 In contrast, though, Pirjevec’s third book, Tito and His Comrades
(2011)29, became a real literary success, although yet again, it did not excite any
more lively discussion or interest among Slovene historians. An important
Slovene contribution to the post WW II history of Yugoslavia is also the book
Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik and Yugoslavia (1963-1969) by Dušan Nećak, professor
of history at the University in Ljubljana, published in 2013.30
The first comprehensive synthesis of 20th century Slovene history was published by the researchers of the Institute of Contemporary History in Ljubljana
in 2005.31 20th century Slovene development has also been extensively presented
in the history of Slovenia from the end of the 18th until the end of the 20th century, written and published by the author of this presentation in 2006.32 This
work was translated in an abridged form into German in 2008 and included
in the overview of Slovene history Slowenische Geschichte (Gesellschaft-PolitikKultur) by Peter Štih, Vasko Simoniti and Peter Vodopivec. It has been accessible
27 Pirjevec, Jože. Jugoslavija 1918–1991 (Yugoslavia 1918–1991., Koper: Lipa, 1995.
28 Pirjevec, Jože. Jugoslovanske vojne 1991–2001 (The Yugoslav Wars 1991–2001). Ljubljana: Cankarjeva
založba, 2003.
29 Pirjevec, Jože. Tito in Tovariši (Tito and His Comrades). Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga 2011. In English:
Tito and His Comrades. University of Wisconsin Press, 2018.
30 Dušan Nećak, Ostpolitik Willyija Brandta in Jugoslavija, Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta 2013. In
Croatian translation: Ostpolitik Willija Brandta i Jugoslavija, Zagreb: Srednja Evropa 2015.
31 Fischer, Jasna et al. Slovenska novejša zgodovina, Od programa Zedinjene Slovenije do mednarodnega
priznanja Republike Slovenije 1848–1992, 1. in 2. del (Slovene Recent History, From the Program
of the United Slovenia until the International Recognition of the Republic Slovenia 1848–1992).
Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, 2005.
32 Vodopivec, Peter. Od Pohlinove slovnice do samostojne države, Slovenska zgodovina od konca 18. do
konca 20. stoletja (From the Pohlin’s Grammar until an Independent State, Slovene History from the
End of the 18th until the End of the 20th Century). Ljubljana: Modrijan 2006, 2007, 2010.
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in its English version on the web portal of Slovene historiography since 2009.33
The first concise history of Slovenia in English, produced by Slovene historians
and covering the history of the “territory of the Eastern Alps and Pannonian
Plain” from the earliest historical periods until the end of the 20th century, was
published under the title The Land Between a year before that (in 2008).34
There are also detailed topics related to 20th century Slovene history in the
Historical Dictionary of Slovenia by Carole Rogel and Leopoldina Pregelj (first
published in 1996, the authors of the third edition, published in 2018, being:
Leopoldina Pregelj, Gregor Kranjc, Žarko Lazarević and Carole Rogel).35 The two
volumes of the Slovene Chronicle of the 20th century (written by a large team of
authors36), published in 1995 and 1996 were also well received in Slovenia, as was
also the illustrated Slovene history from prehistoric cultures until the beginning
of the 21st century by Peter Štih, Vasko Simoniti and Peter Vodopivec published
two decades later (in 2016).37 Another important recent contribution to the history of Slovenia in the second Yugoslavia is the collection of articles Slovenia in
Yugoslavia, presenting the Slovene position in communist Yugoslavia from the
political, economic, cultural, demographic, everyday life and public opinion aspects. As the editor of the book Zdenko Čepič claims in the introduction, Slovene
history since WWII cannot be discussed and understood without Yugoslavia.38
Despite the efforts of historians for critical, ideologically and politically
balanced historical interpretations of the “recent past” and the Yugoslav and
Slovene communist regime, they have failed to have any visible influence on the
still very emotional and politicized public and political discussions on “what
actually happened in Yugoslavia and Slovenia in the 20th century”. In the mid1990s, there were some successful efforts to include post-communist historical
interpretations in the school curricula. The modernized curricula strove for a
politically impartial history of the past century, which, during the communist
era, had been politicized to the very extreme. They focused more on social and
cultural-historical topics and, in a balanced way, included also a presentation
33 Štih, Peter, Simoniti, Vasko, Vodopivec Peter. Slowenische Geschichte, Gesellschaft – Politik – Kultur.
Graz: Leykam, 2008; Štih, Peter, Simoniti, Vasko, Vodopivec, Peter. A Slovene History, Society –
Politics – Culture, www. sistory.si
34 Luthar, Oto (ed.). The Land Between: A History of Slovenia. Frankfurt: Peter Lang 2008, 2013, 2017.
35 Rogel, Carole, Plut Pregelj, Leopoldina. Historical Dictionary of Slovenia. Lanham: Scarecrow Press,
1996, 2007; Plut Pregelj, Leopoldina, Kranjc, Gregor, Lazarević, Žarko, Rogel, Carole. Historical
Dictionary of Slovenia. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2018.
36 Drnovšek, Marijan (ed.). Slovenska kronika XX. stoletja, 1. in 2. del (Chronicle of the Slovene History
of the 20th Century), Volume I and II). Ljubljana: Nova revija, 1995, 1996.
37 Štih, Peter, Simoniti, Vasko, Vodopivec, Peter. Slovenska zgodovina: od prazgodovinskih kultur do
začetka 21. stoletja (Slovene History, From the Prehistoric Cultures until the Beginning of the 21st
Century). Ljubljana: Modrijan, 2016.
38 Čepič, Zdenko (ed.). Slovenia v Jugoslaviji (Slovenia in Yugoslavia. Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo
zgodovino, 2015, p. 7.
Vodopivec: Slovene Historiography on the 20th Century
of the history of the South Slav nations. The textbooks were a bigger problem,
since, in their desire for political and ideological impartiality, their authors had
resorted to historicism, piling up often contradictory facts. This was contrary to
the ambitions of the initiators of the modernized curricula, who believed that
the goal of school history is to present to students the past reality not just from
political or superficial social perspectives, but also from the bottom-up perspective and the perspective of everyday life.
In 2008, however, the history curricula were changed again; this time under the influence of the then ruling government coalition headed by the right
wing Slovene Democratic Party (SDS). The scope of the history of the South Slav
nations, as well as the history of the two Yugoslavias and Eastern Europe was
reduced, and the history of communism was only mentioned briefly within the
framework of the subject “totalitarianism in the 20th century”, which was supposed to include a (rather short) description of all the three major “isms” of the
20th century: Fascism, Nazism and Communism. In the school curricula adopted in 2008, the prevailing aspect of 20th century history was thus more Slovenecentric and Western European than ever before.39
The public polemics concerning WWII and Slovene and Yugoslav communism, which have divided Slovene political parties since the early 1990s and have
uncompromisingly continued on into the 21st century, have in general had little
influence on public opinion. According to a public opinion poll carried out during Slovenia’s process of accession to the European Union (2003), by the Faculty
of Social Sciences in Ljubljana, more than 45% of those polled believed that the
resistance during WWII was massively supported by the population, as many as
35% agreed with the statement that collaboration with the occupiers was an act
of national treason and only 15% agreed that collaborationist units justifiably
opposed the communist resistance, although, in their opinion, they should not
have collaborated with the occupying forces. More than 43% of the respondents
agreed that Slovenia’s accession to the Kingdom of SHS in 1918 was actually a
decision of the great powers and 38.5% believed that it would have been better to establish an independent Slovene state already then; while at the same
time, more than 43% had good memories of socialist Yugoslavia, more than 53%
agreed on the “predominantly positive contacts” with the populations of other
Yugoslav nations and republics and more than 73% agreed that they had lived
(relatively) well in Yugoslavia before it broke apart.40
39 Vodopivec, Peter. History Education and History Textbooks in Slovenia since 1991. In: Shiba,
Nobuhiro, Gabrič, Aleš, Suzuki, Kenta, Lazarević, Žarko. School History and Textbooks: a Comparative
Analysis of History Textbooks in Japan and Slovenia. Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, 2013,
pp. 9–28.
40 Toš, Niko (ed.). Vrednote v prehodu III, Slovensko javno mnenje 1999–2004 (Values in Transition,
Slovene Public Opinion 1999–2004). Ljubljana: Fakulteta za družbene vede 2004, pp. 468–477.
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This did not, however, convince those who called and still call for a radical
“revision” of history, insisting on the exclusive guilt of the communists regarding
the Slovene internal conflict during WWII and demanding decisive public condemnation of the post-war Slovene and Yugoslav political regime on the whole.
Nevertheless, according to the results of the most up-to-date public opinion
polls, the attitude of the respondents concerning recent history has not changed
markedly in the last decade and a half, either. The percentage of respondents
who, in the current social and economic conditions, believe that communist
Yugoslavia, despite its numerous deficiencies, was in fact a fairly nice country,
has even increased. Some research has also revealed the phenomenon of the uncritical idealization of life in the former federation by the young. Although they
could not remember Yugoslavia and communism from their own experience,
they attribute some qualities to the “recent past” that they miss in the insecure
conditions of the present day. At the same time, a large part of the public is fed up
with the interminable disputes about the past. There has thus been a visible decline in interest in the recent past among literary writers. After a number of very
famous novels dealing with WWII and the post-war violence of the communist
authorities which were published in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of literary
works dealing with this subject has declined. Moreover, young authors seem to
be completely uninterested in themes related to the communist and Yugoslav period. According to various surveys, the prevailing public opinion is that people
should come to terms with the fact that various interpretations of the past exist
in people’s memories, and any more complex assessment of recent history should
be left to the historians and history books.
Like elsewhere in Europe and in the world, and in particular in the ex-communist countries, the history of the 20th century in Slovenia thus also continues
to divide politicians, the public and the researchers. All theses on the collective
or even predominant Slovene memory and historical discourse, at least as regards the 20th century, are fairly unconvincing. The formation of a critical but
nationally and ideologically balanced post-communist and post-Yugoslavia interpretation of recent history is a multi-layered, plural and conflicting process,
which has so far not showed any signs of reconciliation of the opposing and often strongly contradictory perspectives present in public memory or in historiographical interpretations. This is the case both in Slovenia and in other countries
of the former Yugoslavia. To some extent, reconciliation could perhaps be accelerated by a more ambitiously devised comparative study that would place the
national-historical experience within a wider Yugoslav, Central European and
European context, for which, however, Slovene historians have not yet shown
any great interest.
Mitani: A Japanese Historiography of Reconciliation Efforts With its East Asian Neighbors …
Hiroshi Mitani
A JAPANESE
HISTORIOGRAPHY
OF RECONCILIATION
EFFORTS WITH
ITS EAST ASIAN
NEIGHBORS:
Before and After the History
Textbook Dispute in 2001
T
he historical memory issue in East Asia is one of the major factors that will endanger the future of East Asia. Reconciliation
between Japan and its neighbors has not been achieved in this regard even 70
years since the end of Japanese aggression against China and Korea. Yet, there have been efforts of historical reconciliation among historians on both sides
113
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
since the 1980s. This paper will introduce a brief historiography of Japanese efforts towards historical reconciliation with its neighboring peoples for the sake
of future generations.
THE CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL SITUATION OF THE
HISTORICAL MEMORY ISSUE IN EAST ASIA
Today, the Japanese are in a difficult situation regarding their historical
memory pertaining to their neighbors. The Koreans and the Chinese continue
to denounce Japan for its aggression and colonial rule during the first half of
the 20th century. After WWII, the Japanese regretted the wars, resolved not to
engage in any wars, resumed diplomatic relations with South Korea with de facto
compensation in 1965, concluded peace treaties with China in 1978 and began
a historical dialogue about its evil past with their neighbors. Yet, the neighbors’
anger was not appeased until now. More precisely, the anger has gone away as
new generations have emerged and the older people have passed away. Yet historical memory still dominates the scene; whether it be the national sense of
humiliation in Korea, or the politically cultivated memory of the government
in China.
Intellectuals in Japan and its neighboring states have made great efforts from
the early 21st century onwards to address this grave issue. They have attempted
to engage in historical dialogues for reconciliation by focusing on Japan’s history
textbooks in order to have the Japanese teach the memory of their invasions to
their younger generations. They almost succeeded in this goal as far as Japanese
textbooks are concerned. Yet, public suspicion among these neighbors has still
not been dispelled. In addition, the Japanese public lost its interest in the historical memory issue after the rise of territorial disputes with China and South
Korea in 2012. Immediate hatred against these neighbors prevents Japanese ordinary people from thinking about its dark past during the first half of the twentieth century. Today, Japanese historical reconciliation efforts with its neighbors
seem almost stalled.
The year 2015 was one of the most dangerous years in contemporary East
Asia. Japan might have fallen into a pitfall of world criticism if the Japanese
prime minister, notorious for his conservative beliefs, had openly denied the fact
of Japan’s problematic past. Owing to the tremendous efforts of government officials and associated intellectuals, this nightmare was somehow avoided. Also,
the South Korean and Japanese governments agreed to settle the comfort women
issue by establishing a Korean organization to rehabilitate and compensate them
at the end of the year. Although it is uncertain if this agreement will be kept or
Mitani: A Japanese Historiography of Reconciliation Efforts With its East Asian Neighbors …
not after the South Korean president’s downfall, there may be some hope for a
better future based on the fact that negotiators on both sides could somehow
reach the agreement.
On the other hand, there emerged another trend that will support the improvement of international relations. In recent years, many Chinese and South
Koreans have been visiting Japan for sightseeing purposes, enjoying its landscape and foods, buying various elegant goods and finding the Japanese people
friendly. Through direct observation, not a few neighbors have changed their
views of Japan. This new state of affairs might offer clues for the improvement
of mutual relations and, subsequently also a reconciliation regarding historical
memory.
In order to realize this possibility, the Japanese side must not give up its efforts. It is absolutely necessary for Japan to remember the evils in its past during
the first half of the twentieth century. Only if Japan maintains its efforts will it
be able to enjoy a better future with its neighbors.
In this context, I would like to introduce Japan’ efforts for historical reconciliation with its neighbors before and after 2001. It was in 2001 when the big
international disputes about a Japanese history textbook brought the historical
memory issue to the attention of the East Asian public. I myself was one of the
scholars who began to be engaged in this issue in 2001. Yet, the efforts for historical reconciliation in Japan had already begun about twenty years earlier and
therefore it is worthwhile to recollect these pioneering works if we are to keep
up our will and courage to continue the efforts for reconciliation in the distant
future.
JAPANESE EFFORTS FOR HISTORICAL RECONCILIATION WITH
ITS NEIGHBORS BY THE ’STUDY GROUP FOR COMPARATIVE
HISTORY AND COMPARATIVE HISTORY EDUCATION’
In December 1982, eighteen high school history teachers and university
historians jointly organized a small study group for comparative history and
comparative history education. This was the beginning of their epoch-making
project although they themselves did not know what was to come.1 (This group
will henceforth be referred to as the ‘Comparative History Group’ in this text.)
1
比較史・比較歴史教育研究会編『「自国史と世界史」
をめぐる国際対話――比較史・比較歴史教
育研究会30年の軌跡』
ブイツーソリューション (Study Group for Comparative History and History
Education (ed.). International Dialogue on ‘National History and World History’: Recollections of Thirty
Years of a Study Group for Comparative History and History Education. Nagoya: V2-solution), 2015.
115
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
In retrospect, this was one of the creative developments of the famous
Saburo Ienaga’s lawsuits concerning a history textbook that had begun in 1965
and was still ongoing at the time.2 Surprisingly, their memoirs do not mention
the Ienaga lawsuits. Yet, we can observe that both Ienaga and the ‘Comparative
History Group’ were deeply interested in the improvement of Japanese history
education at the high school level. Both wished to check the nationalist tendency
in Japanese history education to avoid future wars. Furthermore, both efforts
brought university professors and high school teachers together in which the
latter took a leading role.
Yet, the ‘Comparative History Group’ advanced history education in a
different way from the Ienaga group. Their major concern was not limited to
Japanese history. Inspired by Senroku Uehara, a former professor of history at
Hitotsubashi University, they focused on how to place Japanese history within
the whole course of world history. This led them to open a historical dialogue
beyond borders with Japan’s neighboring peoples: the Chinese, South Koreans,
North Koreans, Vietnamese and Taiwanese – something which was unprecedented in East Asia until then.
Yet, it was an initiative from the United States that originated this study
group.3 In 1978, the American Historical Association proposed that the Japanese
committee of the ICHS (International Congress of Historical Sciences) organize a periodical joint project for historical studies between the US and Japan. In
1980, during the 15th ICHS in Bucharest, both sides agreed to open their first conference in Japan. The theme was ’studies of European History in Japan and the
United States.’ Professor Masao Nishikawa, a specialist of the Second Socialist
International at the University of Tokyo, proposed that they include history education as the third session of the proposed conference. His intent was to ‘create
a world committee of history education in order to encourage creating history
textbooks that will contribute towards the nurturing of mutual understanding
and friendship between nations through international cooperation’ as the project between West Germany and Poland had suggested. He also stressed the role
of history researchers and educators in the private sector in order to ‘overcome
2
Saburo Ienaga was a famous historian of Japanese intellectual history. He raised a lawsuit to resist the
Ministry of Education that had ordered to revise his drafts of history textbooks for high schools. For
brief accounts and related materials, see 三谷博編『歴史教科書問題』
日本図書センター(Mitani,
Hiroshi (ed.). Essays on History Textbook Issue. Tokyo: Nihon Tosho Center), 2007. For Japanese
institution of history textbook, see, Yang, Daqing, Liu, Jie, Mitani, Hiroshi, Gordon, Andrew (eds.).
Toward a History beyond Borders: Contentious Issues in Sino-Japanese Relations. Cambridge: Harvard
University Asia Center, 2012.
3 伊集院立「比較史・比較歴史教育研究会『自国史と世界史』成立の頃」
(Ijuin, Ritsu. “Recollections
on the Publication of ‘National History and World History). In: 比較史・比較歴史教育研究会編
『「自国史と世界史」
をめぐる国際対話』 (Study Group for Comparative History and History
Education (ed.). International Dialogue on ‘National History and World History’), pp. 91–104.
Mitani: A Japanese Historiography of Reconciliation Efforts With its East Asian Neighbors …
the misuse of historical memories by governments which enhances the peoples’
hatred originating from invasions and wars (in this century).’4 Together with his
friends he organized the ‘Comparative History Group’ to prepare for the third
section of the coming conference. Goro Yoshida at Hiro-o High School was
nominated as the group’s secretary-general.
During the Japan-US conference held in March 1983, the Japanese participants realized the necessity of overcoming not only Euro-centrism but also their
own ethnocentrism. They continued to hold a series of workshops for comparative studies of history education and history textbooks and became fascinated by
the theme of how to conceptualize and educate national histories in the context
of world history. They also began searching for a way to have direct communication with history educators in neighboring countries. This was one of the echoes
of the first international controversy on Japanese history textbooks that had occurred in the preceding year.
The ‘Comparative History Group’ was encouraged to inaugurate international dialogue with neighboring countries when they invited a Vietnamese historian who happened to visit Japan. Then, they sought after a Chinese historian
who would be interested in their project and succeeded in inviting the vice president of the Chinese Society of History Education. Later, they also managed to
add South Korean educators to their group. After enthusiastic preparations, they
succeeded in holding the first ’symposium on History Education in East Asia:
National Histories and World History,’ at the University of Tokyo, Komaba, in
August 1984. They paid all the fees for the three Chinese and two South Korean
participants out of their own pockets with the help of some contributions from
their friends.
Later, they held three more workshops every five years until 1999. For the
second workshop in 1989, they invited three participants from China, two from
South Korea and one from North Korea. For the third workshop in 1994, they
invited three participants from China, two from South Korea, one from Taiwan
and one from Vietnam. In the last workshop in 1999, they invited two participants from China, three from South Korea, one from Taiwan and one from
Vietnam.
These symposia were one of the first series of multi-lateral dialogues on history education in East Asia. At first, they were not well focused, nor did they succeed in realizing fruitful communication among the participants from different
countries. The first symposium dealt with ‘National histories and world history’ and simply juxtaposed various essays on history education about Asia and
4
Ibid, p. 92.
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
Europe.5 The second symposium in 1989 set three themes in addition to the first
one: ‘The goals of history education and textbooks’; ‘The formation of the image
of world history in relation to history education’; and ‘East Asia in modern history – focusing on WWII.’6 The third symposium in 1994 focused on two topics:
‘American history from the viewpoints of East Asia,’ and the ‘First Sino-Japanese
War as the turning point of East Asian history’,7 and the last symposium in 1999
focused on only one theme: ‘Imperialism.’8
As the themes were being clarified, communication among the participants
became deeper, enabling them to reflect upon their own views and find new
horizons of thought. One of the organizers, Misako NIMURA, recollected: ‘In
the first symposium, we were so excited by the mere fact that we could welcome
the participants from China and South Korea. In the second symposium, we
congratulated each other that we had succeeded in inviting a scholar from North
Korea by overcoming the difficulty in obtaining a Japanese visa for him and
having participants from China just after the Tienanmen Incident. We were so
excited by the fact that we had succeeded in non-governmental exchanges beyond borders on the theme of history education. It was not until the third symposium in 1994 that we started enjoying full-fledged presentations and fruitful
discussions.’9
I happened to be one of the audience members at the third symposium held
on my own campus. My impression was not so exciting because the Chinese participants appeared to me to be merely repeating the official historical interpretations of their government. Yet, it was at this symposium that the Japanese and
Korean participants entered a deeper dialogue with each other, and participants
from Taiwan and Vietnam dared to present the complex situation they had experienced during the foreign aggression and colonialism. The Taiwanese pointed out that they had experienced modernization and progress under Japanese
5
6
7
8
9
比較史・比較歴史教育研究会編『共同討議 日本・中国・韓国――自国史と世界史』ホルプ出版
(Study Group for Comparative History and History Education (ed.). International Debate among
Japan, China, Korea: National Histories and World History. Tokyo: Holp Shuppan), 1985. For full
papers, see 比較史・比較歴史教育研究会編『自国史と世界史――歴史教育の国際化を求めて』
未来社 (Study Group for Comparative History and History Education (ed.). National Histories and
World History: In Search for the Internationalization of History Education. Tokyo: Mirai-sha), 1985.
比較史・比較歴史教育研究会編『アジアの「近代」
と歴史教育――続・自国史と世界史』(Study
Group for Comparative History and History Education (ed). 'Modernity' in Asia and History
Education: National Histories and World History, continued. Tokyo: Mirai-sha), 1991.
比較史・比較歴史教育研究会編『黒船と日清戦争 歴史認識をめぐる対話』(Study Group for
Comparative History and History Education (ed.). Perry’s Black Ships and the First Sino-Japanese
War: Dialogue on History Cognition. Tokyo: Mirai-sha), 1996.
比較史・比較歴史教育研究会編『帝国主義の時代と現在――東アジアの対話』(Study Group for
Comparative History and History Education (ed.). The Age of Imperialism and the Present: Dialogue
in East Asia. Tokyo: Mirai-sha), 2002.
Ibid, p. 340.
Mitani: A Japanese Historiography of Reconciliation Efforts With its East Asian Neighbors …
colonial rule, which evoked discussion with the South Korean scholars who held
the opposite view. The Vietnamese presentation reminded us of the fact that they
had suffered from colonialism not only at the hand of Westerners, but also from
their East Asian neighbors, China and Japan.
As the discussion became deeper, some guidelines emerged for further dialogue amongst the Japanese participants. Professor Masao Nishikawa summed
them up as follows.10 (1) We, the participants, should not devote our attention
only to the individual word and expression in history textbooks. Rather: (2) It
is important to present different historical interpretations by various nations on
the same platform for discussion and thus deepen the understanding of history
on the other side. (3) We should not pursue the goal of single Common History
Textbooks of East Asia. (4) Non-Governmental historical dialogue is crucial. No
government should interfere with history education. (5) These principles are represented by the slogan: ‘National histories in the context of world history.’
These principles are almost similar to my own opinion which was independently formed a few years later in the early 21st century. I regret that I never
had the opportunity to learn from the experience of Professor Masao Nishikawa
during his lifetime.
The ’study Group for Comparative History and Comparative History
Education’ dissolved in 2014 as its members aged or passed away. Yet, their efforts have been passed on to posterity in various ways. Some members contributed to editing the famous common teaching materials among Japan, China and
South Korea in 2005 and in 2012. These were not common textbooks, yet, it was
epoch making that historians and educators from three countries could publish
an East Asian modern history, overcoming the difficulty in holding discussions
in three different languages as well as bridging the varied disciplines. In this
context, we have to pay sincere homage to the pioneering works accomplished by
the ‘Comparative History Group’ from the early 1980s.
HISTORICAL DIALOGUE AND COOPERATIVE RESEARCH SINCE
2001: FROM MY EXPERIENCES
I must confess, I was little concerned with the memory of Japanese aggressions towards its neighboring peoples before I met Professor Chung Jae-Jung
from Seoul in the early 1990s. Although I had studied modern Japanese history,
10 西川政雄著、伊集院立・小沢弘明・日暮美奈子編『歴史の醍醐味』
日本経済評論社 (Nishikawa,
Masao (auth), Ijuin, R., Ozawa, H., Higurashi, M. (eds.). Pleasure of Doing History. Tokyo: Nihon
Keizai Hyoronsha), 2010, p. 300.
119
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
my research had been concentrated on the late Tokugawa period during which
there was a minimum of relationships between Korea and Japan. However, when
I talked to Professor Chung after a meeting on history textbooks in Tokyo, he
pointed out that “A part of our history was the history of a foreign country.”
Hearing his words, I realized how miserable I would be if a part of Japanese history were the history of a foreign country. From that day, I began to consider the
meaning of Japanese colonial rule of Korea and the legacy of Japanese aggression
in general.
In 1996, I was nominated as one of the scholars entrusted with carrying out
a large academic project: The Forum for Japan-Korea Cooperative Studies.11 The
Forum involved seven research groups, including two groups of historians. I
belonged to a group led by Professor Hiroshi Watanabe (University of Tokyo)
and Park Chung-sok (Eha Women’s University). I engaged in this international
research for two terms (six years in total) and found that there were many historians of insight and originality in South Korea. It was a very exciting experience
for me to have colleagues in Korea with whom I could exchange knowledge and
enjoy discussions on various topics. I consider the project to be epoch making
because about 100 scholars per term became acquainted with each other, found
respectable colleagues and built a basis for future cooperation. This was a novel
event in East Asian history. It was also a precious opportunity to meet Japanese
historians who specialized in Korean history. The average Japanese historians
who study Japan have little concern for Korean history and know little of their
colleagues studying Korean history. I found it very interesting and important
to learn Korean history through intimate academic discussions and began to
nurture friendships with not only Korean scholars but also Japanese scholars.
Then, in 2001, I was invited to a cooperative study group between Japan and
China consisting of younger historians from both countries. The leader was
Professor Liu Jie at Waseda University who had originally come from Beijing. He
maintained that it was very important to investigate the history of Sino-Japanese
relations on an empirical basis, so that younger generations in both countries
could overcome the vicious cycle of exaggerated bad memories. He even asserted that we should abandon the word ‘Japan-China friendship’ in order to
place the Japanese on the same level as the Chinese. This slogan had implied
that the Japanese always had to make concessions to Chinese demands whenever any troubles in Sino-Japanese relations had emerged. His intention was to
establish true friendship between the Chinese and Japanese younger generations
who were born after the collapse of the Japanese empire. He observed that the
11 The accomplishments were published both in Japan and South Korea in 21 volumes. The publisher in
Japan was Keio University Press.
Mitani: A Japanese Historiography of Reconciliation Efforts With its East Asian Neighbors …
Chinese younger generations’ image of the past tended to become exaggerated
and emotional because they’d had no real experience of Japanese aggression,
while the Japanese side remembered little of Japan’s evil past. He wanted to guide
both peoples to become more objective in order to overcome the vicious cycle
that continued to haunt Sino-Japanese relationships.
We had many research meetings and eventually published books both in
Japanese and Chinese in 2006.12 The English version appeared in 2012, published by the Harvard Asia Center thanks to the eager support of Professors
Daqing YANG, George Washington University, and Andrew Gordon, Harvard
University. As the English title “Toward a History beyond Borders: Contentious
Issues in Sino-Japanese Relations” suggests, we looked at various issues in modern history that the two nations tend to dispute with each other and tried to explain them using concrete materials. The chapters not only offer shared ground
for future research and discussions but also demonstrate the differences among
authors, even among those of the same nationality.
Just after I joined this Sino-Japanese project, I was invited to another nongovernmental international research group: “The Forum for the History of East
Asia through Critical Perspective for the Sake of Future Solidarity.” This group
consisted of Korean and Japanese scholars who were strongly critical of the national histories in their own countries. To my eyes, this group was led by Korean
Japanese who had suffered from two national histories in which they could
find no place as citizens. The elder leaders were professor Lee Sungsi at Waseda
University, Miyajima Hiroshi at Sungkyungwan University and Lim Jie-Hyun at
Hanyang University (now at Sogang University). This group classified the participants not by nationality, but by their place of departure: people from Korea
(including Japanese scholars) and people from Japan (including Korean visiting
scholars and graduate students). Because the members shared an attitude that
transcended borders, the group accomplished much although they held diverse
understandings of history. The publication of the book “Reconsidering Korean
and Japanese History from the Viewpoint of ‘Colonial Modernity’” in 2004
marked a watershed in historiography for Japanese historians.13 Although I was
12 劉傑・三谷博・楊大慶編『国境を越える歴史認識――日中対話の試み』東京大学出版会 (Liu, Jie,
Mitani, Hiroshi, Yang, Daqing (eds.). Contending Issues in Sino-Japanese Relations: Toward a History
Beyond Borders. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press), 2006. It is noteworthy that a Chinese version
was published simultaneously by Social Sciences Academic Press, Beijing. This was the first book
that enabled Chinese people to read historical interpretations by Japanese and overseas Chinese
academics that were different from the Chinese official understanding. For English version, see
footnote 2.
13 宮 島 博 史・李 成 市・尹 海 東・林 志 弦 編『 植 民 地 近 代 の 視 座 ― ― 朝 鮮と日本 』岩 波 書 店
(Miyajima, Hiroshi, Lee, Sung-si, Yun, Hae-Dong, Lim, Jie-Hyun (eds.). Reconsidering Korean and
Japanese History from the Viewpoint of Colonial Modernity. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), 2004.
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only a minor participant in this group, I learnt much from my colleagues there
and became convinced that historical dialogue beyond borders was possible and
fruitful only when the participants took a viewpoint that was critical of their
own country.
When I faced the textbook controversy in 2001, what I worried about most
was the fact that ordinary Japanese people were indifferent to and ignorant of the
modern history of East Asia. They knew little about Japanese aggression in the
region during the first half of the 20th century. Also, they even knew very little
about the laudable efforts and achievements of their ancestors such as the introduction of the constitutional monarchy, the discoveries in the medical sciences
on the global level, etc.
After the controversy in 2001, there emerged various international movements to publish common history textbooks and teaching materials that would
remind the Japanese of the facts of their ancestors’ aggression and oppression
toward neighboring peoples. Still, I thought them insufficient for adults and that
it was more important to supply them with detailed, readable histories.
Considering this necessity and prompted by the international crisis in the
spring of 2005, I organized a team to edit a modern East Asian regional history
that mainly targeted Japanese adults. I succeeded in publishing the first volume
in 2009, which dealt with the period from the 16th century to the end of the
19th century. In cooperation with my colleagues at the University of Tokyo, the
late Professor Yorihisa Namiki and Tatsuhiko Tsukiashi, I gathered the works
of Japanese historians specializing in Japanese, Korean and Chinese history and
edited their drafts when I stayed at Harvard in 2007 and 2008.14
Our volume has 27 chapters that consisted of four types; the first is the history of international relations in East Asia, the second is brief sketches of neighboring societies, the third describes the activities of surrounding countries like
Russia, Britain and the United States, and the fourth is an interpretive overview
of the East Asian region. During the preparatory workshops, we not only discovered the latest understanding of the historians who specialized in the other
fields, but also realized the differences among us; the Chinese specialists, for
example, sometimes expressed a Sino-centric view that I, as a specialist of 19th
century Japan, could not agree with.
It may be noteworthy that we added a few comments to each chapter. This was
to show the readers the possibility of different interpretations of history. Because
the differences in some historical events continue to provoke international
14 三谷博・並木頼寿・月脚達彦『大人のための近現代史――19世紀編』(Mitani, Hiroshi, Namiki,
Yorihisa, Tsukiashi,Tatsuhiko (eds.). A Modern History for East Asian People: 19th century. Tokyo:
University of Tokyo Press), 2009.
Mitani: A Japanese Historiography of Reconciliation Efforts With its East Asian Neighbors …
conflicts in East Asia, we thought we had better not give a single, solid, monolithic interpretation but rather guide the readers to think about the possibilities
of different understandings. Thus, we invited historians not only from Japan,
but also from foreign countries as commentators. We hoped that this way of
understanding would nurture a more tolerant attitude towards history among
the readers.
We also wished to publish this book in different languages. The purpose was
not to extend a Japan-centric interpretation of East Asian history. On the contrary, we eagerly wished for neighboring peoples to publish other regional histories
of East Asia. Our wish was partially fulfilled when the Korean translation was
published in 2011. I hear that a new concern for East Asian history arose during
the same years in South Korea, although it is not certain if this book contributed
to the movement or not. Whatever the case may be, the various interpretations
of regional histories may not ever fully converge. However, by carefully reading
contrasting regional histories, we can begin to see why neighboring people understand history in different ways. This meta-level insight must offer us a deeper
understanding of others and will widen the area of shared memory.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO FOR THE FUTURE?
As I have noted, historical dialogue between Japan and its neighbors has almost stalled today. Historical dialogues have reached a deadlock not only on the
governmental, but also on the non-governmental level. The parties involved continue to maintain their national views of modern history, focused on Japanese
aggression against its neighbors during the first half of the twentieth century. To
be precise, professional historians have already begun understanding the other
party’s view. However, their discoveries and experiences have not yet been fully
accepted by their governments and the public. So far, people for the most part
perceive only the differences and confrontations in modern East Asian history.15
What then can we professionals do for future reconciliation? One thing is to
hand the recent experiences of our generation down to the younger generations
with a widened scope of historical topics covering the times when the Japanese
had better relations with their neighbors. In 2013 I organized an international
seminar for young historians in East Asia. I asked friends in Japan, South Korea
15 For the political situation today, see the following paper. 三谷博「歴史認識問題――東アジアの
平和と秩序の阻害要因にどう対処するか」(Mitani, Hiroshi. History Cognition Issue: How Shall
We Address the Issue That Continues to Derogate the Peace and Order in East Asia?). In: 金香
男編『アジア共同体への信頼醸成に何が必要か』
ミネルヴァ書房 (Kim, Hyang Nam (ed.). What
is Necessary for the Confidence Building Measures in East Asia?. Tokyo: Minerva Shobo), 2016, pp.
21–44.
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and China to gather young historians to engage in close discussion beyond their
nationalities and specialties. We invited six historians from each country in
which half of them specialized in pre-modern history. Also, we somehow got
subsidies to use simultaneous translators among three languages to enable the
participants who specialized in their national histories to have discussions with
each other without linguistic difficulties. From the second seminar onwards,
we set three themes each year such as ‘Environmental history,’ ‘Confucianism
and society,’ ‘Acceptance of Western knowledge,’ ‘Memories of the first SinoJapanese war,’ ‘Family and women,’ etc. We will publish its major contributions
in a book titled “Cooperative Historical Studies of East Asia” in 2018. It contains
diversified, ambitious papers from environmental history of ancient China to
gender history of colonized Korea.
After having seminars at Waseda University in Tokyo, Fudan University in
Shanghai, and Seoul National University, this series of seminars stopped. Yet,
another organization, the Atsumi Foundation, has started a similar project entitled ’dialogue among National Histories’ in 2016. We expect this project will
continue for the next five years at least.
On the other hand, I am planning to create a database of basic historical
materials of modern East Asia. Although East Asian historians have been eager
to present their interpretations to create a common history, they have neglected
to share the historical materials these interpretations are based on. If we are to
understand the other side’s view, it is necessary to share historical materials so
that we can read different peoples’ voices directly. Fortunately, some Japanese
high school teachers are eager enough to create such a database for their own
teaching purposes. Also, there are younger historians who are willing to translate materials in East Asia. By combining these people, we will be able to create
an on-line database accessible not only to the Japanese, but also to foreigners. I
will be very happy if this project will bring about another form of cooperation
beyond borders in East Asia.
At the end of the first term of these symposia between Slovenia and Japan,
Slovenian scholars advised me to draft a history curriculum for the next generation in Q and A form. Fortunately, the Ministry of Education and Science adopted the proposal of a ‘basic history’ put forward by the Science Council of Japan
as an ‘integrated history’ that will place Japanese history within the context of
world history in the next curriculum for high school history. The Ministry issued
the School Course Guidelines pertaining to history in 2017. Unfortunately, the
Guidelines do not require a detailed education of Japan’s modern international
relations with its neighboring countries. We have to publish good textbooks that
will diminish these defects and try to make our classes better to address this
important issue.
Mitani: A Japanese Historiography of Reconciliation Efforts With its East Asian Neighbors …
Finally, I would like to stress the importance of sharing the historical materials of East Asia. It is not only necessary for high school education but also
for historical research and education in general. While we begin creating such
a database in Japan, we can ask our neighbors to help us and stimulate them to
create similar databases. It is my fervent wish that we will succeed in initiating
another cycle of international cooperation on a deeper level of historical studies
in East Asia in the near future.
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Lazarević: After the Civil War
Žarko Lazarević
AFTER THE
CIVIL WAR:
Social Divisions and History
T
he following discussion will focus on the perception and interpretation of WWII in Slovenia. Even though the war ended
seventy years ago, it still makes for a very topical issue with numerous connotations in the public discourse. Due to the civil war that took place in that period
of time, the memories of WWII are still very divergent, with no indications that
the differing views might reach a consensus any time soon. My presentation builds on the social process of facing the recent traumatic past in the period after
1990, following the transformation from the communist into a liberal democratic system and the attainment of independence. WWII or the civil war and the
communist period are pressing and complex social issues. The Slovenian example of the division with regard to WWII/the civil war and communism is a local
illustration of the historical identity redefinition that took place in the former
communist countries. In these states, a historical identity vacuum occurred after
the fall of the communist regimes. In order to ensure a more suitable understanding of the Slovenian situation, the discussion opens up three additional
dimensions. First it presents the various regimes of historicization, then the use
of history, and finally, in the conclusion, it presents a comparison with the situation in Spain.
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In historiography, the 20th century is deemed an extremely important period
and it was characterized by profound geopolitical, economic and social changes.
Countries as well as political, economic and social concepts were reshaped in
the processes of transformation; and new forms of economic and social development gained prominence. In the case of the 20th century, we can distinguish
between two groups of events; two dividing lines that had a thorough impact on
historical development. Both global conflicts (WWI and WWII) as well as the
post-war reality represent the first group. The second group is characterized by
the end of the Cold War (transition) with the fall of the communist regimes in
Europe. Each of these events had substantial consequences for the formation of
new historical identities at the level of societies and interest groups, as well as
individuals. As it happened, changes in the field of geopolitics, statehood, as well
as political and economic regimes, were extensive and far-reaching. The establishment of a new identity framework, allowing societies, individual groups or
individuals to legitimize their positions in the new reality, was a long-term process and an integral part of the historical development at this time. The identity
redefinition established itself in dynamic circumstances that had to be adapted
to. In this process, history was extremely important. Identities are defined by
two processes: memory and the historicization of life experiences. The historical
backgrounds of the formation of new political, cultural, social, and economic
identities become exceedingly relevant in the social sense. After each of the turning points that we have underlined, societies had to face the reinterpretation of
history due to the changed systems of social values, priorities and perceptions.
In a way, we can state that a “battle for history” began – a “struggle” for the interpretation of history in accordance with the social positions of states, groups,
or individuals, with the aim of legitimizing their existing positions.
In the outlined context, the 20th century has also left behind, apart from other things, a painful and complicated heritage of mass trauma, large-scale crime,
radical social engineering, and individual/collective guilt. More than anything
else, the past resembles a devastated landscape littered with corpses, lost illusions, fallen myths, broken promises, and unappeased memories. Almost two
decades after the end of the 20th century, the historical experience of the previous
era still largely defines our conception of the 21st century – the current world –
on the personal, local, national and global level. The burden of authoritarian and
totalitarian regimes always results in extensive national as well as international
discussions about their character and history.1
1
Tismaneanu, Vladimir, Iacob, Bogdan. Rememberence, History, and Justice: Coming to Terms with
Traumatic Pasts in Democratic Societies. Budapest-New York: CEU Press, 2015, p. 1.
Lazarević: After the Civil War
All of this is also reflected in the memorial and historical discourse of societies in the processes of democratization. Studies show that the changes in the
historical discourse are slow and that they are not characterized by abrupt turning points. A variety of memorial discourses exist simultaneously in a particular
period of time, intertwined in various ways or even in conflict with each other. It
is also important to underline that different variations may exist within a single
discourse. Thus a single discourse may even provide different perceptions of the
past.2 The construction of narratives about the past and the competition between
them are political processes, based on the wider pertaining linguistic and cultural environments.3
The debates about the importance of the “negative” past, for example WWII,
civil war, or repression under communism, are much more closely related to
political interests rather than the existence of the “traumatic events” themselves.
Small groups that have experienced traumatic events can directly influence the
historical discourse only if their narrative corresponds to or is compatible with
the social and political goals of the important social groups (for example political parties, associations, the Church, etc.). Past events may enter the collective memory only if they are placed in the context of contemporary interests.
Individual interpretations of the past having a dimension of public significance
may be such only if they are institutionalized at the level of social, political, and
other institutions that promote such perceptions of the past.4
By referring to the Cold War and its conclusion with the collapse of the
Eastern European communist countries, we also open the question of the memory and history of this period, especially at the national but also at the international level. Difficulties with the integration of the authoritarian as well as the
totalitarian character of this part of the past or the traumatic memories from
this period into historical memory are evident. On the one hand, researchers
have registered a lack of memory or excess of oblivion, which is supposedly characteristic of the European West. On the other hand, Eastern Europe is often seen
as overburdened with memories and the weight of history. The events in this part
of Europe, characterizing the “famous past” or the status of the “victims of history”, simply refuse to drown in the comfort of forgetfulness.5
2
3
4
5
Lebow, Richard Ned. The Memory of Politics in Postwar Europe. In: Lebow Richard, Ned, Kansteiner,
Wulf, Fogu, Claudio (eds.). The politics of Memory in postwar Europe. Durham and London: Duke
University Press, 2006, p. 15.
Ibid., p. 27.
Fogu, Claudio, Kansteiner, Wulf. Politics of Memory and the Poetics of History. In: Lebow, Richard
Ned, Kansteiner, Wulf, Fogu, Claudio (eds.). The politics of Memory in postwar Europe. Durham and
London: Duke Univertsity Press, 2006, pp. 290–291.
Ricoeur, Paul. Memory, Forgetting, History. In: Rüsen, Jörn (ed.). Meaning and Representation in
History. New York – Oxford: Bergham Books, 2007, p. 9.
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In the process of the historicization of traumatic experiences in the 20th century, Henry Rousso distinguishes between four steps. He defines the first step as
“the stage of reparation”, when societies attempt to mitigate the consequences
of traumatic past events with reparations (financial compensation, restitution
of property, judicial processes against the perpetrators of repression) or, at the
symbolic level, with the adopting of declarations by the highest state authorities.
The second step includes the “legal approach” (judiciarization), when attempts
are made to deal with the traumatic past by means of legal regulations. The third
stage of historicization according to Rousso is “victimization” – understanding
history from the viewpoint of the victims and by means of memories or interpretations formed on this basis. With the fourth and final stage, Rousso also
introduces the category of the “denationalization of history”. At this point he
is referring to the interactions between the national and international environment, or how the international environment and its conceptions influence the
attitude towards history at the national level.6 The examples he presents include
the typical cases of the European Parliament’s resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism of 20097 and the publication of the socialist group in
the European Parliament.8
Slovenia is a society where the problems with history as well as various and
even opposing interpretations and memories are frequent and persistent. The
process of the public divergence of interpretations and memories began towards
the end of the 1980s. The process of undermining the declared unified image
of history went hand in hand with the establishment of political pluralism. The
establishment of the new social and economic system and new social values also
called for the redefinition of the nation’s historical identity. With this concept we
have arrived at the question of the politics of history in Slovenia. Schematically,
we can distinguish between two types. We can discern between formal as well as
informal types of the politics of history. The formal or institutionalized politics
of history are apparent in the school curricula, textbooks, monuments, museums, and memorial speeches. The informal politics of history, which our analysis will focus on, are more peripheral and encompass the categories of monuments, media discourses, family legacies, personal experience, etc. Within both
types of history politics, the following forms of the public application of history
6
7
8
Rouso, Henry. History of memory, Politics of the Past: What for?. In: Jaraush, Konrad, Lindenberger,
Thomas (eds). Conflicted Memories, Europeanizing Contemporary Histories. New York – Oxford:
Bergham Books, 2007, pp. 31–32.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+TA+P6-TA-20090213+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN.
Swoboda, Hannes, Wiersma, Jan Marinus (eds). Politics of the Past: The Use and Abuse of History. The
Socialist Group in European Parliament, 2009.
Lazarević: After the Civil War
are in use, whereby I refer to generalized characteristics, i.e. analytical forms of
historical discourses among various publics.
1. The existential use of history is based on the need to remember or forget
in order to support historical identities in a society that is uncertain due to
rapid changes. Memory is a retrospective, selective process, which we can
use to compare or connect the reconstruction or representation of the past
with contemporary circumstances.
2. The moral use of history is based on feelings of neglect. This type of use
originates from the perception that the public does not pay adequate attention to certain historical periods. The goal is to recognize the importance
of or socially rehabilitate the so-called overlooked chapters of history and
certain untold traumatic events.
3. In case of the ideological use of history, we can state that this is an extension
of the approaches taken by the moral use of history. This sort of use usually
takes the form of a certain judicial process with historical protagonists, or of
historical commissions tasked with discovering “what has in fact happened
in history”.
4. The political use of history can be defined as the intentional, comparative,
metaphorical, or symbolic use of history in political actions. The goal is indisputable: selective historical argumentation serves to justify current political conceptions, demands, or standpoints.
5. The scientific use of history is based on professional standards and methodological approaches. The evaluation of the past takes place based on expert
foundations, taking into account the broad contexts and complexity of the
historical period under consideration. Professional historical expertise is a
prerequisite for carrying out this sort of intellectual work.9
In order to understand the divergence of interpretations and historical memory, it is crucial that we take a look at the time of WWII and define the basic
historical dimensions of these events. The “Liberation Front”, as the resistance
organization called itself, organized the resistance against the occupying forces (Germans, Italians, Hungarians) in the form of the Partisan military units.
Communists ensured their domination in the Liberation Front. From 1943
onwards, the Slovenian resistance movement, a part of the Yugoslav resistance
movement under the leadership of the communists, was counted among the
members of the Allied anti-fascist coalition. Through the resistance movement,
9
Karlsson, Klas Goran. The Uses of History and the Third Wave of Europeanisation. In: Pakier,
Malgorzata, Stråth, Bo (eds). A European memory?: Contested Histories and Politics of Rememberance.
New York – Oxford: Bergham Books, 2010, pp. 46–54.
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the Communist Party started pursuing revolutionary goals. The Liberation
Front enjoyed the support of the majority of the Slovenian population, but not
everybody joined it. In the territory occupied by the Italians, a part of the former bourgeois political parties and the leadership of the Catholic Church organized, in cooperation with the occupiers, their own military units in order
to fight against the resistance movement, arguing that this movement in fact
represented communist revolutionary violence. Thus they crossed the line between passive and active collaboration. This led to a bloody civil war in a part of
the Slovenian territory. The Partisan Movement was victorious in the conflict.
Therefore, after the end of the war, the collaborating military units and a part
of the population (approximately 6% altogether) retreated to Austria together
with the German Army. There they surrendered to the British armed forces. The
British occupation authorities in Austria returned the members of the quisling
units to Slovenia. The Slovenian communist authorities stigmatized these people
as traitors, and executed approximately 14,000 of them without any judicial processes. After the liberation in May 1945, Slovenia was transformed into a typical
communist state, a copy of the Soviet model, in just a few months.10
The transformation into a communist state also brought about a new historical narrative as well as a new historical identity. The formal and institutionalized
discourse was based on four points. The main emphasis was placed on the leading role of the working class and the Communist Party as a political avant-garde,
a driving force of history. The second point was the introduction of the Marxist/
class-oriented approach into the explanation of historical processes. With the
third point, however, WWII and the leading role of the communists in the resistance movement was established as the foundation for the legitimacy of the
communist authorities after 1945. The fourth argument of the new historical
discourse strengthened the role of the Communist Party in the transformation
into an industrial society and credited it with the merits for the social restructuring of Slovenia.
WWII and the communist resistance became a historical period of extraordinary importance. In the ideological and historical imagery, both of these
events represented the foundation for the legitimacy of the communist authorities in the historical perspective. At the symbolic level, the continuity between
the past and the existing communist authorities was established. WWII and
the resistance movement became a source of inspiration for the political and
ideological activities during peacetime. The discourse was based on the idealized heroism of the Communist Party members, who sacrificed their lives for
10 Fischer, Jasna et al. Slovenska novejša zgodovina. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, Inštitut za novejšo
zgodovino, 2005.
Lazarević: After the Civil War
freedom and the communist future. Thus the historical discourse of the communist authorities was very simple, reductive, and mostly decontextualized. The
civil war was a typical example. It was defined by the concept of the political
and military collaboration of a minor percentage of the population. The stigma
of national traitors served as a cover for their merciless punishment. The mass
execution of 14,000 members of quisling units after the war was a taboo, and it
was not allowed to be discussed in public.
The following turning point in the construction of the various historical narratives, interpretations or public articulations of memories came to the forefront
at the end of the 1980s and in the final decade of the 20th century. Discussions
about history took place during the process of diminishing the legitimacy of
the communist authorities. Slovenia, just like the other post-communist states,
could not avoid a historical identity vacuum. With democratization, a number
of repressed historical experiences, frustrations, groups or individuals were revealed and became public. The change was obvious. In the communist period
history was simple, as the single correct interpretation was specified. With the
democratization of Slovenian society, everyone had to face pluralism, up to and
even a cacophony of various interpretations of experiences from WWII or the
communist period. Numerous explanations of the past and their authors competed for public attention in the media as well as for inclusion in the various
forms of the formal politics of history.
The process of pluralization undermined the foundation of the historical legitimacy of the communist authorities. Historical discourses started diverging as
the interpretative conclusions changed. The political intervention in the field of
historiography was obvious, especially with regard to the work of the right-wing
political parties, which based their ideological profiles on anti-communism – on
the foundations of the anti-communist historical heritage. The leftist political
spectrum was more favorably inclined towards a modified outlook on WWII and
the communist period, where both elements gained the character of an essential
condition for Slovenian statehood within the existing territorial borders. Some
professional historians supported such platforms by providing suitable empirical
foundations on the left as well as the right side of the political spectrum.
We should distinguish between two stages in the process of the transformation of the historical discourses. The first stage began by asking questions about
the mass executions in 1945. A new historical narrative started taking shape. The
discussion was encouraged by the media as well as individual journalists, who
wrote about the killings with the passion of revealing the concealed aspects of
history. Their approach was sensationalist, lacking a suitable historical context,
and they mostly relied on testimonies. Later the state established a commission
in order to uncover hidden grave sites and bury the remains of the victims.
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The new democratic authorities officially acknowledged the mass executions of 1945 by organizing a memorial event at one of the relevant locations.
The commemoration, organized in cooperation with the representatives of the
Catholic Church in Slovenia, was supposed to contribute towards reconciliation
with regard to the controversial past. The purpose was clear: to ensure a break
with the communist past at the symbolic level. The event received considerable
media attention, but the results fell considerably short of the expectations. In
the second attempt, the Speaker of Parliament established a special historical
commission. The commission, consisting of renowned historians, published a
joint report towards the end of the year.11 It was written in such a way as to allow for sufficient interpretative space for the coexistence of different historical
discourses, but the efforts were in vain: the report was soon forgotten.
In the second stage, the idea of communism and its “totalitarian character” was underlined as problematic from the ideological and political points of
view. As the resistance movement was led by communists, the whole liberation
movement became questionable. For a certain part of the public, especially the
rightist political wing, WWII acquired a different character. It was impossible to
deny the existence of the resistance movement, its success, and the international
recognition by the Western Allies it had gained. Thus, the focus changed, accompanied by a linguistic shift. It may have been true that the communists had
led the resistance against the occupiers, but this was only a means to ensure the
takeover of power after 1945, merely the first stage of the revolution. Thus the
concept of the resistance was replaced by the revolution. The next step followed
in logical sequence. With a revolution on one side, there should also be a counter-revolution on the other side. And so the concept of the civil war spectacularly
burst upon the stage of the public discussion on recent history. The concept of
the civil war once again became the contextual framework for the consideration
of WWII. Naturally, the reduction pushed the sensitive position of the Slovenian
nation during WWII – when it was subject to the genocidal policies of the occupiers – into the background. The decontextualization and reduction of WWII
to merely the local level was obvious: it was as if the international context had
not existed.
The re-evaluation of wartime collaboration took place as well. Thus, for a
part of Slovenian society, collaboration became a generalized necessity, a means
of survival in the wartime circumstances, forced upon the people due to the
communist and revolutionary character of the resistance movement. It was not
a question of priorities or an optional choice, as Gregor Kranjc, for example,
11 Ključne značilnosti slovenske politike v letih 1929–1955: znanstveno poročilo. Ljubljana: Inštitut za
novejšo zgodovino, 1995.
Lazarević: After the Civil War
points out.12 According to this concept, in which communism is defined as a totalitarian ideology related to or even equated with Nazism, the anti-communist
armed resistance was not only legitimate, but also morally justified, especially
from the viewpoint of the communists’ revolutionary goals, without any moral
dilemmas about the fact that the counter-revolutionary units were approved and
armed by the Italian and German occupation forces as well as operating in close
cooperation with them. Active political and military collaboration became a
counter-revolutionary act; merely a response to the communist violence. The
concept logically concludes with a theory equating anti-communism and democracy. At this point, the past and present become organically intertwined,
allowing for a change of the historical identity in the present. It is interesting that
in this case, as Bojan Godeša puts it, a thesis already circulating during WWII is
being reapplied, for it was in this manner that the political and military leaders
at the time justified their collaboration – first with the Italian and then with the
German occupation forces – in front of the Western Allies.
Like in the other former communist countries, in 2008 the rightist government founded a special historical institution for the research of the totalitarian
past: The Study Centre for National Reconciliation. Its task is to study all the totalitarian regimes in the Slovenian 20th century: fascism, nazism, and communism.
The totalitarian character is the common aspect of all three of these regimes.
Nevertheless, the work of this Centre mostly focuses on the period of communism; more precisely on revealing the examples of the communist violence from
the beginning of WWII until the declaration of the independent Slovenian state.13
The matter also involves a distinctive understanding of the concept of multiple perspectives that these groups strive to assert in the public discourse on history. Multiple perspectives in this context do not originate from the supposition
of history as a human experience from the viewpoint of the various social roles
of individuals and groups in a society, like the history of gender, childhood, old
age, the working class, everyday life, and so on. In the case under consideration,
we are once again dealing with the reduction to the political and ideological level. Another perspective is anti-communism itself, which is intended to represent
the foundation for a modern historical identity, a modern historical memory. In
order to achieve this, the political discourse, school curriculum and textbooks
must be completely changed and the support of the media must be ensured.
Today’s historiography on WWII is defined by modern approaches and
professional standards. In the period of transition, the image of WWII and the
12 Kranjc, Gregor. To Walk with the Devil: Slovene Collaboration and Axis Occupation, 1941–1945.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.
13 http://www.scnr.si/sl/publikacije/.
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communist period was subject to critical consideration. In the modern historical
monographs and articles, the time of the war is presented as a tragic experience,
which involved several simultaneous processes, for example the occupation, the
resistance movement, the civil war, revolution and counter-revolution, and so
on. WWII is deemed a complex, traumatic and controversial period with longterm effects. As such, it cannot be presented in a one-sided manner, from a single
ideological or political viewpoint. The majority of historians endeavor to assert
history as a science; a discipline that should analyze and explain the traumatic
past in the form of a coherent narrative.14
The various discourses stem from the three practical uses of history defined
in the introduction. The moral use of history originates from the feelings of offense and victimization as a strategy of historical thinking. This sort of history
use coincides closely with the political and ideological uses of history. These
types of historical thinking make for typical examples of revisionism in historiography. In this sense, we can note the interesting fact that the so-called “victorious side” attempts to overcome its criticized communist character with the
linear dependence between the WWII resistance movement and what is today
Slovenian statehood. Meanwhile, the other side compensates for the accusations
of active collaboration by transforming the quisling units into fighters for democracy based on anti-communism. Both sides therefore associate the time of
WWII with the present, by means of abstraction, transformation and one-sided
reduction, also without any suitable contextualization.
Thus, the Slovenian example confirms the statement that history is more
than just the past, as it always includes the dimension of the present. On the one
hand, history is seen as a temporal sequence of events, while on the other hand,
its symbolic dimension is being emphasized. The latter is underlined as an interpretation that gives meaning and importance to the sequence of events with
various cultural connotations, rules, and values. Memories are what connects
the present with the past: they are a category that co-shapes history. Memories
and historical thinking steer us towards the path of experience. At the same
time, they transform the past into a meaningful part of the present, which also
affects the time beyond the present.15
14 Vodopivec, Peter. The Conflicting Politics of History and Memory in Slovenia since 1990. Slovene
Studies, 37, 1–2, 2015, pp. 45–66; Hančič, Damijan (ed.). Refleksije – zbornik prispevkov. Ljubljana:
Študijski center za narodno spravo, 2012, pp. 29–86; Godeša, Bojan. Social and Cultural Aspects
of the Historiography on Second World War in Slovenia. Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts für sociale
Bewegungen, 41, 2009, pp. 111–125; Godeša Bojan, Mlakar Boris, Storia della resistenza e della
guerra mondiale: La Slovenia e l’ex Jugoslavia. Contemporanea, 9, 1, 2006, pp. 123–132; Godeša,
Bojan. Reconciliation instead of History. Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino, 56, 3, 2016, pp. 101–117.
15 Rüsen, Jörn. What does “Making sense of history” mean?. In: Rüsen, Jörn (ed.), Meaning and
Representation in History. New York – Oxford: Bergham Books, 2006, pp. 1–5.
Lazarević: After the Civil War
The transitional period in Slovenia was without doubt also characterized by
heated discussions on history. History became one of the aspects of the political
struggle. In this case, one cannot help but to be under the impression that the
confrontation of various historical interpretations and the of memories attests
to an unstable society that has difficulties reaching a consensus when it comes
to the most fundamental questions like the principles of cohabitation of various
ideological orientations together with their own historical narratives. The basic
question is which conditions need to be fulfilled in order to ensure a successful
transition to democracy? Is a radical social confrontation with the traumatic
past the right way to go about it, or should history be put to rest in order to focus
solely on the future? Just as in the case of many other questions, the opinion of
Slovenian society about this is divided. A part of the society and the political
space cannot envision any successful development without a radical confrontation with the past. To ensure this, lustration proceedings are supposed to be used
– more symbolically today than on any realistic level – as was proposed at the
beginning of the transition period. The opposite side of Slovenian society is hard
to define as a single bloc, as it is quite dispersed in its ideological preferences.
The only thing it has in common is the conviction that successful democratization is possible, even without facing the past radically. This thesis states that the
perception of the past is a dynamic category in a constant process of evolutionary transformation. The traumatic past has to be regretted, but society has to
reach a consensus about its future and unify behind a new developmental model.
History should be left to historians. It is interesting that both sides are “demanding” unification. The right wing calls for the unification of outlooks on the past
as the foundation for the future. Meanwhile, the left wing wants to ensure unification with regard to the future in order to clear up the past.
As this discussion nears its conclusion, the comparative dimension has to be
introduced as well. The Slovenian disagreements are easier to understand in the
context of the international space. Thus a more comprehensive evaluation of the
circumstances can be ensured as well, especially if we wish to evaluate the effects
of disparity with regard to the connection between successful democratization
and a clear-cut distancing from the traumatic past. Therefore we will resort to
the Spanish example, as Spain has also experienced a civil war, a transition from
dictatorship to democracy, and a re-evaluation of history, especially the period
of its civil war.
The Spanish path towards democratic transition began with a consensus of
the political forces. As the renowned historian Santos Julia put it, the Amnesty
Act of 1977 was of key importance. It was a result of negotiations between the
political forces, intended to ensure that the past would be “forgotten” in order
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to form a new political system on the basis of tolerance and mutual respect.
However, at the same time, Santos Julia wrote that “amnesty” did not also mean
“amnesia”, nor did he equate “forgetting” with “ignoring” the past.
In the Spanish case, the transition to democracy was based on a “pact of
silence” when it came to the past, preventing apolitical taking to task of those
responsible for the dictatorship and crimes – those who at the same time denied the public acknowledgement of violent acts and victims of these acts. The
agreement gave rise to the “myth of collective responsibility”, which supported the
transition to democracy. However, this did not entail any censorship, nor did it
mean that public discussions were non-existent or that historians did not analyze the civil war and the period of Francoism.16 It turned out that memory and
oblivion were not mutually exclusive concepts. As the Uruguayan poet Mario
Benedetti wrote, “oblivion is full of memories” (El olvido está Ileno de memoria,
1995),17 or if we reverse this thought, “memories are full of oblivion”.
At the level of political correctness, the agreement on the “pact of silence”
persisted until the end of the 20th century. As it became exhausted, public discussions on the civil war and the characteristics of Francoism exploded. On the one
hand, this was due to the political division into the left and the right, while on
the other hand, it was caused by the influence of the international space. It was
a direct reflection of the discussions taking place at the international level about
how democratic societies or societies in the process of democratization should
face their difficult or traumatic pasts. The issue was all the more topical in the
post-communist Eastern European countries, the South African Republic after
the official abolition of the apartheid system, and during the transition of South
American countries to democracy after the end of their various dictatorships.18 It
was a sort of a “denationalization of the past”, a confrontation with the generally
applicable dilemmas. The victims of repression in the aforementioned countries
called for justice and public recognition of their suffering. The revision of the
“official historiography” and memorial landscape, achieved by including the
narrative about victims and repression – i.e., by including the memories of individuals or groups of populations whose recollections and experiences had been
silenced or outlawed – was supposedly of critical importance. Allegedly the process was vital as the first step towards ensuring reconciliation and strengthening
the democratic system. Supposedly, democratization and a “clear-cut attitude
16 Boyd, Carolyn. The Politics of History and Memory in Democratic Spain. Annals of the American
Academy of Political Sciences, 617, 2008, p. 135.
17 Colmeiro, José. Nation of Ghosts?: Haunting, Historical Memory and Forgetting in Post-Franco
Spain [online article]. Electronic Journal of theory of literature and comparative literature, 4, p. 25.
[Consulted on: 15/05/2018], http://www.452f.com/index. php/en/jose-colmeiro.html.
18 McDonough Peter. Identities, Ideologies, and Interests: Democratization and the Culture of Mass
Politics in Spain and Eastern Europe. The Journal of Politics, 57, 3, 1995, pp. 649–676.
Lazarević: After the Civil War
towards the past” were mutually dependent. At the turn of the century, various
civil society organizations or local authorities, supported by the leftist part of the
Spanish political space, initiated numerous searches for concealed grave sites.
In 2004, the social democratic government established a commission, tasked
with preparing the foundations for the reparation of injustice and the moral
as well as legal rehabilitation of the victims of Francoism. The public discussion that followed deepened the ideological disagreements in Spanish society
and threatened the already achieved political stability. The proclamation of the
year of historical memory in 2006, on the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of
the Spanish Civil War, resulted in the official duty to commemorate the fallen
republicans and other victims of Francoism.19 In 2007, the socialist government
adopted an act on historical memory, providing aid for persecution victims. At
the same time, this act ensured the resources for the maintenance and excavation of grave sites, the identification of victims, and the placement of their memorials. The 2007 government was aware of the social sensitivity of this issue.
Thus the new legislation did not provide for any official interpretations of history
or memory: it merely created the conditions for the pluralism of memorial practices. The division of the society was confirmed in 2011, when the People’s Party
government stopped financing the excavation of grave sites with the justification
that these activities only deepened the division in Spanish society.20
The Spanish democratization process counts as a successful example of the
transition from dictatorship to democracy – as an example of a consensual approach that ensured social cohesion as a precondition for significant economic
progress and integration into the international community. In this sense, I find
a thesis by Omar Encarnación interesting: that the Spanish transition to democracy after Franco’s death in the middle of the 1970s attests to the fact that radical
distancing from the past is not a crucial precondition for successful democratization. He claims that the democratic transition was successful precisely because Spain gave priority to democratization and social stability before clearing
up the traumatic past. Encarnación finds the confirmation of this assumption
in the discipline of the political actors, who were willing to lay their disagreements with regard to the past aside in order to strengthen the democratic institutions in the society. As the third point of the successful democratic transition
19 Boyd, The Politics of History and Memory in Democratic Spain, p. 144; Aguilar, Paloma. Justice,
Politics and Memory in the Spanish Transition. In: De Brito, Alexandra Barahona, GonzálezEnríquez, Carmen, Aguilar, Paloma (eds). The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing
Societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 92–118; Shevel, Oxana, The Politics of Memory
in Divided Society: A comparison of Post-Franco Spain and post-Soviet Ukraine. Slavic Review, 70,
1, 2011, pp. 137–164.
20 Vodopivec, Peter. O zgodovinopisju o španski državljanski vojni. Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino, 56,
1, 2016, p. 18.
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in Spain, he underlines the fact that the historical reconstruction had priority
before searching for those responsible for the traumatic past.
Omar Encarnación concludes his article on facing the past very effectively.
He writes that the reconstruction of history could not protect Spain from the
profound differences in the evaluation of the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent decades, as no consensus exists regarding the nature of what should actually be remembered. Consequently, the Spanish past has remained disputable for
many decades. Various interpretations compete for inclusion in the collective
(national) memory. For Encarnación this is a major step forward, as the coexistence of the various interpretations thoroughly corrects the Francoist one-sided
version of history, which had persisted in the public space due to the agreement
to the “pact of silence”.21
Slovenia as well as Spain have both been through a traumatic civil war experience, which represents one of the main points of division in the evaluation of
their recent histories. The examples of the two countries differ in their historical
contexts, social structures, as well as the political culture of regulating social life
and the politics of history. The examples may represent opposing viewpoints,
but they coincide in the very method of facing the past. The auto-victimization
strategies of the sides defeated in the civil wars and the moral use of history represent a counterpoint to the victorious sides in their persistent adherence to the
concepts of social stability.
Both historical experiences point out the urgency of reaching a consensus
on the manner in which the various memories, historical experiences and interpretations can coexist – a consensus on the ways of cohabitation, if not respect
for the various perceptions of the sides that opposed each other during the civil
wars. We can safely assume that an agreement on the conditions for the coexistence of various interpretations of traumatic history is required in order to ensure
social cohesion and stable social development.
21 Encarnacion, Omar. Reconciliation after Democratization: Coping with the Past in Spain. Political
Science Quarterly, 123, 3, 2008, pp. 435–459; Encarnation, Omar. Democracy without justice in Spain:
Politics of forgetting, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.
Endo: Some Characteristics of the Research on the War in Croatia in Croatian and Serbian Literature
Yoshihiro Endo
SOME
CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE RESEARCH ON
THE WAR IN CROATIA
IN CROATIAN AND
SERBIAN LITERATURE
T
he war in Croatia, which took place in 1991–1995, has attracted a lot of attention among Croatian and Serbian academics,
journalists and statesmen. Croatia was one of the six constituent republics of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia before its independence. At the time,
the population was comprised mainly of Croats (78.1% in 1991), but also a considerable number of Serbs (12.2% of the total population). The war, which broke
out more than 25 years ago, is one of the most popular and most important
research subjects in Croatia and Serbia. In this paper, I will present some characteristics of the research on the war in Croatian and Serbian literature.
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CROATIAN AND SERBIAN AUTHORS ON THE WAR
IN CROATIA
The war in Croatia is a subject on which many authors have written in both
Croatia and Serbia. The writers can be classified roughly into four groups.1
The first group consists of former officers of the Yugoslav People’s Army
(Jugoslovenska narodna armija or JNA), such as, in the Croatian literature,
Martin Špegelj,2 Janko Bobetko,3 Davor Domazet-Lošo,4 and in the Serbian literature Veljko Kadijević,5 Branko Mamula,6 Nikola Čubra,7 Miroslav Hadžić,8
Milisav Sekulić,9 and Dragan Vukšić.10 They write both from the view point of a
military expert and an involved party.
The second group is composed of political figures, such as Stjepan Mesić11
and Davorin Rudolf12 in Croatian literature, and Borisav Jović13 in Serbian literature. This group of authors also writes from the viewpoint of a participant
in the War. Works written by the first and the second group of authors are very
important historical documents for research on the war, because the primary
historical records have yet to be sufficiently disclosed.
The third group includes academic researchers, such as Davor Marijan,14
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
In cases where an author could be classified into two or more groups, I have chosen to classify him/
her into only one group for the sake of convenience.
Špegelj, Martin. Sjećanja vojnika. Zagreb: Znanje, 2001. Špegelj was an army commander in the JNA
and Croatian Minister of Defense (1990–1991).
Bobetko, Janko. Sava je ipak potekla prema Zagrebu. Zagreb: private publishing, 2002. Bobetko was a
high-ranking JNA officer and Chief of the Croatian General Staff.
Domazet-Lošo, Davor. Hrvatska i veliko ratište: međunarodne igre na prostoru zvanom bivša
Jugoslavija, Zagreb: Udruga Sv. Jurja, 2002. Domazet-Lošo was a JNA officer and Croatian Chief of
the General Staff.
Kadijević, Veljko. Moje viđenje raspada: vojska bez države. Beograd: Politika, 1993. Kadijević was a
Yugoslav Federal Minister of Defense.
Mamula, Branko. Slučaj Jugoslavija. Podgorica: CID, 2000. Mamula was the Yugoslav Federal
Minister of Defense before Kadijević.
Čubra, Nikola. Vojska i razbijanje Jugoslavije. Beograd: Centar za vojno-ekonomska i strategijska
istraživanja, 1997. Čubra was an assistant of the Yugoslav Federal Minister of Defense.
Hadžić, Miroslav. Jugoslovenska narodna agonija. Beograd: Centar za civilno-vojne odnose, 2004.
Sekulić, Milisav. Jugoslaviju niko nije branio a vrhovna komanda je izdala. Beograd: Vesti, 1997.
Sekulić was an officer in both the JNA and the Army of the Serbian Republic of Krajina.
Vukšić, Dragan. JNA i raspad SFR Jugoslavije: od čuvara do grobara svoje države. Stara Pazova:
Tekomgraf, 2006. Vukšić was a JNA officer.
Mesić, Stjepan. Kako je srušena Jugoslavija. Zagreb: Mislavpress, 1994. Mesić was Croatia’s delegate
in the Yugoslav Presidency and the first Prime Minister of the newly independent Croatia.
Rudolf, Davorin. Rat koji nismo htjeli : Hrvatska 1991. Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Globus, 1999. Rudolf
was a professor at the University of Split, as well as the Croatian Minister of Maritime Affairs and
Foreign Affairs.
Jović, Borisav. Poslednji dani SFRJ. Beograd: Politika, 1996. Jović was Serbia’s representative in the
Yugoslav Presidency.
Marijan, Davor. Slom Titove armije – JNA i raspada Jugoslavije 1987.–1992. Zagreb: Tehnička knjiga,
2008.
Endo: Some Characteristics of the Research on the War in Croatia in Croatian and Serbian Literature
Nikica Barić,15 Anđelko Mijatović,16 Ozren Žunec,17 Mirko Valentić,18 and Ivo
Goldstein19 in Croatia, and Bojan B. Dimitrijević20 in Serbia.
Broadly speaking, a higher level of interest in the war can be seen in the
Croatian literature than in the Serbian. As will be mentioned later in more detail, the fact that the Croatian government established the Croatian Memorial
and Documentation Center for the Homeland War for the purpose of furthering
research on the war shows how deep the interest in Croatia is. Another point
that illustrates the magnitude of interest in Croatia is that some historians there
such as Valentić and Mijatović, who had not studied modern or contemporary
history, have endeavored to write books on the war.
The fourth group of writers is made up of journalists and columnists, such
as Đuro Gajdek 21 and Slaven Letica22 in Croatia, and Dobrila Gajić-Glišić23 in
Serbia. These authors themselves are not among the most important politicians
in their countries, but some of them are close to significant political or military
figures. For example, Letica was chief political adviser of the first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman, while Gajić-Glišić served as the chief of the Cabinet of the
Serbian Minister of Defense Tomislav Simović. Their writings tend to have much
value as historical sources.
NAMING OF THE WAR IN CROATIA
Put simply, the linguistic qualification of the war in Croatia in Croatian and
Serbian literature indicates how the authors in the two countries view it.
In Croatian national history, the war in the 1990s is often called the
“Homeland War (Domovinski rat)”. The war broke out in Croatia as the country
15 Barić, Nikica. Srpska pobuna u Hrvatskoj: 1990.–1995. Zagreb: Tehnička knjiga, 2005.
16 Mijatović, Anđelko. OTKOS-10: prva uspješna oslobodilačka operacija Oružanih snaga Republike
Hrvatske u Domovinskom ratu: Domovinski rat u zapadnoj Slavoniji 1991. Godine. Zagreb:
Udruga dragovoljaca i veterana Domovinskog rata Republike Hrvatske, Hrvatski memorijalnodokumentacijski centar Domovinskog rata, 2011.
17 Žunec, Ozren et al. Oficir i časnik: prelasci vojnih profesionalaca iz Jugoslavenske narodne armije u
Hrvatsku vojsku. Zagreb: Hrvatska sveučilišna naklada, 2013.
18 Valentić, Mirko. Rat protiv Hrvatske: 1991.–1995.: velikosrpski projekti od ideje do realizacije.
Slavonski Brod: Hrvatski institut za povijest, Podružnica za povijest Slavonije, Srijema i Baranje;
Zagreb: Hrvatski memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar Domovinskog rata, 2010.
19 Goldstein, Ivo. Hrvatska 1918.–2008. Zagreb: Novi Liber, 2008.
20 Dimitrijević, Bojan. Modernizacija i intervencija: jugoslovenske oklopne jedinice 1945–2006. Beograd:
Institut za savremenu istoriju, 2010.
21 Gajdek, Đuro. Petrinjska bojišnica 1991.–1995. Petrinja: Grad Petrinja, 2008.
22 Letica, Slaven. JNA – rat protiv Hrvatske: scenarij vojnog udara u Hrvatskoj i metode specijalnog rata
u njegovoj pripremi. Zagreb: Ingot Fakta, 1991. Letica was a professor at University of Zagreb. In
addition, he is actively involved in various fields, such as that of a commentator.
23 Gajić-Glišić, Dobrila. Srpska vojska: iz kabineta ministra vojnog. Beograd: Admiral books, 1992.
Gajić-Glišić is a journalist.
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was seeking independence. The Croats fought against the armed forces of the
local Serbian population in Croatia, the JNA, and paramilitary formations coming from Serbia, and suffered numerous casualties in the process. The Serbs in
Croatia controlled about one third of the territory of Croatia during the conflict.
However, in 1995, Croatia carried out the successful military operations, such as
the “Flash” and the “Storm”, and restored control over its entire territory. In this
context, the war was indispensable for the achievement of Croatian independence and represents a justification of the sacrifices made for that independence.
In Croatia, there are many books where the title includes the phrase
“Homeland War”.24 In them the involvement of the JNA in the war is referred to
as the “aggression” or “attack” of the Yugoslav People’s Army,25 while the character of the conflict between the Croats and Serbs in Croatia is often described
as the “insurrection of the Serbs (pobuna Srba)”.26 The adjective “greater Serbian
(velikosrpski)”27 is also used when criticizing the wartime goals of Serbia, the
Serbs living in Croatia, and the JNA in the conflict., In the JNA,the proportion
of Serbs increased during the process of the breakup of former Yugoslavia.
In comparison to the above Croatian view of the war, the Serbian understanding of the conflict seems more complex and diverse. For the Serbs from Croatia,
Croatia or, more precisely, the Serb-populated areas in Croatia, were their homeland. Their hope of staying within Yugoslavia remained unrealized in the course
of the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Confronted by
the Croatian government, they established the so-called “Republic of Serbian
Krajina” (Republika Srpska Krajina) on the territory of Croatia. They often refer
to the war in Croatia as a “civil war (građanski rat)” between Serbs and Croats.28
On the other hand, for the Serbs from Serbia, the war in Croatia was not “their
own”, in a sense. In 1991 and 1992, Serbian soldiers from Serbia waged the war
as members of the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army and the Territorial Defense of Serbia.
In addition, paramilitaries from Serbia joined the war. This variety of Serb involvement in the war in Croatia is reflected in the terms the Serbs use to refer to
the conflict. For example, some Serbian authors, such as Dušan Vilić and Boško
Todorović,29 former officers of the JNA, use the term “rebellion (pobuna)” when
referring to the Croats, not the Serbs, thus strongly condemning them for the
break-up of Yugoslavia.
24 For example Radelić, Zdenko et al.. Stvaranje hrvatske države i Domovinski rat. Zagreb: Hrvatski
institut za povijest, Školska knjiga, 2006.
25 Barić, Srpska pobuna u Hrvatskoj 1990.–1995.; Radelić, Stvaranje hrvatske države i Domovinski rat.
26 For example, Barić, Srpska pobuna u Hrvatskoj.
27 Valentić, Rat protiv Hrvatske.
28 For example Budimir, Milojko (ed.). Građanski rat u Hrvatskoj 1991.–1995.: zbornik radova. 9,
Beograd: Udruženje Srba iz Hrvatske, 2013.
29 Vilić, Dušan, Todorović, Boško. Razbijanje Jugoslavije: 1990.–1992. Beograd: Književne novine, 1995.
Endo: Some Characteristics of the Research on the War in Croatia in Croatian and Serbian Literature
While the terms “conflict (sukob)” and “war (rat)” can be understood as neutral words for referring to the war in Croatia, “war against Croatia (rat protiv
Hrvatske”), which some Croatian authors30 use, seems to contain the same level
of condemnation of the Serbs or the JNA as do the words “rebellion” and “aggression”.
HISTORICAL SOURCES ON THE WAR IN CROATIA
In both the Croatian and the Serbian literature on the war in Croatia, memoires written by former officers and politicians are often used as historical sources. In particular, the memoires of Jović, Kadijević, Mamula, Špegelj, and Konrad
Kolšek31 are frequently cited by researchers of this subject. In Croatian literature, Marijan’s The Collapse of Tito’s Army and Barić’s The Rebellion of Serbs in
Croatia are noteworthy in that they are based on a vast array of primary sources
that have not been released to the public yet. In Serbian literature, Dimitrijević’s
study32 can be viewed as an equivalent, in that he seems to have used documents from historical archives in Serbia that are not fully open yet, such as the
archives of the military, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Staff, and
the Yugoslav government. In general, there have not been many studies in Serbia
on the war in Croatia based on primary documents.
On the other hand, the Croatian government is in the process of organizing the Croatian Memorial and Documentation Center for the Homeland War
(Hrvatski memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar Domovinskog rata),33 in order
to collect and arrange the relevant historical documents, make them available
to the public and publish a part of them.34 The center is one of the most useful
existing institutions in terms of research on the war.
In contrast, the Serbian government does not seem to be proactive when it
comes to the disclosure of historical documents on the war and does not seem as
attentive in observing the regulations concerning the year of the disclosure for
historical documents. As for the Military Archive in Serbia, it makes historical
30 Valentić, Rat protiv Hrvatske.
31 Kolšek, Konrad. Prvi pucnji u SFRJ: sećanja na početak oružanih sukoba u Sloveniji i Hrvatskoj.
Beograd: Dan graf, 2005. Kolšek was a JNA commander.
32 Dimitrijević, Bojan. Jugoslovensko ratno vazduhoplovstvo: 1942–1992. Beograd: Institut za savremenu
istoriju, 2009; Dimitrijević, Modernizacija i intervencija.
33 http://centardomovinskograta.hr/, accessed on 26 Nov. 2016.
34 Such as Rupić, Mate (ed.). Republika Hrvatska i Domovinski rat: 1990.–1995.: dokumenti. Knj. 1,
Oružana pobuna Srba u Hrvatskoj i agresija oružanih snaga SFRJ i srpskih paravojnih postrojbi
na Republiku Hrvatsku: (1990.–1991.). Zagreb: Hrvatski memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar
Domovinskog rata, 2007.
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documents available to researchers only upon the passage of 50 years from the
date of their issue.35
Also, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY)36
has produced a vast number of documents which are accessible on the Internet.
A portion of these relates closely to the war and is very useful for research on it.
REGIONAL SITUATIONS
The war in Croatia was fought in most parts of Croatia. There are many studies
or works that focus on the situations in different regions and local battlefields during the war. Among them, there are studies that deal with the wartime situations
in small towns, whereby the latter subject has mainly been covered by Croatian
authors. These studies are often based on personal notes, memories, or some primary documents in the individual possession of the participants in the war.
For example, Gajdek’s book The Battlefield of Petrinja 1991–199537 gives a
detailed account of the situation in the town of Petrinja. It describes life in the
town during the war, how the fighting started in it, how it continued and ended
– all this based on regional weekly publications, a lot of statements and eyewitness accounts by participants in the fighting, as well as a source from the Serbian
Krajina authorities.
Furthermore, Biličić38 wrote on the National Protection (Narodna zaštita)
in Sisak, an industrial town in central Croatia. The National Protection is a resistance organization in Croatia that existed during the war. His book goes into
much detail on the various activities that the National Protection undertook in
Sisak.
As for Western Slavonia, Mijatović in his book OTOKOS-1039 wrote about
Croatian military operations in this region, which was among the first to experience fighting in the first phase of the war. The book The Rebellion of the Serbs in
Western Slavonia,40 edited by Miškulin and Barać, contains nine articles written
35 http://www.vojniarhiv.mod.gov.rs/sadrzaj.php?id_sadrzaja=99&active=tekst/, last accessed on 27
Nov. 2016.
36 http://www.icty.org/, last accessed on 27 Nov. 2016.
37 Gajdek, Petrinjska bojišnica.
38 Biličić, Bartol. Narodna zaštita Siska u Domovinskom ratu: 1991.–1992. Zagreb: Udruga dragovoljaca
Narodne zaštite Domovinskog rata; Sisak: Gradska udruga dragovoljaca Narodne zaštite
Domovinskog rata, 2004.
39 Mijatović, OTOKOS-10.
40 Miškulin, Ivica, Barać, Mladen (eds.). Srpska pobuna u Zapadnoj Slavoniji 1990.–1995.: nositelji,
institucije, posljedice: zbornik radova. Slavonski Brod: Hrvatski institut za povijest, Podružnica
za povijest Slavonije, Srijema i Baranje; Zagreb: Hrvatski memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar
Domovinskog rata, 2012.
Endo: Some Characteristics of the Research on the War in Croatia in Croatian and Serbian Literature
by experts who specialize in various fields and areas of life, such as political parties, the Orthodox Church, the JNA, the functioning of the national parliament,
the police and the judicial system, war crimes and demography. In addition, the
book also contains historical documents.
In the Serbian literature, however, there are fewer research works on the war
which focus in detail on regions.
FOCUS ON BATTLES AND OPERATIONS
Another feature of the literature on the war in Croatia is that, both in Croatia
and Serbia, the battle for Vukovar and the Croatian operation Storm seem to
be perceived as exceptionally important, although in completely different ways.
According to the Croatian historical narrative, Croatia was attacked by the Serbs
and the JNA and Vukovar is a town that symbolizes the resistance to that attack,
which is why Vukovar is considered to be a Hero City that stood firmly against
the “Serbian aggression”. Furthermore, for Croats, the operation Storm in 1995
was a successful military campaign against the Republic of Serbian Krajina,
which dealt the decisive blow to the rebellious Serbs.
Thus, both the Battle for Vukovar and the operation Storm are extremely
interesting topics to the Croats.41 Judging by the Serbian literature, however,
Vukovar also seems to be an important city for the Serbs, because the locals
belonging to that ethnicity and the JNA paid a considerable price in lives to seize
it. However, due to the operation Storm, many Serbs were forced to escape from
the territory of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, including Vukovar, which is why
that operation is often strongly denounced in the Serbian literature.42
As mentioned before, the Croatian and Serbian literature on the war in
Croatia are very different from each other and often contain completely opposite
conclusions. A significant number of the authors seem to be trying to consolidate the history of the ethnic group they belong to. Nonetheless, there are some
exceptions. For example, The Dialogue of Historians43 is a collection of papers
that contains works mostly written by both Croatian and Serbian historians.
Another example is the Journal of the Institute of Modern History in Belgrade,44
which was published in 2011 and contains 11 articles, of which six are on the
41 For instance, Marijan, Davor. Bitka za Vukovar. Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest; Slavonski Brod:
Podružnica za povijest Slavonije, Srijema i Baranje, 2004 and Marijan, Davor. Oluja. Zagreb: Hrvatski
memorijalno-dokumentacijski centar Domovinskog rata, 2009.
42 Budimir, Građanski rat u Hrvatskoj.
43 One of them is Fleck, Hans-Georg, Graovac, Igor (eds.). Dijalog povjesničara – istoričara. Zagreb:
Zaklada Friedrich Naumann, 2000.
44 Istorija 20. veka: časopis Instituta za savremenu istoriju, 29, 2, 2011.
147
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Yugoslav wars, written by one Slovene, two Croats and three Serbs. Croatian
historians Marijan and Barić and Serbian historian Dimitrijević wrote articles
on the war in Croatia from their respective different viewpoints. It is important
that historians whose views are different discuss disputable subjects or at least
cooperate in publications in order to advance the research. I hope that such joint
projects and cooperative work between Croatian and Serbian scholars will continue to increase in the future, and thus contribute to a fruitful development of
the research on the war in Croatia.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
Aleš Gabrič
SLOVENIAN
FAMILIARIZATION
WITH JAPAN AND
THE JAPANESE
F
or a long time, our ancestors familiarized themselves with faraway unknown lands by reading the travelogues written by
the few travelers who described their impressions of these foreign expanses as
seen through their own eyes. Not only did very few people travel far a few centuries ago, but even their readers were few and far between in the time when
the majority was illiterate and books were expensive. In modern times, these
travelers who would arouse people’s interest in foreign lands mostly journeyed
there because of concrete tasks, for example as diplomats or missionaries, while
the youth travelled in order to further their studies. In the second half of the
19th century, a new period of discovering unknown places and lands, both nearby and more remote, began thanks to the diminishing costs of transportation.
Consequently, the number of travelogues on foreign countries and continents
increased and in Slovenia, reports from pilgrimages and about missionary activities became most frequent.1
1
Šmitek, Zmago. Slovenska doživetja prostranstev. In: Poti do obzorja : antologija slovenskega potopisa
z neevropsko tematiko. Ljubljana: Borec, 1988, pp. 382–390.
149
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We should also not overlook the fact that in the last decades of the 19th century, literacy started increasing rapidly among the Slovenes, and with it also the
interest in learning about foreign exotic places, even if all that was available was
only more or less fantastic descriptions of strange lands and their inhabitants.
As it was, until as late as the second half of the 19th century, such descriptions
were mostly a mix of both empirical data and fantasy.2 This made for an excellent source of stereotypes about Jews, Muslims, Turks, black people, or Indians.
However, the Japanese did not appear in Slovenian literature until the middle of
the 19th century; until then they had remained a great mystery – not only for the
Slovenians, but also for the whole of Europe.
AN UNKNOWN LAND WHERE CHRISTIANS
ARE PERSECUTED
In the Slovenian press in the middle of the 19th century, Japan was usually
mentioned as a footnote – as a country with certain peculiarities or characteristics that the Slovenian readers were unfamiliar with and that they may have
merely heard about, while perhaps only a few people had actually witnessed
them. For example, in the Drobtinice newspaper, in the context of the educational materials for schools, Japan was mentioned in 1857, in a contribution entitled Premembe zemlje (The Changing Landscape). Japan was described as an East
Asian land “dotted with fiery mountains” and listed as a part of the volcanically
active Aleutian Islands, Kuril Islands and Kamchatka.3 However, no Japanese
volcanoes were included in the list of notable volcanic eruptions.
The aforementioned contribution was written on the basis of the Catholic
outlook on the world, suggesting that everything had been created by God, and
that “fiery mountains” were among the natural phenomena that could, to a limited extent, transform what God had created. Such Catholic views did not merely
influence writers’ outlooks on the natural features of Japan, but also on its past
and social structure. Even though the Catholic priest Valentin Sežun had ambitiously entitled his contribution on Japan, published in the Catholic publication Zgodnja Danica in January 1858, Zgodovinski pogled v Japansko cesarstvo (A
Historical Insight into the Japanese Empire),4 the article was not much more than
a description of the persecution of Christians in Japan. Besides the introductory
remarks on the largest islands, three main religions, and the information that
the capital city “Jedo” (i.e. Edo) had as many as 1.3 million inhabitants, we can
2
3
4
Ibid., p. 395.
Robida. Premembe zemlje. Drobtinice, 12, 1857, p. 255.
Sežun, Val.(entin). Zgodovinski pogled v Japansko cesarstvo. Zgodnja Danica, 11, No. 1, 7. 1. 1858,
pp. 1–3.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
also discern a typical outlook on the unfamiliar people of that land, who were
different and whose morality consisted of positive and negative traits: “The people of Japan are thrifty, sober, hardworking and clean, as well as wrathful, arrogant, superstitious, and true slaves to carnal desire.” After the article mentioned
Marco Polo as the first European in Japan, it soon addressed the main topic: how
Saint Francis Xavier had arrived in Japan in 1549 and set out to Christianize the
Japanese. The author of the article celebrated this successful Christianization
and mentioned that, allegedly, in 1582, more than 200,000 Japanese had been
Christian, and that “they had 250 churches, schools, seminaries, and a novitiate
of the Society of Jesus.”5 However, Emperor Taico-sama (Toyotomi Hideyoshi)
started persecuting Christians, and this continued even after his death in 1598.
The emphasis was on the following words: “In 1611 such a horrible persecution of the Christian religion began in Japan that it encompassed everything
we may possibly read about the former Roman emperors (Nero, Decius, etc.)
and the kings of The Vandals (Genseric, Huneric, etc.) because of its savagery
against the followers of Christ. The persecution did not stop until Christianity
was completely annihilated in Japan.” Sežun added that the Protestant Calvinist
Dutch had contributed to the oppression of the Catholic faith in Japan as well, as
they had supposedly encouraged the Japanese court to persecute missionaries.
Numerous examples of massacres of Christians were listed, some of them quite
unbelievable. The uprising of 1638 was followed by the worst pogrom, and as
many as “37,000 to 70,000 people were slaughtered in one day!”6
Sežun’s article describes Japan as an isolated land which no foreigner could
enter without the Emperor’s permission; a land of heathens who had destroyed,
in the first half of the 17th century, the encouraging results of the Christianization
and created many Christian martyrs. The Zgodnja Danica publication continued
to follow the events in Japan: in the following year it reported that the Japanese
government had “abolished the legislation that had condemned Christians as of
1614”, so that in the future the increasing number of foreign representatives in
Japan would also be allowed to keep priests at their side.7 In the beginning of
the 1860s, the Zgodnja Danica followed – with special emphasis – the canonization of the martyrs from the period of the persecution in Japan into sainthood.
Even at the turn of the century, the more orthodox Catholic circles saw Japan
primarily as the land where the first local Christians had been persecuted; as a
country populated by heathens who should be led into the welcoming arms of
the Catholic Church by means of strengthened missionary efforts.8
5
6
7
8
Ibid., p. 1.
Ibid., p. 2.
Zgodnja Danica, XI, No. 20, 30. 9. 1858, p. 159, Razgled po kerščanskim svetu.
Zgodnja danica, XLVII, No. 16, 20. 4. 1894, pp. 121–122, Sv. Marija Devica in Japan.
151
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MORE NEWS IN THE MEIJI PERIOD
Realizations regarding Japan made their way into the general consciousness
very slowly, but nevertheless persistently, once Japan started opening itself to the
world. The doors to Japan started opening through the major European centers, which offered products and provided information on this remote country.
Slovenian readers could occasionally read a little something about it, but despite
this, it was hardly enough for them to be able to construct a clear picture of what
kind of a land Japan was. Japan was often mentioned together with China, especially in the descriptions of the homeland of tea. For example, one journalist
also mentioned Japan as a land of tea in addition to China and included the following information about tea (or tê) as a drink that was somewhat less familiar
to Slovenians: “It is true that in our country this drink is not as widely known as
the more popular coffee, and yet it is much more distinguished, judging by the
strength and number of peoples devoted to it passionately.”9 The fact that Japan
started to open itself to the world a few years after the beginning of the Meiji
period was also felt by the somewhat wealthier Slovenians, as newspapers started publishing offers for the ordering and purchasing of certain luxury Japanese
items, for example flower vases or cups.10
More information about Japan was available to the intellectuals, who would
travel to the main European intellectual centers and become keenly interested
in the cultural development of the European nations as well as the nations that
the Europeans maintained increasingly frequent contacts with. These reports
were mostly only collections of basic information about the remote land, while
in-depth studies were rare. Shorter articles were summed up from the European
press and contained stereotypical European perceptions of Japan and its inhabitants. The readers of the liberally-oriented newspaper Slovenski narod got to
know the Japanese as the Asian nation that had started trading more vigorously
with Europe. For the ecclesiastical publication Zgodnja Danica, the Japanese
were mostly a heterodox people who persecuted Christians. Meanwhile, the editorship of the Pan-Slavic magazine Slovanski svet started quoting the Russian
press and asking itself whether the military successes of Japan in the Far East
could be a sign that the great Slavic Russia would soon have a new, strong competitor, as the development of the relationship between Japan and Great Britain
could endanger the role of the largest Slavic state in East Asia.11
Information about Japanese cultural development reached Europe much
more slowly. For example, the Japanese fine arts only became very interesting
9 V. J.. Čaj. Glasnik slovenski, 2, No. 8, Celovec, 15. 10. 1858, pp. 132–135; No. 9, pp. 147–149.
10 Slovenski narod, X, No. 129, 9. 6. 1877, p. 4; No. 142, 24. 6. 1877, Obznanilo.
11 Slovanski svet, VIII, No. 3, 19. 1. 1895, p. 25, Ruske drobtinice.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
for the Western cultural centers after the successful exhibitions in London in
1862 and Paris in 1876,12 while the broader public became more intrigued after
the first study of Japanese culture in the English language had been printed in
London in 1878.13 However, at that time English was relatively poorly known
to the Slovenian intellectuals, who were mostly educated in German schools.
Travelogues written by the increasingly numerous visitors to Japan and published by their national publishing houses after their return to their homelands
were equally difficult for them to read, as these authors were mostly American
and British and so their works were published in English.14 Consequently these
texts were inaccessible for the Slovenian intellectuals, who wore mostly schooled
and educated in the German language. In order to familiarize themselves with
the non-European nations, the more enthusiastic intellectuals in the current
Slovenian territory would much more often resort to German literature. Of the
authors who had made significant contributions to the knowledge about Japan
and its inhabitants in the Western cultural sphere, the Ljubljana Lyceum Library
kept the works of Wilhelm Heine, published at the end of the 1850s and in the
beginning of the 1860s. Heine was a German painter who visited Japan first
as a member of Matthew Perry’s expedition and then also as a member of the
Prussian expedition to Japan.15 He painted numerous motifs from Japan, which
then circumnavigated the world and were also used by Perry to illustrate his
works.16 Heine’s book Japan and Its People (Japan und seine Bewohner), published in Leipzig in 1860, was perhaps the most well-founded work on the topic
available in Ljubljana. Naturally we cannot begin to guess how many readers
read this book or other works by Wilhelm Heine, who invested much effort in
promoting closer connections with Japan in the German space.
As few descriptions of Japan made their way even into intellectual circles,
it is obvious that it was almost impossible for those whose education had concluded after the obligatory eight-year elementary school to find out anything
whatsoever about this country. Much of the subject of geography in the whole of
Austria was based on the works of the Slovenian geographer and cartographer
Blaž Kocen (Blasius Kozenn), who prepared quite a few textbooks and atlases
12 Wichmann, Siegfried. Japonisme : the Japanese influence on Western art since 1858. London: Thames
& Hudson, 2001.
13 Ibid., p. 11.
14 Baty, Thomas. The Literary Intraduction of Japan to Europe. Monumenta Niponica, 7, 1951, No. 1–2,
pp. 24–39; 8, 1952, No. 1–2, pp. 15–46; 9, 1953, No. 1–2, pp. 62–83; 10, 1954, No. 1–2, pp. 65–80.
Only a few works mentioned in Baty’s paper as important for getting to know Japan in Europe were,
according to the COBISS database, available in libraries in the territory of present-day Slovenia.
15 Heine, Wilhelm. Japan und seine Bewohner. Leipzig: Purfürst, 1860.; Heine, Wilhelm. Eine Weltreise
um die nördliche Hemisphäre, in Verbindung mit der ostasiat. Expedition 1860–1861. 2 Theile. Leipzig:
Brokhaus, 1864.
16 Baty, The Literary Introduction, 1952, pp. 16–18
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for use in schools. Kocen’s Geography for Public Schools, which was published
in Slovenian in 1879 and served as the geography textbook for the majority of
Slovenians at the time, contained only a modest amount of information on Asia.
The pupils were only able to find out that Japan was an island kingdom, that the
ruler was called Mikado, and that some of its cities were very large.17 Kocen’s
geographical atlas for the various types of Austrian schools was not much different.18 Asia was only shown on the general physical map and on the political
map. The only Asian country whose map was included was India, which was at
the time already a colony of an important European country.
Even in the general upper secondary schools (so-called gymnasiums), Japan
was merely a footnote in the curriculum and lessons until the end of the 19th
century. The physical geographical description of Asia was mostly limited to the
part of the Asian mainland which was closer to Europe. Furthermore, the history curriculum was especially Europe-centric and did not concern itself with
the nations on other continents.19
Naturally, the Slovenian geography and history textbooks from the end of
the 19th century followed the established principles. In the geography textbooks,
prepared by the geographer and historian Janez Jesenko, we can only find some
basic information about Japan. The descriptions of the Asian mountain ranges,
rivers, climate, flora, etc., focused only on the continental part of Asia. However,
despite the modest descriptions, it was occasionally nevertheless possible to notice praise on account of the swift progress that Japan had experienced in the
decades after it had started to open itself to Western influences.20
On the other hand, Jesenko’s history textbooks barely mentioned Japan at
all. Similarly, the Japanese past remained largely unknown even to the few students who managed to finish the entire eight-year gymnasium. The situation
was similar even in the higher grades, where textbooks in the German language
by Professor Anton Gindely from the Charles University in Prague were used.
These also followed the aforementioned model, prescribed by the state curriculums.
17 Kocenov zemljepis za ljudske šole : z 10 slikami (poslovenil Ivan Lapajne). V Beču: E. Hölzel, 1879, p.
65.
18 B. Kozenns Geographischer Schul-Atlas für Gymnasien-, Real- und Handelsschulen. Wien: E. Hölzel,
1897.
19 Lehrplan und Instructionen für den Unterricht an den Gymnasien in Österreich. Wien: Im kaiserlichköniglichen Schulbücher-Verlage, 1900, pp. 117–178.
20 Jesenko, Janez. Zemljepis za drugi in tretji razred srednjih šol. Ljubljana: Narodna tiskarna, pp. 31–33.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
THE FIRST SOMEWHAT LONGER DESCRIPTIONS OF JAPAN
IN SLOVENIA
For the more inquisitive, who sought information from the various parts of
the world, things started changing in the last two decades of the 19th century after
the Austrian school reform. At that time, the percentage of literacy in Slovenia
increased to encompass as much as three quarters of the population. The majority of Slovenians could familiarize themselves with the strange and distant
land by reading two contributions about Japan. One of them was published in
six episodes in April and May of 1889 in the newspaper Novice (gospodarske,
obrtniške in narodne) as a part of a series of descriptions of unknown nations
and countries written for this newspaper by “Fr. Jaroslav”. The person behind
this signature was the priest, writer and translator France Jaroslav Štrukelj, who
retired early due to medical problems and proceeded to read, write, and translate in solitude. Štrukelj also listed a few works written in English as his sources,
but it is not clear whether he had read the originals or the German translations.
After Štrukelj’s death, his acquaintance and posthumous collector of his materials Frančišek Lampe stated that Štrukelj had collected many books and that his
writings were based on “the German and Czech works”.21
In the introductory part, Štrukelj wrote that the first European to start learning about Japan was Marco Polo, and then added the explanation involving the
persecution of the first Christians in Japan in the 17th century, which was the
usual practice for Catholic priests. He praised the hardworking and diligent nature of the Japanese people. According to Štrukelj, Europeans could look up to
the Japanese model of agriculture, as the Japanese took better care of the land
and “their fields are so clean that one can barely find any weeds”. He went on
to state that the Japanese had always been excellent craftsmen, and that their
products were better than the Chinese. When they encountered the West, “they
appropriated all the inventions, and because they are skilled, industrious and
diligent, their craft industry has recently advanced incredibly”.22 With regards
to the Japanese customs, Štrukelj listed those that were most unusual for the
Europeans, i.e. the different style of clothing and the low-roofed houses with
very little furniture. He also emphasized that married life in Japan was not worth
praising, but he did not elaborate on this remark.23
21 Lampe, Frančišek. Frančišek Štrukelj-Jaroslav. Dom in svet, 12, 1899, No. 22, p. 678.
22 Štrukelj, Frančišek (=Jaroslav). Zemljepisni in narodopisni obrazi. Novice gospodarske, obrtniške in
národne. 47, No. 18, 1. 5. 1889, pp. 139–140; No. 19, 8. 5. 1889, pp. 148–149; No. 20, 15. 5. 1889, pp.
155–156; No. 21, 22. 5. 1889, pp. 163–164; No. 22, 29. 5. 1889, pp. 170–171, pp. 139–140.
23 Ibid., pp. 148–149.
155
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Even in his further assessments, Štrukelj limited himself to the major characteristics without going into any detailed explanations of his opinions. On the
one hand, he commended the roads and the facilities available to travelers, but
on the other hand, he later mentioned that travelling around Japan was slow and
uncomfortable. Štrukelj’s descriptions of the religious customs of the Japanese
people, Shintoism and Buddhism, remained incomplete and superficial, and in
this regard he mostly focused on the largest temples in the contemporaneous as
well as former capital cities.24 It is positive, Štrukelj continued in his account, that
besides numerous temples, many charity organizations assist people who need
help. He also praised the Japanese education system. Apart from the schools,
he also commended Japanese libraries, museums, theatre, printing houses, and
literature. However, his readers were unable to glean a more detailed image from
the few modest pieces of information he provided, or compare Japanese cultural
development with their own.25
Even though the Novice was a very well-known newspaper among Slovenians,
in the time under consideration, it was not exactly the main Slovenian publication. The second description of Japan and its inhabitants – the book by
the Slavicist and historian Josip Stare Kitajci in Japonci (The Chinese and the
Japanese) – definitely reached a wider circle of Slovenian readers.26 It was published as a part of the regular annual collection of the Družba sv. Mohorja publishing house in 1893, which meant that all members of this book club – the first
club of this sort in Slovenia – received it. In the beginning of the last decade of
the 19th century, the Družba sv. Mohorja’s book club had more than 50,000 members, and the book was thus sent to more than 50,000 Slovenian readers. Despite
its title which referred to both the Chinese and the Japanese, the book adhered
to the traditional model of presenting the Asian reality to the average Slovenian:
greater emphasis was placed on the continental part of Asia, while only a minor
part of the work focused on the continent’s islands, in our case on the Land of
the Rising Sun. The 143-page book stopped describing the life of the Chinese on
page 131. This was followed by a chapter on the Koreans and the Japanese. After
a few pages about Korea, the author dedicated (merely) the last eight pages of the
book to the Japanese.
Josip Stare’s book did not contain any references, and therefore it is not
known which accounts or travelogues he based his work on. With regard to the
Japanese, he stated that they had various origins, but that they had been brought
together into a single Japanese nationality by their shared cultural customs.
24 Ibid., pp. 155–156.
25 Ibid., pp. 170–171.
26 Stare, Kitajci in Japonci. Celovec: Družba sv. Mohorja, 1893.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
In the introduction, Stare provided some basic historical information about
Japan from the first millennium onwards and described its religious makeup.
Initially Japanese cultural development had taken place in close contact with the
Chinese, but in the middle of the second millennium, the Japanese had isolated
themselves from the world, and since then their ships had only sailed between
their central islands. Stare began his description of Japanese life and customs by
stating that “culture has brought the Japanese and the Chinese close together,
though the Japanese still separate themselves from their teachers in many aspects”. He first mentioned the Japanese tidiness and cleanliness: “The Japanese
are cleaner, more sober and friendly, and they will eagerly and quickly adopt foreign customs and habits; they also possess a better understanding of the arts and
literature.”27 Stare described the Japanese as lighter-skinned than the Chinese,
with slight, yet strong figures. The rich and the poor supposedly wore the same
kind of clothes: “It is only the fabric that separates a wealthy man from a pauper, as the clothes of the former are made of silk, while the latter use cotton
or simply hemp”. People protected themselves from the sun and the rain with
wicker hats, “which look like a wide overturned bowl”.28 Stare also mentioned
that Japanese women wore makeup and braided their hair, while the men “used
to tie their hair in knots, but lately they have started to cut and arrange their hair
like Europeans.”29
According to Stare, unlike the Japanese men, their women were more traditional: “They are by no means looking forward to the profound changes taking
place in Japan today.” Supposedly the greatest wish of Japanese women was to
fulfil the wishes of their husbands to the greatest possible extent: “Japanese women do not even dream of any independence or women’s rights, and they like to
subordinate themselves to their husbands.”30 They adapted their life goals to their
husbands’ wishes, stated Stare, and even more so to the needs of their children
whom they brought up carefully and independently, as: “During the first years,
Japanese children are fed and taken care of by none other than their mothers. The
mothers will never let other women take care of their babies, but will breastfeed
them themselves until the third, often even the fifth year of their lives”.31
Stare had many bad things to say about the faithfulness of the married
Japanese men, who would supposedly often neglect their wives, chase them away,
and replace them with other women; and just like the Chinese they supposedly
27
28
29
30
31
Ibid., p. 137.
Ibid., p. 138.
Ibid., p. 138.
Ibid., p. 138.
Ibid., p. 139.
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often “take other women in addition to their true wives, and then their household is no longer a happy one, as one woman will plot against the other and each
of them will want to be the most important”.32 In the author’s opinion, this was
purportedly also because for the Japanese, as well as for the Chinese, marriage
was not a matter of the state or the church, but rather only a family ceremony:
“Marriages, solemnized in such a manner, can easily be dissolved in the event
that the husband gets tired of the wife.”33 Thus, mothers paid special attention to
the upbringing of their daughters, in order to teach them to fulfil their husbands’
needs and wishes in their entirety.
In his descriptions of the interiors of the Japanese houses, “which do not
contain much furniture in comparison with ours”, Stare often compared the
Japanese practices with the Chinese. The same rooms were used for eating as
well as for sleeping, and the wife had to take care of everything and especially
pay attention to her husband: “The Japanese custom where the man of the house
eats alone and the wife attends to him is peculiar – only when the husband is
full and goes to rest, does the wife sit behind the table. However, she can only
take pleasure in food and drink in the knowledge that she has served her husband well and that he has been pleased with her in every way.”34 The Japanese
diet was mostly vegetarian, and therefore the Japanese “agriculture is especially
remarkable”.35
Stare described another bad habit, an old tradition that had remained despite
Japan’s opening itself to Western cultural influences: “pricking with needles or
‘tattooing’”. According to him, “Like savages, the Japanese also use needles to
draw on their skin all over their bodies, ‘adorning’ them with stars, flowers, or
even images of dragons.”36 The author added that this custom had by no means
been eradicated, despite the more recent prohibition by the government.
Due to frequent earthquakes, the Japanese lived in small wooden houses,
which were therefore all the more vulnerable to another danger: fire. However,
firefighting had a long tradition in Japan. The houses were illuminated by candles and warmed with embers in containers. Therefore Stare expressed some
doubt about what was normally one of the most highly praised Japanese characteristics: “Despite the famous Japanese cleanliness, their houses are sometimes
not entirely clean, for some smoke does spread from the foul-smelling candles as
well as from their fireplaces, because they do not have any chimneys.”37
32
33
34
35
36
37
Ibid., p. 139.
Ibid., p. 139.
Ibid., p. 140.
Ibid., p. 142.
Ibid., p. 140.
Ibid., p. 141.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
Josip Stare concluded his description of life in Japan with an outline of
the recent political, economic, and technological changes. Several times he
described the Japanese as skilled craftsmen, who had initially looked to the
Chinese but soon outmatched them, while lately they had been mimicking the
European models. “Especially in the last years, profound changes have taken
place in Japan: overnight they wish to rearrange everything in accordance with
the European example.”38 That is why the Emperor introduced numerous reforms, started sending the Japanese youth to the European universities, modernized the Japanese education system, “introduced our Christian calendar, and
even convened a National Assembly in accordance with the European example”.
By encouraging railway and ship transportation, the Japanese had strengthened
their international trade. The readers of Stare’s book could feel this as well, because “today one can find a variety of European products in the Japanese stores,
similarly as our stores may offer Japanese products”.39
In light of all of the above, if we ask ourselves what the average Slovenian
would have known about Japan and its inhabitants at the end of the 19th century,
the answer is clear: very little. In schools, students only learned a few basic geographical facts, though they were most likely unable to visualize them very well.
Other descriptions – the aforementioned texts as well as the miniscule details
published in the press – were dominated by images that were most likely not very
different from the views that the majority of other Europeans held of Japan. The
only exceptions were those who were superiorly educated, as well as the people
who started coming into closer contact with the Japanese trade. However, for
the majority of Slovenes, Japan was a greater mystery than even India or China,
to take an example, had been. This was also obvious from the above mentioned
descriptions, in which certain characteristics of Japanese everyday life were
equaled to the Chinese or described as somewhat different from the Chinese –
because it was self-evident for the authors of these sorts of descriptions that their
readers were more familiar with the Chinese reality and that these sorts of comparisons were a good way to present Japan as well.
The Slovenian press ascribed some very commendable characteristics to the
Japanese, especially cleanliness and tidiness. In their concern about the cleanliness and tidiness of their living environment, the Japanese were supposedly very
different from the Chinese, whose cultural customs the Japanese had otherwise
assumed, as the authors would often emphasize. Unlike the Chinese, the Japanese
were more open to novelties, and in the recent decades, this had been apparent
in their swift opening and adaptation to European and American influences and
38 Ibid., p. 142.
39 Ibid., p. 143.
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lifestyle. Naturally, this openness for “our” civilization was regarded as positive
by the Slovenian press.
In contrast, the press underlined the negative fact that in the past, the
Japanese had persecuted Christians and the Christian religion. The beliefs and
religious customs of the Japanese were a great mystery, though this was relatively unimportant in comparison with the fact that centuries ago they had suppressed the achievements of those who had spread Christianity in Japan. Due
to this unfamiliarity with their religious traditions, some of the Japanese traditions were described as unusual, exotic, and unacceptable to the Western world.
Meanwhile, certain character traits – which were not even necessarily described
realistically – acquired an exceedingly negative reputation. Of these we should
certainly mention references to the infidelity of Japanese men, the (allegedly frequent) poor treatment of their wives, and the unequal position of women in the
family. Naturally, the outlook on Japanese family relations was based on the idealization of family relations in the Christian world.
Until the end of the 19th century, Japan had been an unknown distant land
for the majority of the population that lived in the territory of today’s Slovenia.
This was also confirmed by the fact that the Slovenian language at the time did
not yet contain any generally-established names for Japanese cities or leaders.
Besides “Japonska”, the Slovenian name for Japan that only became established
later, we can also come across names like “Japan” or “Japonija”. In the Slovenian
language at that time, the Japanese people were not necessarily “Japonci”, but
also “Japanezi”. The names of Japanese cities were even more problematic and
only started to acquire their final form when reports and references to Japan in
the European and thus also Slovenian press were no longer rare exceptions, but
became almost everyday occurrences. This happened with the outbreak of the
Russo-Japanese War in 1904.
ON THE “YELLOW PERIL” IN THE TIME OF THE
RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
Just like elsewhere in the world, in Slovenia, the Russo-Japanese War increased the interest of the local population in the previously little-known country of Japan and its people. After the outbreak of the war, the Slovenian press
started publishing extensive military reports. It was obvious which side in the
war Slovenians would sympathize with. Russia was like a big brother to Slovenia;
a land which Slovenians had learned much about from the local books and newspapers. At the beginning of the war, many renowned Slovenians voiced their
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
support of Russia loudly and sent their regards and expressed their wishes for
a swift Russian victory. Russia’s cultural achievements had already been known
among the Slovenian intellectuals, and at the beginning of the 20th century, neoSlavic ideas had grown stronger among Slovenians as well.
Russia’s opponent in the war that captured the attention of the whole world
was practically unknown to the small Slovenian nation that was striving for its
own cultural emancipation in a multinational European state. Therefore the
war that Japan participated in also represented an opportunity for the Slovene
journalists to write about this land, its inhabitants, and their customs more frequently. At first, the journalists would mostly refer to the negative evaluations of
the Japanese, which resulted in insulting and racist descriptions of the Japanese
people and their character. The Slovenian press saw Japan’s progress as “the yellow peril”, and when the conflict between Russia and Japan started escalating,
the Slovenec newspaper wrote several weeks before the beginning of the war, that
“In the east, Russia is performing an incredibly important cultural role in the
name of Europe as it strives to rein in the yellow peril and Buddhism.”40
On 8 February 1904, the Slovenski narod newspaper bragged “that our newspaper was the first one to publish that the war could break out ‘today or tomorrow’. No other newspapers – neither Austrian, German, nor British – reported
this, which should convince the Slovenian public of the excellence of our connections.” Apart from aggrandizing Russia, the Slovenski narod wrote that Japan
had gone to war “without any hope of victory”. Referring to a statement made by
an (unnamed) Slavic diplomat who had lived in Japan for a long time, it claimed
that a part of the Japanese leadership was supposedly aware of this, but that
Japan had succumbed to the wish to go to war with Russia because “the Japanese
are born optimists. Every Japanese who buys a lottery ticket is immediately, from
the outset, convinced that they will hit the jackpot. Thus the Japanese also believe that Japan will win, no matter whom they fight, especially since they won
against the Chinese in the last war.”41 The reference to the swift development of
Japan in the recent decades was followed by a very disdainful article on the influence of this development on the character of the Japanese people: “Outwardly,
the Japanese might appear civilized, but on the inside they are the same Asiatic
barbarians as before. Under the influence of European civilization, the Japanese
people, who had earlier been honest and open like all barbarians, have become
lying, scheming, dishonest and stubborn chauvinists, who see themselves as the
most important nation in the world. Consequently, hatred of foreigners in Japan
has been increasing on a daily basis, and now the animosity has already attained
40 Slovenec, XXXII, No. 4, 7. 1. 1904, p. 1, Rumena nevarnost.
41 Slovenski narod, XXXVII, No. 30, 8. 2. 1904, p. 1, Vojna na daljnem vzhodu.
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dimensions that cannot even be compared with China.” After acknowledging
that in comparison with the other Asian countries, the Japanese Army was exemplary, the journalist added that it could nevertheless not compete against any
of the European superpowers. “Japan will undoubtedly be defeated,” the journalist stated, and added that at which point the Japanese would retaliate and
take it out on the foreigners “that currently live in Japan. In this event, atrocities against foreigners will be committed, the likes of which history has perhaps
never seen.”42
In the following days, the Slovenian newspapers were full of derogatory and
insulting descriptions of other races, nations, and religions. The liberally-oriented Slovenski narod newspaper expressed its fondness of Russia by humiliating the Japanese and those who supported them, especially the British and
the Americans. Even though it mentioned the Japanese openness to the influences of European civilization, the newspaper also emphasized that the Japanese
had adopted these influences in their own “Asiatic” manner, and that they were
merely copying and repeating – without creating anything new on their own.
“The Japanese are a very practical people, lacking any imagination, and therefore
they make especially good merchants. They particularly excel in their special
talent of at least outwardly adapting to foreign, European culture.” The Japanese
were said to be hardworking and very tidy, which “distinguishes them from all
other Asiatic nations”. However, in terms of character, the Japanese were supposedly “incredibly untrustworthy lying and vengeful people, and very immoral
as well” – allegedly they “excelled” in all the negative character traits. The description of Japan’s significant progress in the last decades – for example regarding education, organization, and the democratization of their political system
– was immediately followed by doubt: “Japan now has its own constitution and
National Assembly in accordance with the European example, but it is questionable whether the Japanese people, who are currently still essentially barbaric and
rude are mature enough and ready for such modern institutions.”43
Responsibility for the outbreak of the war and breach of international law
was ascribed to one side only, which was, without any shadow of a doubt, Japan.
Slovenian journalists shuddered at the thought that “the dwarfish Japanese, who
have joined the circle of the civilized nations only a generation ago”, were able to
secure the support of certain European nations, especially the British and partly
also the Germans. Without any hesitation, they claimed that the Russian victory,
which initially nobody doubted even for a second, would also be important for
Slovenians: “We have to openly admit that a Russian defeat would not be as fatal
42 Ibid., p. 2.
43 Slovenski narod, XXXVII, No. 31, 9. 2. 1904, p. 1, Vojna na Daljnem vztoku.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
for Russia alone, as much as for the other Slavs as well. We should not assume
that we, the rest of the Slavs, do not need Russia, and that we can rely on our own
strength. That would be a grave mistake. A strong, respectable Russia represents
a considerable moral support for all Slavs, and the Slavs will only be taken seriously for as long as Russia remains mighty and influential. It is certain that in
the event that Russia’s reputation should suffer were it to be defeated in this fight,
the Austrian Slavs would be pushed against the wall even harder than before.”44
Thus the initial news of the Japanese military successes was received with
skepticism and as false news from the countries that supported Japan in the
war. The news that Russian soldiers in Manchuria and Vladivostok had allegedly robbed Japanese houses and massacred the Japanese people was rejected
even more resolutely: “These are nothing but malicious lies, and nobody will
believe the Japanese, except perhaps for a few fanatical Englishmen or Austrian
Germans! The Japanese with their thirty-year-old culture could be capable
of such actions, but never the civilized Russians!” an upset journalist of the
Slovenski narod newspaper wrote.45
The Catholic newspaper Slovenec also involved another people whom it saw
as eternally hostile to the Christian Slavs: the Jews. “What will happen? All the
newspapers keep writing about this. Naturally, the main Jewish newspapers keep
supporting Japan, as the Slavic culture is by no means close to the Jews. This is
how the Jews show their anger towards Russia, because Russia keeps treading
on their toes in a way that they deserve.” Thus the Slovenian newspapers ascribed the first reports of Japanese military achievements exclusively to Jewish
and British propaganda, while advising their readership: “Once again we recommend that our readers do not get upset by what London reports. Even if the
Japanese see any further victories at sea, the final victory will undoubtedly be
Russian.”46
For several months after the beginning of the war, the Slovenian newspapers
kept referring to the reports of the Japanese victories as a part of the anti-Russian
propaganda. Only when the Russian press started reporting on their own military losses and defeats did the skeptical Slovenians begin to suspect that the great
Slavic Russia might not win the war so easily after all. However, they remained
optimistic in their reports that the Russians still had considerable reserves that
could be deployed at the front, and that on the other hand, Japan had exhausted
all of its military resources due to the several months of fighting and would soon
go bankrupt. Subsequently, Russian reinforcements would supposedly soon put
44 Slovenski narod, XXXVII, No. 34, 12. 2. 1904, p. 1, Vojna na Daljnem vztoku.
45 Ibid., p. 2.
46 Slovenec, XXXII, No. 34, 12. 2. 1904, p. 1, Vojska.
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a stop to the opponent’s advance, which would not only mean that Japan would
be stopped in this concrete war; supposedly this would also be an achievement of
the white civilization, as a journalist of the Slovenec newspaper hinted in October
1904: “The yellow peril does not only threaten Russia, but also – even more so –
the rest of Europe. Already in this regard we should hope that the Russians manage to subdue the yellow troops that are marching towards the West. The sooner
the Japanese are defeated, the better for them, as well as for Europe.”47
The Russo-Japanese War was certainly the first conflict to be covered by the
Slovenian press with so much photographic material. While the newspapers covered the war extensively, the Dom in svet magazine published an extensive collection of photos from the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and 1905. The editor of
the magazine was the Catholic priest Evgen Lampe, himself a passionate photographer. During his editorship, the magazine paid considerable attention to this
new technological development. Lampe invested much effort in collecting newspaper reports and photos, and in 1906 he published a book Vojska na Daljnem
Vzhodu (War in the Far East), which he edited and largely wrote himself. The
380-page book mostly focused on military and political issues and was written
in a tone that favored the Slavic land of Russia. This was already obvious from the
simple fact that the cover showed the supreme commander of the Russian Army
in East Asia, while the book concluded with the wish that the internal political
conflicts in Russia would be resolved as soon as possible: “The external war was
followed by an internal conflict. We hope that the Russian internal struggles end
more fortunately than its war in the Far East has progressed.”48
Despite the clear support shown to Russia by the majority of Slovenians, the
contents of the book were not insulting towards the Japanese – like the Slovenian
newspapers had been at the beginning of the war. The fact that the majority of the
reports described matters from the Russian viewpoint can also be ascribed to the
fact that the editor had access to the Russian press as well as to the newspapers
favorably disposed towards the Russians, and that the Japanese or American and
British press which favored Japan was relatively unknown in Slovenia.
Initially, the author or editor tried to remain neutral. He wrote that both
of the opponents fought for the same goals: “This war is of global importance,
as two significant parts of the human race are fighting: the white and the yellow tribe.– The Russians and the Japanese are fighting, first and foremost, each
for their own superiority in East Asia.”49 The rise of the United States and the
Japanese victory in the war would, according to the author’s opinion, threaten
47 Slovenec, XXXII, No, 224, 1. 10. 1904, p. 3, Rusko-japonska vojska.
48 Lampe, Evgen (ed.). Vojska na Daljnem Vzhodu. Ljubljana: Založba “Dom in Sveta”, 1906, p. 380.
49 Ibid., p. 1.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
the several millennia of Europe’s leading position in the world. “This fight is
especially interesting for us Slovenians,”50 the author believed, as Japan had supposedly gone to war precisely at the time when Russia and Austria had started
negotiating the resolution of the situation in the Balkans. The author hinted that
the war had interrupted the attempts to defuse the Balkan powder keg, a question which could be solved in accordance with the wishes of both Austria and
the great Slavic Russia.
The description of the beginning and development of the war assigned the
whole blame to Japan. The Japanese cunningness, lack of any principles, and
breach of the written and unwritten political rules were mentioned several times.
The selfish Japanese interests in the wars in the Far East were mentioned often,
as the Japanese supposedly only wanted to increase their territory and exploit
the local resources. There were no such hints when it came to Russia or the other
European colonialists – as if they had arrived in the Far East with nothing but
good intentions for the local populations. Whatever could be seen as positive for
Japan was written in a more reserved manner.
The Europeans were allegedly also surprised by the Japanese belligerence,
supposedly resulting from their upbringing in accordance with the notion that
it was worth dying for one’s homeland in a fight with the enemy. As a Catholic
priest, Evgen Lampe wrote: “The deeper reason for such contempt for life can
be found in the pagan religious principles of the Japanese.”51 The political modernization of Japan was evaluated as somewhat more positive. Unlike Russia,
which was “still under absolutist rule where the Tsar has all the power in his
hands, Japan has, on the other hand, adapted to modern development also in
this sense, and it has a National Assembly in accordance with the model of the
other European countries”.52 Lampe may have remarked bitterly that many a
European ruler could only wish for a National Assembly that would simply confirm the ruler’s proposals obediently, but he added that “not even in Japan does
everything go smoothly. Consider a state which has developed so swiftly – we
could almost say overnight – from an Asian country into a ‘civilized’ empire!”53
On several occasions, the author would return to the issue of Japanese belligerence, fanaticism, and supposedly a different attitude to life than that of the
Europeans. Lampe also underlined this unusual attitude to life and death in
his descriptions of hara-kiri. Allegedly, the Japanese had such traditions due to
their “confused religious principles”,54 – the latter of which Lampe ascribed to
50
51
52
53
54
Ibid., p. 3.
Ibid., p. 93.
Ibid., p. 110.
Ibid., p. 111.
Ibid., p. 170.
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Buddhists and Shintoists. In this regard, he also mentioned blood feuds, which
was another example of double standards. As it was, vendetta was a very familiar phenomenon in the Balkans, which Slovenians sympathized with as they
wished to ensure, with the Russians’ assistance, a closer cooperation between the
Southern Slavs. From this angle, the description of how the Japanese saw their
opponents was very interesting as well. The hatred towards the Russians was
purportedly contributed to by their upbringing and the media that incited hatred, “and the peasants pay the price just to be free of these terrible Russians that
they themselves have never even seen or come into any contact with, except on
the battlefield”.55 Attentive readers might have doubted whether the journalists
of the Slovenec, Slovenski narod, Dom in svet and other Slovenian newspapers
and magazines which shaped the Slovenians’ opinion of the Japanese, had ever
had any contacts at all with the Japanese themselves.
Towards the end of the book, in the chapter on the peace negotiations after the war, Lampe wrote that both sides were dissatisfied with the results. The
author even somewhat exaggerated his descriptions of the Japanese disappointment with the peace treaty. However, not even an author as favorably inclined
towards the Russians as Lampe could overlook the changes brought about by
the war. He simply wrote the following: “Politically, Japan is no longer merely an
island nation, but a considerable force with generally recognized property on the
continent. Its influence on China, which has already been extremely profound,
will only keep increasing with every passing year.”56
THE CHANGING ATTITUDE TOWARDS JAPAN
AFTER THE WAR
People became aware of this fact all over the world, even in Austria and
in the Austrian provinces inhabited by Slovenians. It was also reflected in the
school textbooks where Japan had previously barely been mentioned. The new
textbook from 1912 – Zgodovina novega veka od westfalskega miru do današnjih
dni za višje razrede srednjih šol57 (History of the Modern Times from the Peace
of Westphalia Until Today for the Higher Grades of Secondary Schools) – was
very different. The textbook was written by the secondary-school teachers Franc
Komatar and Matija Pirc. It adhered to the traditional Eurocentric model, and
the chapter Postanek sistema svetovnih držav (The Origins of the System of the
55 Ibid., p. 230.
56 Ibid., p. 308.
57 Komatar, Franc in Pirc, Mat.. Zgodovina novega veka od westfalskega miru do današnjih dni za višje
razrede srednjih šol. Ljubljana: Društvo slovenskih profesorjev, 1912.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
World States)58 did not yet mention Japan among the superpowers that had divided the world up amongst themselves in the struggle for colonies. However,
new information was added in the conclusion of the textbook, where the rise of
Japan in the East Asian space was described on several pages.59
After the war, Japan became a country that could not simply be overlooked,
not even in Slovenia. In July 1912 – in the same year when the first textbook that
paid somewhat more attention to Japan was published in Slovenia – the Japanese
Emperor Meiji or Mutsuhito died. He was the first Japanese Emperor that the
Slovenian newspapers had ever written about. They also mentioned the modernization of Japan and the expansion of this state’s territory during Emperor
Meiji’s rule. For example, the Štajerc newspaper wrote the following: “The late
emperor was a very forward-thinking man. Under his rule, Japan underwent
an enormous cultural, economic, and political transformation, while earlier it
had resembled China in all aspects. Japan is now a modern country, comparable
to the European superpowers, and global politics certainly have to take it into
account.”60
Unlike at the end of the 19th century, after the Russo-Japanese War in 1904
and 1905, Japan was mentioned regularly in the reports of the Slovenian daily
political newspapers, even more so in the years after World War I. As a member
of the camp victorious in World War I, Japan’s influence on the political map of
the world increased. This was followed by reports of its political contacts and the
signing of international treaties and agreements with the global superpowers.
The leading global news agencies wrote about these issues regularly, and their
reports were also published by the Slovenian press. How Japan was seen by the
Slovenian media can be illustrated with a report published in the Slovenski dom
newspaper in May 1920. The basic information about the negotiations between
the British and the Japanese governments on the extension of the cooperation
agreement between Great Britain and Japan, which was to expire shortly, was followed by a short evaluation: “The Anglo-Japanese Alliance in fact helped Japan
ensure its hegemony in Asia. Its alliance with England allowed Japan to defeat
two of the largest global superpowers (China and Russia), annex Korea, and receive Kiautschou Bay and Shandong from Germany. Now the Japanese control
the main Chinese and Siberian ports, as they had also conquered Vladivostok,
Sakhalin, and the Amur province.”61
Newspapers mostly published short and exceedingly political news items
about Japan, but scarcely anything about the Japanese people or their culture.
58
59
60
61
Ibid., pp. 243–261.
Ibid., pp. 274–277.
Štajerc, 13, 1912, No. 31, p. 3, Japonski cesar umrl.
Slovenski narod, LIII, No. 116, 23. 5. 1920, p. 5, Angleško-japonska zveza.
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At least some journalists were obviously aware of this, as they started adding
explanations that Japan was no longer what it used to be, that it was not simply a
new superpower, but also a modern state, undergoing a swift modernization. In
March 1923, the Jutro newspaper thus commented in the contribution meaningfully entitled Moderna Japonska (Modern Japan), that “we Europeans still believe
that Japan is exclusively what we see in the operas and operettas about Japanese
life. Bamboo and paper! Grotesque little houses and grotesque people, as if at
a masquerade.”62 As the article is not signed, it is not clear whether this was an
original text or a summary or translation from another newspaper. In any case,
the article also reflected the Slovenian viewpoint, as Slovenians could also get
ideas about Japan from certain performances in the Narodno gledališče theatre.
These, however, actually reflected the European outlook on the unknown lands,
which did not have much to do with reality. Already in the 1920/21 season, the
opera house staged a short opera The Village School by the Austrian composer
Felix Weingartner, based on the old Japanese tragedy Terakoya, which was even
repeated a few times in the following season. However, the Slovenian cultural
audience also based its impressions of Japan on Giacomo Puccini’s Madame
Butterfly, which was known at least for its music, as its individual parts were
often included in the programs of various orchestras. A journalist of the Jutro
newspaper also wrote that the country’s victorious wars and collaboration with
Europe and America had already thoroughly erased the image of the old Japan
and created a new one: “Japanese cities already contain a large number of ’skyscrapers’ – tall buildings with a large number of floors. Technology in Japan is
superb: express trains rush around the country, and battleships as well as the
newest vessels are moored in their harbors. Modern lifts, modern warehouses, modern icehouses, typists, enormous factory smokestacks – all of this gives
Japan a new Euro-American face.”63
Besides the usual political news, the newspapers also described an occasional peculiarity from the life of the Japanese, for example their focus on personal
hygiene, which was supposedly far superior to the European level.64 During the
Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s, Japan once again ended up on the front pages of the Slovenian press. The articles were mainly reports, based on the news
from other European newspapers. Consequently, they sympathized with the
European forces that opposed the Japanese aggression against China. The translations of news from foreign press agencies were, however, not followed by any
original commentary or analyses of the events.
62 Jutro, IV, No. 53, 4. 3. 1923, p. 5, Moderna Japonska.
63 Ibid.
64 Jutro, IV, No. 266, 13. 11. 1923, p. 5, Japonec in kopelj.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
All that the majority of Slovenes knew about Japan was still what they had
learned about it in school, which was not very much. A few additional paragraphs on Japan only appeared at the very end of the textbooks for the final
grade of secondary school. The textbook Zgodovina novega veka (History of the
Modern Times), written by Franc Komatar and Karl Capuder and published in
1924, described Japan on a page and a half in one of the final chapters, entitled
Izvenevropske dežele (Non-European Lands). Already the fact that Japan was the
first to be addressed from among these countries, attests to its role in the world.
It was mentioned before China and even before the United States – the authors
only dedicated a few modest sentences even to the latter superpower, which had
otherwise resorted to an isolationist policy. With regard to Japan, the authors
included a few basic pieces of information about how Japan had resisted Western
influences and Christianity since the beginning of the 17th century, finally
opened its doors after 1860, and started adopting European cultural influences
and modernizing itself rapidly since then. The authors also underlined the discrepancy between the country’s swift economic development and social issues,
as “the economic and social issues are increasingly unfavorable due to the rapid
industrialization and backward social legislation (female and child labor).”65
The textbook Zgodovina najnovejše dobe (The Most Recent History), written by the secondary-school teacher Janko Orožen from Celje and published
in 1933, paid even less attention to the non-European countries. It barely even
mentioned the United States of America, China was virtually non-existent, and
Japan only appeared in the chapter Rusija in Daljni Vzhod (Russia and the Far
East). Only a bit more than half a page was dedicated to the development of
Japan with the main emphasis on its openness towards the Western world. The
text on the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and 1905 was somewhat longer, but it
was not followed by any commentary on what the war had meant for the situation in the Far East and for the role of Japan in the modern world. Instead, the
author only emphasized that the defeat in the war had resulted in the beginnings
of constitutional life in Russia.66
After World War I Japanese themes started appearing more often in various
works of art. Already the aforementioned contribution stated that the European
world – and Slovenian space with it – still perceived the Far East from its own
European perspective. Films, dramas, and operas saw Japan through the eyes of
the rather ignorant Europeans and applied European outlooks and criteria, yet it
65 Komatar, Franc in Capuder, Karl. Zgodovina novega veka: za višje razrede srednjih šol. Ljubljana:
Jugoslovanska knjigarna, 1924, p. 333.
66 Orožen, Janko. Zgodovina najnovejše dobe: za VIII. razred srednjih šol: (1815–1920). Ljubljana:
Tiskana Merkur, 1933, pp. 157–160.
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was impossible to directly familiarize oneself with the Japanese outlook on reality and Japan itself through the works that were available to the Slovenian public.
Average Slovenians were thus unable to get to know Japanese film and theatre
directly, but could only base their opinions on the deliberations of European
authors, who imagined the topic in their own way – mainly on the basis of the
works by Japanese authors available to them and not from any firsthand experience.
Just like opera enthusiasts elsewhere in the Western world, the audience at
the Narodno gledališče theatre and opera in Ljubljana envisioned Japan mostly
on the basis of how it was presented in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, which was
staged quite often. However, instead of asking themselves whether this work involved a more Japanese or a more European perception of reality, Slovenians
were also known to argue about whether the performance was Slovenian enough.
When a German opera singer appeared in the title role of Madame Butterfly
or Cho-Cho-San and performed in the German language, the newspapers were
filled with outrage, wondering why singing in the German language was allowed
when it had supposedly been finally expelled from the Slovenian cultural institutions in 1918.67 During the staging of this work in the 1935/36 season, the
Gledališki list publication of the Narodno gledališče theatre explained to its readers that Puccini had used certain characteristics of Japanese music, but that he
had only been able to familiarize himself with it through the records sent to him
by a friend from Yokohama. With regard to the music and the opera as a whole,
Puccini had preserved a significant part of the characteristics of his other operas, thus fusing together elements from two musical worlds. “At the same time,
the Japanese Butterfly also adopts the spirit of the new Italian music,” stated the
translation of an older review from Vienna, included in the Ljubljana Gledališki
list publication.68
In the Drama theatre, Far Eastern motives arrived on stage with the works of
the German dramatist Klabund (Alfred Henschke used the pseudonym Klabund
after the publication of his first collection of poetry). In the 1933/34 season, his
play The Cherry Blossom Festival was a true hit. Klabund based his adaptation
on the aforementioned tragedy The Village School, as it had been written by
Takeda Izumo. The tragedy about love and sacrifice received excellent responses from theatre critics, who could not praise the work highly enough. Many of
them also urged those who had not seen the performance yet to take the time
and acquire the tickets.69 The audience reacted accordingly, and with sixteen
67 Slovenski narod, LXI, No. 16, 19. 1. 1928, p. 2, Fr. G.: Ljubljanska opera.
68 Gledališki list Narodnega gledališča v Ljubljani – Opera, 1935/36, No. 2, pp. 10–12, Madame Butterfly.
69 Gledališki list Narodnega gledališča v Ljubljani – Drama, 1934/35, No. 11, pp. 82–84, Nekaj sestavkov
iz slovenskih kritik o “prazniku cvetočih češenj”.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
repeats, Klabund’s play was the second greatest hit of the 1933/34 season on the
stage of the Narodno gledališče in Ljubljana – with only a single new Slovenian
play garnering more repeats that season.70 Klabund’s play saw many repeats
also in the following season, and in the 1939/40 season the theatre staged the
work anew. However, Josip Vidmar wrote in the Gledališki list publication of the
Drama theatre that this was nevertheless an adaptation in line with European
criteria, as he made the assessment that Klabund had preserved “all the greatness
of the ancient original, but added enough soft and gentle erotic lyricism that the
careful viewer can distinguish it from the monumental greatness of the Japanese
poet”71 in his play.
The interest in the Far East was also indicated by the decision of the theatre
management that in the following season, 1940/41, another work by Klabund
would be staged which was yet again based on a literary work from the world
so distant from Europe: the play The Chalk Circle, based on the motifs of the
Chinese dramatist Li Qianfu. Ciril Debevc, the director of these two performances, informed the Slovenian audience that neither of the plays, especially not
the “Japanese” one, depicted the culture of these nations and that they were not
actual representations of reality. He wrote the following about Klabund’s plays:
“From the literary point of view, Klabund’s ‘The Chalk Circle’ in its European
form is much closer to me – and perhaps also to the audience – than it is closer to
the original and thus more consistent and complete in terms of style. We cannot
claim this in the case of ‘The Cherry Blossom Festival’, for example (which was
written by a Japanese author). To his adaptation of the ‘Festival’, Klabund has
nevertheless added many European – I could almost say sentimental – elements,
which have decisively altered the original’s elevated, hard, and merciless face.”72
To claim that the audience hoped to see exotic otherness in both of these performances would probably not be far from the truth. After all, Mila Šarič, who
starred in the main role in both these plays by Klabund, understood the works
in this manner as well. When a journalist who believed that after these sorts
of experiences she might have felt “a special attitude towards the Chinese and
Japanese cultures” posed her a question to this effect, Šarič answered honestly:
“Frankly speaking, I don’t have any special attitude to these cultures, at least not
consciously. However, I am fascinated by the exotic nature of the Chinese and
Japanese legends and motifs, especially when they are communicated in such a
70 Gledališki list Narodnega gledališča v Ljubljani – Drama, 1934/35, No. 3, pp. 19–23, Letno poročilo
Narodnega gledališča v Ljubljani za sezono 1933–34.
71 Vidmar, J.[osip]. Klabund: Praznik cvetočih češenj. Gledališki list Narodnega gledališča v Ljubljani –
Drama, 1939/40, No. 12, pp. 89–92, p. 90.
72 Gledališki list Narodnega gledališča v Ljubljani – Drama, 1940/41, No. 10, p. 86, Razgovor z režiserjem
“Kroga s kredo”, C. Debevcem (pp. 85–88).
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poetic and ethically superior form as the plays you have mentioned. Thus I have
no choice but to love these works.”73
THE FIRST SLOVENIAN DESCRIPTION OF JAPAN BASED
ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
In Slovenia, the perception of Japanese culture still lacked the perspective of
someone who had seen Japan with their own eyes, experienced it, and assessed it
without resorting to the European prejudice and stereotypes. Alma Karlin was
the first to present such a point of view to Slovenians. She was born in Celje
in 1889 and lost her father early on. She had travelled around Europe with her
mother already as a young child. Alma developed a passion for familiarizing
herself with foreign environments while studying the languages, different philosophic viewpoints and customs of other nations. She was a keen reader on the
subjects of history, geography, nature, and the customs in foreign environments.
She also began to compose a dictionary of ten languages, one of them Slovenian.
Although born to Slovenian parents, Alma mostly wrote in the German language, and therefore only a narrow intellectual circle was familiar with her work,
even in Slovenia. As a fluent speaker of several languages, she would quickly find
work as a teacher of foreign languages, translator, or journalist in any destination. In November 1920, when she was thirty-one, Alma decided to set out on a
long journey around the world, starting in Trieste. The first visa she received was
for Japan. However, she changed her decision that Japan would be the first leg of
her journey due to transportation complications and thus headed out towards
the west for an eight-year circumnavigation of the world. After visiting several
coastal regions, her first lengthy stay was in Peru. Then she travelled around the
Central American states for a while and finally reached Japan in June 1922, after
visiting California and Hawaii.74
She would describe her journey regularly in the Cillier Zeitung newspaper,
published in the German language in her hometown of Celje. Because of these
articles sent from all around the world, featuring the news of this unusual traveler who journeyed around the world and even met tribes that had rarely seen any
white people, her writing soon spread among the Slovene audience interested
in reading travelogues and descriptions of customs among other nations and
tribes less familiar to the Europeans. With the money she earned, she would
73 Slavec, Maša (=Maša Sl-eva). Razgovor z igralko glavne ženske vloge Milo Šaričevo. Gledališki list
Narodnega gledališča v Ljubljani – Drama, 1940/41, No. 10, pp. 84–85.
74 Šlibar, Vladimir. Alma M. Karlin – popotnica in zbirateljica. V: Počivavšek, Marija (ed.) Almine meje
in margine. Celje: Muzej novejše zgodovine, 2009, pp. 134–147.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
purchase items, collect postcards, and keep sending them home, which is why
her legacy also includes an extensive ethnological collection. After she had returned to Celje in the autumn of 1929, she worked on structuring her memoirs
more methodically. Finally she published them in a book Samotno potovanje v
daljne dežele (A Solitary Journey to Faraway Lands).75
Alma Karlin’s writings reflect an unusual spirit of accepting differences and
peculiarities. Unlike numerous Europeans who saw the white race as the most
developed of all the races and also evaluated the “primitivism” of other nations,
peoples, and tribes from this viewpoint, she described the customs of others by
comparing them with her own without any prejudice, superiority, or feelings of
adherence to a “higher” race. Her comparisons may indeed describe her own
view of the world and give an analysis of the behavior and customs of others
through her own eyes. However, just like she would state that certain habits of
others were not to her liking, she would, on other occasions, write without any
(white) prejudice, that the European customs in other cases did not rise to the
level of those that she was describing at a given moment.
Alma Karlin had very fond memories of Japan. She herself did not feel that
her work was pioneering in any way, as she believed that numerous Europeans
had already written about Japan or about other nations they had encountered
during their own travels. However, she probably overlooked the fact that barely
anyone had focused as seriously on studying the issue as she did. She lived in
Japan for one year. As she had found a well-paid job, this was one of the most
prosperous years during her eight-year journey, and thus she could familiarize
herself with different parts of Japan.
Of the everyday Japanese habits, Alma emphasized cleanliness and safety.
The muddy streets annoyed her, but she also wrote how “the Japanese who wear
Western footwear or that thing, somewhat reminiscent of shoes”,76 made sure to
keep their shoes clean. She also emphasized that unlike Europeans, who preferred
sitting, the Japanese would crouch and kneel instead. The amount of powder and
makeup that the Japanese women used was unusual for a European woman. As
far as personal hygiene was concerned, the fact that the Japanese did not use
handkerchiefs apparently bothered her the most, as even the Japanese children
from high society whom she taught foreign languages were often snotty. She also
described, without moralizing, the Japanese relaxed attitude towards nakedness,
incompatible with the strict criteria of the European bourgeois society. “Despite
everything, the Japanese are not immoral, not even by our standards. They see
75 Karlin, Alma. Samotno potovanje v daljne dežele: tragedija ženske. Celje: Celjska Mohorjeva družba,
2007.
76 Karlin, Alma. Popotne skice. Ljubljana: Kmečki glas, 1997, p. 74.
173
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nakedness in a completely detached manner,” Alma underlined to the European
readers, used to bourgeois moralism. Unusual scenes would only happen if the
European and Japanese culture came into contact in this regard. Thus she described an example of two locals helping a Russian woman who had collapsed in
the street by giving her a massage. “As fully-clothed people cannot be massaged
very well, I will leave the rest to the readers’ imagination,” Alma concluded in
her characteristically jocular tone.77
With regard to interpersonal family relations, Alma described an exceedingly subordinate relationship of women towards their husbands, but this did
not mean that the men did not respect their wives. She also spoke very highly
of the children’s upbringing, although she found it unusual that mothers would
carry even several-year-old children on their backs. However, bringing up children without spanking them – by merely providing suitable examples (with the
exception of teaching them how to wipe their noses) – greatly benefitted the
children: “Following the example set by their parents, the children become polite, serious, responsible, courageous, and used to restraint. As they are not such
savages as our children, there is no need whatsoever for any spanking.” She added that the unusual Japanese footwear might have contributed to this, because
“how are boys supposed to run around in such impossible sandals?”78
Alma was unable to come to terms with the Japanese postal system, though.
According to her, receiving and sending mail was far too complicated, and she
often had problems with it. However, everything would always turn out well in
the end. She was also bothered by the inconsistencies when arranging for meetings and appointments. Whenever she made an appointment at a specified time,
the meeting would often be postponed, which could involve a few redundant
chores and questions. After one such experience she simply concluded: “One
should not be in any hurry in Japan!”79
After she visited the red-light district of Yoshiwara, Alma wrote a more
detailed description of the relationship between men and women. She warned
the European readers that this article was not for children or “older ladies who
might hold an antiquated view of modern life and think that whatever is not
discussed or is merely whispered about in ladylike circles after the second cup of
coffee simply does not exist.”80 She began her account by explaining simply that
two kinds of women existed in Japan: wives and geishas. She did not only feel
sorry for the latter, but also for the former, as “the wife is merely a workhorse and
breeding animal”. Women got married young, following an agreement between
77
78
79
80
Ibid., p. 76.
Ibid., p. 77.
Ibid., p. 79.
Ibid., p. 80.
Gabrič: Slovenian Familiarization with Japan and the Japanese
the families, upon which the wife moved into her husband’s house and had to
obey him as well as his mother. “Her life is miserable until the son becomes the
master of the house and she becomes the mother-in-law, able to torture others.”
A few Japanese women discussed their unhappy family life with Alma, and she
wrote about it with more bluntness than her usual candor: “This is a type of
thing that I reject completely.”81
Because women could not educate themselves, the men would talk to geishas,
who were educated. Alma warned the European readers about the differences
between geishas and the joro, described the social circumstances that allowed
for this phenomenon, and added that the Japanese attitude to these women was
different, as “they are not seen as sinners”.82 During her visit to Yoshiwara, which
she saw in the company of a young artist, she did not come across any other
women who might be sightseeing, but only encountered men, who, however,
were not impolite. She was surprised at the peace and ordinariness, as “white
people, who might go there in order to see something – I mean something scandalous – would be thoroughly disappointed.”83 She concluded the text by summarizing how different the attitude towards prostitution and the degradation of
women for money was in the West: “I have to admit that I was unable to breathe
freely during my hike around Yoshiwara, as I could not stop considering what a
random European might stoop to in such circumstances.”84
Thus Alma Karlin was the first Slovenian woman to write at length about her
stay in Japan. It is not known how many readers got to know her initial works as
they were published, because her writing only became more popular in the decades after her death. Her approach was certainly different from the previous stereotypical remarks of the Europeans about the inhabitants of other continents,
which mostly stemmed from the European white superiority complex. Her travelogues were printed at a very specific time, which most likely contributed to her
works not attracting more attention as soon as they were published. As it was, in
the 1930s the Western media would mostly write about the Japanese aggression
against China, the cruelty of its army, and its disregard for the principles of international politics. Such an atmosphere was not particularly suitable for works
that described Japanese customs without any pre-existing prejudice.
81
82
83
84
Ibid., p. 81.
Ibid., p. 82.
Ibid., p. 84.
Ibid., p. 85.
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Hirayama: The Community of “Experience” and “Mood” …
Noboru Hirayama
THE COMMUNITY
OF “EXPERIENCE”
AND “MOOD”:
Pilgrimage Tourism to Ise Jingu in
the Early 20Th Century Japan
INTRODUCTION
Recent research on modern Japan has discussed the importance of the “New
Nationalism” in interwar Japan.1 In this discussion, researchers stress that modern Japan’s nationalism entered a new stage in the 1910s, especially after WWI,
and that this new nationalism was promoted and spread rather by capitalism (the
amusement market) than by state policy (education). One of the most well-known
examples is “Kingu”, the most popular magazine in interwar Japan. Its motto
was “Pleasant & Instructive (Educational)”, and therefore the majority of people
– from the intellectual elite to non-elite ordinary people – read this magazine
enthusiastically and absorbed the nationalistic and moral values it publicized.
1
山野晴雄・成田龍一「民衆文化とナショナリズム」(Yamano, Haruo, Narita, Ryuichi. Ordinary
people’s culture and nationalism). In: 『講座日本歴史9 近代3』東京大学出版会 (Lectures on
Japanese History, vol. 9, Modern Times 3, Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press), 1985.
177
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Although I basically agree with this view, I think that the research to date has
focused mainly on the mass media2 and has not sufficiently analyzed the impact of
transportation and tourism. Having such a viewpoint in mind, I aim to analyze 1)
the interaction between tourism and nationalism and 2) the formation and spread
of mass nationalism based on feelings or emotions rather than reason, by looking
at the Ise Jingu tourism in early 20th century Japan as a case study.
THE SPREAD OF “EXPERIENCE”
Ise Jingu(伊勢神宮), officially ‘Jingu(神宮)’, is dedicated to AmaterasuOmikami(天照大神) and Toyo’uke-no-Omikami(豊受大御神), whereby the
former is believed to have been the original ancestor of the Imperial Family.
This shrine was already very popular among the populace during the Edo era,
but it was in the 1910s, especially from 1917 onwards, that the number of people
making a pilgrimage to this shrine increased dramatically.3 This increase was
promoted with two parallel underpinnings—the ideological and the infrastructural (economical).
The Ideological Underpinning
In the 1910s, there emerged a certain type of discourse, which put supreme
emphasis on the ‘experience(体験)’ of making a pilgrimage to the Ise Shrine.
What was characteristic of this type of discourse was that it often stressed that
spirituality based on ‘experience’ was far superior to ‘reason’ or ‘logic’.
(In order to educate people and make them good subjects,) it is essential
to make them visit shrines, especially the Ise Shrine, and educate them
based on the experience they have there. It is utterly of no use just educating them by using textbooks or lectures.4
This type of discourse started to stand out after the Taigyaku Jiken (High
Treason Incident) – a socialist-anarchist plot to (allegedly) assassinate the
Emperor Meiji in 1910, which led to the execution of 12 alleged conspirators the
2
3
4
佐藤卓己『『キング』の時代――国民大衆雑誌の公共性』岩波書店 (Sato, Takumi. The Era of the
Magazine “Kingu”. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), 2002.
Up until 1916, the number of people making pilgrimages to Ise Jingu in one year was, at most,
2,000,000, but after 1917, it began to increase almost constantly and eventually reached about
8,000,000 in 1940 (平山昇『初詣の社会史――鉄道が生んだ娯楽とナショナリズム』東京大学出
版会 (Hirayama, Noboru. A Social History of Hatsumode: An Interaction between an Amusement
Invented by the Railways and Nationalism). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 2015, p. 182).
A comment made by a priest who belonged to a shrine in Hokkaido 『北海タイムス』
(
(Hokkai
Taimusu, newspaper), 1 January, 1912).
Hirayama: The Community of “Experience” and “Mood” …
next year. This incident had a shocking impact on the country’s elite. Hiranuma
Kiichiro(平沼騏一郎), who was the prosecutor during the closed court proceedings when the case was tried, later wrote:
The incident made me deliberate on the importance of education.
Kotoku Shusui(幸徳秋水)5 mastered not only the Chinese (漢学) and
the Japanese classics(国学), but also the French and English classics. He
would not have made such a horrible attempt if he had mastered only the
traditional Chinese classics.6
Hiranuma attributed the incident to Kotoku’s excessive acquisition of
Western academic knowledge, and requested that people should be educated based mainly on traditional Chinese classics, not on Western disciplines.7
However, his plan was not easy to realize because by that time so many people
had already been educated mainly in the Western method and so it was almost
impossible for many school teachers to teach the Chinese classics. Not a few elite
intellectuals, including Hiranuma, attempted to implement educational reforms
in order to prevent similar incidents, but many of these proved to be impossible
or rather difficult to put into practice.8
On the other hand, some school teachers began to promote educating
children based on the ‘experience’ of visiting Holy Places(聖地) related to the
Imperial Family, the most important of which was Ise Jingu. In 1911, the next
year after the Taigyaku Jiken, an elementary school principal expressed his opinion based on his experience of visiting Ise Jingu.
When I made my first pilgrimage to Ise Jingu last year, I was so deeply
moved that it took me not a little time to find myself weeping. … A while
later, an old man, who seemed to be a farmer, came with his two grandchildren. He began to pray for something and then seemed to be moved
to tears. This scene moved me again and more deeply. … We have to rejoice in his tears. We have to appreciate his tears. It is on these tears that
we can lay the foundation of our country. If it were not for these tears, our
country would be in serious danger. Can those who are contaminated by
foreign dangerous thoughts shed these same tears?9
5
6
7
8
9
It was alleged by the prosecutor that Kotoku had been closely involved in the terror plot, which
proved to be false after WWII.
橋川文三『昭和維新試論』講談社学術文庫、講談社 (Hashikawa, Bunzo. An Essay on Showa
Restoration Movement (Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko). Tokyo: Kodansha), 2013[1984], p. 218.
Ibid., pp. 226–227.
有泉貞夫「明治国家と民衆統合」(Ariizumi, Sadao. Japanese Meiji Government and Unification of
the People).『岩波講座日本歴史17 近代4』岩波書店 (Iwanami Lectures on Japanese History, vol.
17, Modern Times 4. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), 1976, pp. 231–232.
『読売新聞』(Yomiuri Shimbun, newspaper), 30 July, 1911.
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This principal identified his tears with the old farmer’s, both of which originated from the same ‘experience’ of praying at Ise Jingu. Through these tears, he
felt a spiritual sympathy with the farmer, and claimed that the national identity
of Japan should be built by people sharing the same tears, suggesting that the
persons allegedly involved in the Taigyaku Jiken lacked this sense of sympathetic unity. In his conclusion, he proposed making school students visit Ise Jingu in
order to make them loyal subjects who could share these tears from the bottom
of their hearts.
This proposal was brought into practice throughout the entire educational community. In relation to this movement, John Breen points out a notable
change in the elementary school textbooks: before 1918, they stated that all subjects should respect Ise Jingu, but after that year, they began to say that they
should not only respect the shrine but also visit it at least once in their lifetime.
Breen says, “It should be understandable that school students’ group travel (修
学旅行) to Ise Jingu became increasingly common from around that period.”10
Actually, school teachers themselves began to recognize the necessity of making
students visit Ise Jingu, and various steps were taken to prepare for the implementation of group travels to the shrine. For example, in 1919, a group of teachers who worked for elementary schools in Tokyo made a trip to Ise. After returning from the trip, one of the participants said in his essay that he joined the trip
in order to experience and feel the history of the nation without being obsessed
with pedantic reason or theory.11
The Infrastructural (Economical) Underpinning
Another reason for the increase of the number of people visiting Ise Jingu
is that the tourism industry, mainly railway managers in both the governmentowned railway administration and private railway companies, eagerly promoted
the Ise Shrine as a tourist destination in order to make more revenue.
Let us look again at the case of the group tour to Ise Jingu by the school
teachers. In this case, the National Railway (国鉄) gave them a superbly bound
guidebook on pilgrimages to major shrines including Ise Jingu and offered them
exclusive reserved cars, which, to their great pleasure, were very comfortable.12
The NR offered them such great service because it hoped to increase its revenue
by having more and more schools group tours visit Ise Jingu in the future.
10 ジョン・ブリーン『神都物語――伊勢神宮の近現代史』吉川弘文館 (Breen, John. A Story of the
Holy City: The Modern and Contemporary History of Ise Jingu. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan), 2015,
pp. 82–84.
11 『都市教育』(Toshi Kyoiku), no. 179, 1919, pp. 1, 13.
12 Ibid., pp. 8–9.
Hirayama: The Community of “Experience” and “Mood” …
Furthermore, during the 1920s and 1930s, the NR became more active in encouraging not only school children but also adults to visit Ise Jingu. For instance,
the NR organized group tours for local farmers. There were two main reasons
for this, one arising from the need of the NR, and the other focused more on
the needs of the local farmers. Regarding the former, the NR usually had much
difficulty making revenue from sightseeing passengers in the summer and in
the winter, when either the humid or the cold weather discouraged people from
going on trips. On the other hand, the local farmers were constantly very busy
from spring up until autumn, but in winter, after the harvest season, they were
free for a while. Therefore, the NR aimed to induce comparatively rich farmers
to go on winter vacation trips to various famous sights – including Ise Jingu.13
Private railway companies also struggled to take advantage of the pilgrimage tourism to Ise Jingu. The most prominent of these was Osaka Denki Kido
(the Osaka Electric Tramway Co., Ltd (大阪電気軌道)), which opened a railway
line from Osaka to Ise in 1930. By taking ODK trains, people could now get to
Ise much faster and much more comfortably than by taking the NR trains. An
extremely epoch-making development of this was that the ODK enabled busy
people living in and around Osaka to make a one-day trip to Ise very easily.
Interestingly though, although the NR was not a private company but a part of
the government organizations, it eagerly improved its service for passengers in
its rivalry with the ODK so that their revenue would not decrease, which led to
a harsh competition in who would provide better service between them, making
people feel more and more comfortable when taking trains to Ise.14
THE SPREAD OF “DISCOURSE”
Based on the two underpinnings shown above, more and more people made
pilgrimages to the Ise Shrine. It is important to note that those who had this ‘experience’ in common, regardless of their individual backgrounds such as whether they
were highly educated or not, created and spread a very similar type of discourse.
In other words, the common discourse generating from the common ‘experience’
spread, which can be regarded as a certain popularization or equalization.
Let us take a look at one typical essay written in 1934 by a scholar of great
authority:
Of course I know to whom Ise Jingu is dedicated. However, whenever I
pray in this shrine, my mind and body is filled not with such knowledge,
13 Hirayama, A Social History of Hatsumode, p. 194.
14 Ibid., pp. 184, 188–190.
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but with a feeling of awe and respect without reason, just as Saigyo(西行)
expressed in his poem, “I don’t know what holy being resides here, but
I feel so blessed that I cannot help weeping.” … When I pray there, I am
filled with feelings of holiness, thankfulness, happiness, awe, respect, and
so on, which are absolutely beyond words.15
Next, let’s take a look at a composition written in 1937 by two elementary
school students.
(When I prayed in Ise Jingu,) I was filled with a feeling of respect and
thankfulness, which I could not express in words.16
Ah! I was now so pleased to be able to make a pilgrimage to the Ise
Shrine. (Saigyo said,) “I don’t know what holy being resides here, but I
feel so blessed that I cannot help weeping.” After the passage of hundreds
of years, I was now standing at the same point and feeling the same inspiration as the great poet.17
When we look at these three writings, one by a scholar of great authority and
the other two by elementary school students, it is hard to make a clear distinction between them regarding the contents. Both stressed that they were moved
(to tears) without reason and referred to Saigyo’s famous poem in order to justify
their lack of vocabulary to express their feelings.18 Despite the extreme difference
of education, age and social status, the scholar and the two children each wrote
such a very similar, stylized discourse. We can understand that this situation
was quite exceptional when we take into account that the Japanese society of
those days was highly hierarchical – unlike present-day Japan. When more and
more people went through the common ‘experience’ at a national Holy Place,
they had no other means of expressing their feelings than using a limited numbers of keywords, which were emotional, unreasonable, and spiritual.
When we examine the process by which this typical discourse spread in society, we also have to look at the tourism industry. Railway managers took advantage of the ‘experience’ discourse in their marketing strategies. For example,
the following essay can be found in a very popular magazine named Tabi, which
literally means ‘travel’.
15 松波仁一郎「神前拍手の為否」(Matsunami, Niichiro. Shinzen Kashiwade no Seihi).『神社協会雑
誌』(Jinja Kyokai Zasshi), vol. 33, no. 8, 1934, pp. 1–2, 18. Matsunami was a Professor of Law at Tokyo
Imperial University, and later became Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at Nihon University.
16 「参宮感想文」(A Composition on Impressions Made by Visiting Ise Jingu).『瑞垣』(Mizugaki), 22,
1937, p. 17.
17 Ibid., p. 19.
18 Saigyo (1118–1190) was a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. One
can easily find very stereotypical discourses referring to this poet in books or on the Internet even in
the present.
Hirayama: The Community of “Experience” and “Mood” …
As we say “Seeing is believing”, the best way to take is to make a trip to a
certain place in order to deepen your knowledge and realization. Though
we learn geography in the classroom, we can hardly learn it just by seeing a map there. However, once you make a one-week trip to the places
shown on the map, you can easily learn all of the one-year curriculum. …
You can never know that sacred and holy mood in Ise Jingu unless you
yourself make a real pilgrimage there. “I don’t know what holy being resides here, but I feel so blessed that I cannot help weeping.” You can never
appreciate this feeling without visiting there yourself.19
As this material written in 1939 shows, the tourism industry (mainly railway
managers), took as much advantage as possible of the ‘experience’ discourse during the war, because by doing so, they were able to justify the necessity of travelling in spite of the wartime situation when unnecessary amusement activities
were rigidly restricted. Thus the tourism industry continued to spread this type
of discourse. It could be said that a discourse invented in the context of nationalistic ideology was spread and made use of by the tourism industry.
THE SPREAD OF “MOOD”:
TOWARD EXCLUSION WITHOUT REASON
As more and more people joined the pilgrimage to Ise Jingu, they became
inclined to talk about the ‘mood’ gained from their ‘experience’ by using several
typical keywords such as ‘spiritually refreshing (清々しい)’ or ‘solemn (荘厳, 森
厳)’.
In 1937, a round-table talk attended by ten ladies living in Tokyo was held,
the record of which was published in a newspaper. Though the title of this article
was “Let’s talk about the memory of New Year’s Day in each one’s birthplace”,
they also talked about their common ‘experience’ of visiting the Holy Places of
Meiji Jingu (明治神宮) and Ise Jingu, the former of which was a shrine founded
in Tokyo in 1920 in memory of the late Meiji Emperor. (In the following excerpt,
the letters at the beginning of each remark represent the first letter of the person’s family name).
O: I make it a rule to leave for Ise by train on every New Year’s Day. .....
(On January 2nd)I make a pilgrimage to Ise Shrine ..... The time that my
late husband and I went there in the last year of his life is unforgettable.
19 河田嗣郎「時局と旅の心構」(Kawata, Shiro. What Attitude Must We Have toward Travelling in the
Present Wartime Situation?).『旅』(Tabi), vol. 16, no. 12, 1939, p. 3.
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I: I make it a rule to pay a visit to Meiji Jingu early in the morning on
New Year’s Day. Every year I’m deeply impressed by the solemn mood in
that holy area, where nobody speaks a word. All we hear is the sound of
people stepping on the sand as they approach …
T: I totally agree with you. It is utterly solemn.20
Before this part, these ladies had talked about their memory of New Year’s
Day in each one’s birthplace, which of course was full of diversity. However, in
this part they talked about the same ‘mood’ they each had during the same ‘experience’ of visiting Meiji Jingu or Ise Jingu, felt deep sympathy with each other,
and thus were able to confirm that they belonged to one national community
despite having come from different regions in the country. Presumably not a few
people who read this talk in the magazine felt the same sympathy.
While the talk above was attended by ladies living in Tokyo, it seems that
the same feeling had also spread into local societies. I would now like to look
at a case from Fukaya in Saitama Prefecture. In 1934, a priest serving at the
Nireyama Shrine in this area organized a group tour to Ise Jingu in order to offer prayers for overcoming the hardship throughout the country. The tour was
conducted in February, when farmers were not busy, as is explained above. After
they returned from the tour, they founded a friendship group named Mutsumi
Kai(睦会). “Mutsumi(睦)” is a letter which means ‘very peaceful’ or ‘close intimacy’ and is often contrasted with ‘quarrel’ or ‘fight’. This group was organized
so that the participants of the tour would meet regularly and enjoy talking about
the ‘mood of visiting Ise Jingu(参宮気分)’. After the founding ceremony, a party
was held at the Nireyama Shrine. Sake and various dishes were served. The priest
later described the scene as follows:
Though at first the participants hesitated to talk to other people whom
they hadn’t known well, little by little they became less nervous, began
to dance or sing merrily, and finally drank and talked with each other as
if they had been intimate friends for a long time. I cannot express how
happy all of us were to be able to become good friends with each other!21
It is no doubt that this success was due to the priest’s zealous efforts, but we
should not overlook the fact that this friendship group was also given a token of
appreciation by the National Railway.22 Though the precise amount is impossible
20 「正月を語る座談会(下)
」(Let’s Talk about the Memory of New Year’s Day in Each One’s Birthplace).
『婦女新聞』(Fujo Shimbun, newspaper), 1 January, 1937.
21 柳瀬禎治『楡の木影』楡山神社社務所 (Yanase, Teiji. A Shade of an Elm Tree. Fukaya: Nireyama
Jinja Shamusho), 1999, pp. 13-16.
22 Ibid., p. 41.
Hirayama: The Community of “Experience” and “Mood” …
to ascertain, it would be correct to say that the NR presented them with this
money as a small reward for bringing as many as 2,000 people to Ise by the NR
train and meant to encourage this group to conduct the same tour repeatedly.
As we have seen above, more and more people, both from big cities and local
areas alike, started going to the Ise Shrine. They were impressed by the ‘experience’ of making a pilgrimage to the holy place, talked with each other about the
same ‘mood’ based on the same ‘experience’, and strengthened a certain feeling of belonging to a unity. It may seem that this process was just pleasant and
peaceful. However, it was from within this context that a discourse emerged
which requested the exclusion and suppression of all minorities who did not feel
like visiting and praying at a shrine. Researchers to date have already pointed
out that a tendency emerged during the 1920s and 1930s to ostracize people who
would not accept the legitimacy of visiting a shrine, but have not taken into account the possibility that this tendency was strengthened by the spread of the
same ‘experience’ and ‘mood’ based on Ise Jingu tourism.
As we have seen above, people who shared the experience of visiting the Ise
Shrine heightened their impressions and excitement by using a limited number
of emotional words. They always said that it was beyond description, and firmly
believed that anyone who went to the same place would experience the same
‘mood’. However, they were not aware that they had one unsaid condition in
mind: “as long as he or she is a normal Japanese subject”. In other words, from
their point of view, if a person could not understand the ‘mood’, he or she must
not be a real Japanese. The community of ‘experience’ and ‘mood’ could easily
turn into justifying exclusion without any clear logic.
We can find a clue to this view by taking a close look at discourse materials. Until the 1900s, conservative intellectuals used to encourage people to visit
shrines on the grounds that it was “right”. However, during the 1930s, one new
keyword began to appear: “pitiful(気の毒な)”.
Unfortunately, there are some strange people who harbor cynical
thoughts and seem proud of never visiting shrines. Those people cannot
appreciate the solemn mood of visiting a shrine on New Year’s Day. They
are so pitiful.23
This essay was written by Kato Genchi(加藤玄智), a very famous State
Shinto ideologue.
This author referred to the ‘mood’ of visiting a shrine and implicitly looked
down on those who could not appreciate it, calling them ‘pitiful’. He was not an
23 村上重良『国家神道』岩波新書、岩波書店 (Murakami, Shigeyoshi. State Shinto (Iwanami Shinsho).
Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), 1970; 島薗進『国家神道と日本人』岩波新書、岩波書店 (Shimazono,
Susumu. State Shinto and Japanese people (Iwanami Shinsho). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), 2010.
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exception. We can easily find the very same type of discourse among the other
contemporaneous discourse materials, one of which, for example, goes as follows:
There are some people who cannot be willing to pay respect to Shinto
Gods or who cannot feel humble and spiritually refreshed by doing so.
They are utterly pitiful.24
At first glance, the word “pitiful” seems controlled by reason to some extent.
However, behind this word a tendency to eliminate those in the minority from
the community of “good subjects” lay hidden. Kato Genchi’s essay quoted below
was published almost at the same time as the one shown above.
If there is a Japanese who neglects visiting a shrine, we should say that
he or she is not a genuine Japanese but a mentally broken Japanese, a
Japanese who has a serious mental problem.25
Originally, Kato was not an ultra-conservative fanatic. He graduated from
Tokyo Imperial University, where he received a Ph.D. in Literature and was
known for his academic erudition. However, sympathy for the ‘mood’ based on
the ‘experience’ induced even such a highly intellectual person to exclude without reason or logic those who could not identify themselves with the ‘mood’.
This type of discourse was repeated over and over again and became more influential than ever until the end of WWII.
CONCLUSION
We have seen the process of Ise Shrine tourism from the 1910s up to the
1930s. Now I would like to look back at the elementary school principal’s opinion in 1911, which we saw in the first section. I ended my quote at this phrase:
“Can those who are contaminated by foreign dangerous thoughts shed these
same tears?” To tell the truth, this passage preceded the following sentence:
I declare with total confidence that if you do not shed devout tears when
you pray in Ise Shrine, you do not qualify as a Japanese subject.26
As this opinion shows, the intent of exclusion had already appeared in the
‘experience’ discourse in the 1910s. As we have seen in the above sections, it was
24 加藤玄智「神社初詣での気分」(Kato, Genchi. The Mood of Visiting a Shrine on New Year’s Day).『
旅』(Tabi), 13, 1, 1936, pp. 2–3.
25 相原熊太郎『明治神宮に参拝して』母子の友社 (Aihara, Kumataro. Impression of Visiting Meiji
Jingu. Boshi no Tomo Sha), 1938, p. 6.
26 加藤玄智「今回朝鮮に起つた神社不参拝問題を耳にして」(Kato, Genchi. After Hearing the
Problem of Refusal to Visit a Shrine in Korea).『皇国時報』(Kokoku Jiho), no. 587, 1936, p. 10.
Hirayama: The Community of “Experience” and “Mood” …
always the case that people who attached supreme value to an ‘experience’ and
the ‘mood’ derived from it tended to easily go so far as to exclude others who
could not appreciate the same.
However, it does not mean that such discourse spread smoothly in a short
time once it was produced. Researchers to date have been apt to come to conclusions too rapidly once they’d pointed out the ‘beginning’ of a certain ideology,
often failing to distinguish the point of its origin and the process of its spreading.
When we think about the real influence of an ideology, we definitely have to follow the long process in which the ideology spreads into a society, which consists
not only of a very limited number of intellectuals but also the mass majority.
In this sense, it is significant that it was the interaction between an ideological
discourse and the activation of tourism from the 1910s up to the 1930s that enabled the ideology to spread widely throughout society. Also, we need to be aware
of the fact that this process was promoted so effectively not by the authorities’
means of education and instruction (which are always very, very boring and easy
to forget!!), but rather by capitalist activities. As we have seen, both the national
and the private railways struggled to make as much revenue as possible by taking advantage of this ideological discourse. Railway managers made most effective use of the ‘experience’ discourse in their marketing activities. Regardless
of whether they themselves held such ideological values or not, their marketing
activities strongly encouraged more people to join the ‘experience’ and share the
‘mood’.
Modern Japan had created a progressive constitution, which was very exceptional in the non-Western world, and towards the 1920s, its society practiced
constitutional and democratic politics in a trial and error fashion. In the 1930s,
however, its society became more and more intolerant towards minorities, one of
which was a group of people who could not accept the legitimacy of all Japanese
subjects visiting shrines. Why did Japanese society arrive at such a turn? This
question has been a very topical issue among those who are interested in the history of modern Japan, and so many researches have been made to answer it. Yet
most of them have pursued mainly discourses, and have failed to examine the
interaction between discourse and practice.
In this paper, I have presented the historical process in which a homogeneous spiritual community of ‘experience’ and ‘mood’ was formed and spread in
Japanese society. By examining this case, I conclude that, in order to understand
how influential an ideology has become in modern and contemporary society,
it would be beneficial to take into account the interaction between ideology and
capitalism, between discourse and practice (in this case, tourism).
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Culiberg: Some Thoughts on School, Education, History and Ideology
PERSONALITIES
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Bertalanič: Lt. Col. Yanagawa Heisuke and the Demarcation of Prekmurje
Boštjan Bertalanič
LT. COL. YANAGAWA
HEISUKE AND THE
DEMARCATION OF
PREKMURJE:
A Japanese Account of the
Yugoslav-Hungarian Border
Commission’s Activities in
1921–1922
“World War I revolutionized the political configuration of Europe.
Nowhere was this more evident than in the Balkans, …”1
1
See note 9.
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INTRODUCTION
The present article proposes to reexamine Japan’s role in the wider context of
post-World War I European politics. It situates Japan in the heart of the postwar
European territorial and political realignment and aims at presenting how Japan
participated in the political reorganization of Europe after the war. The article
aims particularly at introducing a new discourse on Japan’s role in the reshaping
of the postwar political map of Europe. More specifically, it looks into the work
of the Yugoslav-Hungarian Border Commission which was established by the
Treaty of Trianon (1920). This treaty was part of a system of peace covenants that
were concluded after the Paris Peace Conference (1919) and represents one of
the stepping stones towards the new Wilsonian world order. These peace treaties
prescribed new frontiers and redefined the territories of the old and new states.
They also established special border commissions that were mandated to trace
the frontiers on the ground. As a member of the Allied powers, Japan was a signing party to the Treaty of Trianon, and as a member of the Yugoslav-Hungarian
Border Commission also participated in the process of fixing the border between
Hungary and the newly formed Yugoslav kingdom.2
The main reason for choosing this commission as a case study is the availability of primary sources at the National Archives of Japan (NAJ) which document the work of the Commission.3 This offers a unique opportunity for studying the Yugoslav-Hungarian Border Commission’s work from a non-European
perspective. Furthermore, the demarcation of the Yugoslav-Hungarian border
was one of the central pillars for the stabilization of Europe in the aftermath of
World War I, which in turn contributed to the establishment of the new regional
balance in the Balkans.4 In this regard, we can argue that Japan participated in
the political stabilization efforts in Southeast Europe and in fixing national territorial landmarks which defined national identities in the region.
The Yugoslav-Hungarian Border Commission also established the frontier
that today divides Slovenia and Hungary. After the war, the predominantly
Slovene region of Prekmurje, which was historically under the political tutelage of Hungarian authorities, became part of the Slovene national territory. This
was an important step in the historical consolidation of Slovene nationhood and
2
3
4
Lederer, Ivo J.. Yugoslavia at the Paris Peace Conference – a Study in Frontiermaking. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1963, p. 3.
Until 1929 ‘Yugoslavia’ was known as the ‘Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia’. Because the
terms were already widely used during World War WI ‘Yugoslavia’, ‘Yugoslav kingdom’ and the
‘serbo-Croat-Slovene State’ will be used interchangeably throughout the article.
All sources from the NAJ used in the paper are available in digitalized form from the Japan Center
for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), https://www.jacar.go.jp.
Bertalanič: Lt. Col. Yanagawa Heisuke and the Demarcation of Prekmurje
associates Japan not only with the postwar stabilization of the region, but indirectly also with the nation building processes in Southeast Europe.
The central goal of the article is to present an account of the YugoslavHungarian Border Commission’s activities in Prekmurje, based on official reports by the Japanese Commissioner Lt. Col. Yanagawa Heisuke.5 Most of his
reports are commentaries, summaries or translations of commission meetings
and deliberations and are written in Japanese and French. As a narrative framework, I supplement his reports with information from the official records of the
British Representative and Yugoslav-Hungarian Border Commission Chairman
Lt. Col. Cree. His records offer one of the most comprehensive accounts of the
Yugoslav-Hungarian Commission’s work and are an indispensable aid in any
attempt to recount the events surrounding frontier making in the Balkans after
the Paris Peace Conference.6
The paper follows a simple structure. After this brief introduction, it explains the international legal framework for establishing the border commissions. It then proceeds with the description of the Yugoslav-Hungarian Border
Commission’s structure and work procedures. The fourth section and the central part of the paper offers an account of the Commission’s activities based on
the reports and official memos of Lt. Col. Yanagawa which are, where necessary,
supplemented with information from the Cree report. The paper ends with an
overall assessment of the study and charts some possible future research trajectories.
THE TREATY OF TRIANON AND THE
YUGOSLAV-HUNGARIAN BORDER COMMISSION
The border disputes between Hungary and its neighbors were not resolved
before the conclusion of the Treaty of Trianon. The Treaty regulated the status of
the independent Hungarian state and defined its new borders with its neighboring states. The Treaty also established special border commissions and tasked
them with tracing the borders of the new states on the ground. Treaty article 29
explicitly defined the rules of composition, powers, decision-making and financial aspects of the work of the commissions in general.
Boundary Commissions, whose composition is or will be fixed in the
present Treaty or in any other Treaty between the Principal Allied and
5
6
Vagnini, Alessandro. Drafting the Hungarian-Yugoslav Border: A Short Overview. In: Biagini,
Antonello, Motta Giovanna (eds.). Empires and Nations from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century,
Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.
I have followed the practice of rendering Japanese names according to local custom, surname first.
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Associated Powers and the, or any, interested States, will have to trace
these frontiers on the ground. They shall have the power, not only of fixing those portions which are defined as “a line to be fixed on the ground,”
but also, where a request to that effect is made by one of the States concerned, and the Commission is satisfied that it is desirable to do so, of
revising portions defined by administrative boundaries; this shall not,
however, apply in the case of international frontiers existing on August,
1914, where the task of the Commission will confine itself to the re-establishment of signposts and boundary marks. They shall endeavor in
both cases to follow as nearly as possible the descriptions given in the
Treaties, taking into account as far as possible administrative boundaries and local economic interests. The decisions of the Commissions will
be taken by a majority, and shall be binding on the parties concerned.
The expenses of the Boundary Commissions will be borne in equal shares
by the two States concerned.
(Treaty of Trianon, Article 29)
Article 29 was important because it empowered border commissions with
the discretionary rights that enabled them to change specific parts of the border where administrative or economic needs to this effect arose. However, the
international borders from August 1914 were to remain unchanged and the
Commission’s task was to reestablish demarcation signposts and marks. Since
the Hungarian authorities protested against the terms of the Treaty, they received a ‘cover letter from the Supreme Council’ in Paris before signing it, which
hinted at the possibility that changing certain segments of frontiers could be
changed if recommended by the various border commissions. The contents of
the ‘cover letter’ were summarized by the British delegate and Chairman of the
Yugoslav-Hungarian Border Commission Lt. Col. Cree in the following words:
“If, briefly, these Commissions found anywhere that the frontier caused
an injustice for ethnical and economical reasons, which it was to the general interest of both countries to remove, they were to forward a report to the Council of Ambassadors at Paris suggesting a new line, with
their reasons for an alteration, and the Council of Ambassadors would
then examine the report and forward it to the Council of the League of
Nations, who were to offer their good offices to the two countries with a
view to arriving at a friendly solution.”7
7
Cree D.. Yugoslav-Hungarian Boundary Commission. The Geographical Journal 65, 2, 1925.
Bertalanič: Lt. Col. Yanagawa Heisuke and the Demarcation of Prekmurje
This discretionary power to propose alterations legally suggested the possibility of Treaty modification and put the border commissions under considerable political pressure. However, given the fact that the cover letter was not
part of the Treaty of Trianon, the Yugoslav authorities did not recognize its legal
value and insisted on the strict application of the Treaty.8
The frontier between Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
was demarcated by the Yugoslav-Hungarian Border Commission. Article 43
provided the legal framework for the formation and work of this Commission.
A Commission consisting of seven members, five nominated by the
Principal Allied and Associated Powers, one by the Serb-Croat-Slovene
State, and one by Hungary, shall be constituted within fifteen days from
the coming into force of the present Treaty to trace on the spot the frontier line described in Article 27 (2), Part II (Frontiers of Hungary).
(Treaty of Trianon, Article 43)
Besides the Treaty provisions and the Supreme Council’s cover letter, the
Ambassadors’ Conference issued in July 1920 ‘General instructions for the
Delimitation Commission for Hungary’ and further defined the details of the
Commission’s work:
“They will have full powers, not only as regards the determining of those
sections of the frontier which are defined as ‘lines to be determined on the
ground’ but if one of the States concerned applies for this to be done and
if the Commission considers it desirable, they will further have power to
revise sections of the frontier which are defined by administrative boundaries, except in the case of the international frontiers which existed in
August 1914. In regard to these international frontiers the duties of the
Commissions will be confined to the verification of the boundary posts
or marks. They will even be empowered – apart from cases in which they
are authorized to do so by special provisions – to alter the allocation of
localities referred to by name in the Treaty, provided that such alterations
are of trifling importance and that the Commission is unanimous on the
matter. They will endeavor in all cases to conform as closely as possible
to the definitions of the frontier given in the Treaty, taking count as far
as practicable of administrative boundaries and local economic interests,
but without regard to any national, linguistic or religious considerations.”9
8
9
Ibid., p. 92.
“The Delimitation of the of the Frontiers between Hungary and the Adjoining States. Position on
Question, June 29, 1922,” (League of Nations: Memorandum by the Secretary General, C.428.1922.
VII, 1922).
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III. THE YUGOSLAV-HUNGARIAN BORDER COMMISSION –
PRELIMINARY MEETINGS AND METHOD OF WORK
The Treaty of Trianon constituted four border commissions and the YugoslavHungarian Commission was the main body in charge of defining the new frontier between Hungary and the Yugoslav Kingdom. The Commission met for the
first time in Paris in the rooms of the Geographic Service of the French Army on
August 1, 1921. During this first meeting, the British Representative Lt. Col. Cree
was appointed as the Chairman and the overall organization of the Commission
was determined.10 Lt. Col. Cree described the preliminary preparations in the
following manner:
“At the first meeting the President was elected and the organization of
the Commission was then settled. This is generally about the same in
all commissions, the French, Italian and English Delegations consisting
of a Commissioner and two N.C.O.s as clerks. It is laid down that one
should be a topographer, but only in the English delegation had any one
any technical knowledge. The Japanese Commissioner had a Japanese
secretary and a French interpreter. The interested Commissioners were
at liberty to organize their delegations to suit the varying problems that
might arise. Further, a Secretariat was appointed to the Commission, this
consisting of a French captain as secretary and a clerk, also French.”11
Besides Lt. Col. Cree, the other Commission members were Col. Luigi
Valvassori from Italy, Lt. Col. Marminia from France, Lt. Col. Heisuke Yanagawa
from Japan, Col. Vassel from Hungary and Col. Vojin Čolak-Antić representing the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.12 The Commissioners selected
Varaždin (Croatia) as their first headquarters and decided to work from west to
east. As the work progressed, the headquarters moved along the frontier and alternated between Hungary and Yugoslavia. Transportation was provided by the
country in which the Commission was working at that specific time, however it
10 Yanagawa, Heisuke. Hungary Slovenia Border No.1: Starting Field Work and Travel by Committee
Member, August 5, 1921. In: Documents on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref.
C08040348700 National Institute for Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense), p. 3.
11 Cree, Yugoslav-Hungarian Boundary Commission, p. 93.
12 Lt. Col. Heisuke Yanagawa was born in 1879 in Nagasaki Prefecture. He graduated from the Army
Cadet College in 1900 and served as a First Lieutenant in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. In
1920, after the end of World War I, he was sent to Europe to serve as a Japanese military attaché at the
League of Nations. It is during this period that he was designated as the Japanese Commissioner in the
Hungarian-Yugoslav Boundary Commission. After returning back to Japan he was appointed Vice
Minister of Army. From 1940 he became the Minister of Justice in the second Konoe administration,
and later on served as Minister of Home Affairs. He died in 1945.
Bertalanič: Lt. Col. Yanagawa Heisuke and the Demarcation of Prekmurje
proved to be one of the most challenging aspects of the Commission’s work and
Commissioners often complained about it.13
The border was arranged in six sections: “the first from the Austrian frontier
to the junction of Lendava and Mura, the second from this point to the railway
bridge over the Drava at Barcs, the third from this bridge to the point where
the frontier leaves the Drava, the fourth between the Drava and Danube, the
fifth between the Danube and Tisza, and the sixth from Tisza to the Rumanian
frontier.”14
The Commissioners left Paris on August 11 and after a round of courtesy
calls to the capital cities began their work in Varaždin on August 23.15 However,
before commencing with the field work, the Commissioners agreed to conduct a
general survey of the entire border in order to determine where the Treaty must
be strictly applied and in which sections a request to modify it might be made to
the League of Nations. Where they met no opposition, it was decided to fix the
border at once, following the original instructions. In case of an appeal from any
of the concerned parties, all proposals with their implications for the entire border had to be considered before any official request was forwarder to the League
of Nations. Lt. Col. Cree described the method of work as follows:
“We resolved to fix definitely at once the frontier as laid down in the
Treaty, working in accordance with the original instructions to Boundary
Commissions, but before we started our inquires on the ground we demanded from the Interested Commissioners, not only their propositions
for the Treaty Line itself, but also any propositions that might be the subject of an appeal to the League of Nations. In this manner we were able,
during our inquiries on the Treaty Line, to keep the other question also in
our minds, so by the time we had decided on the line the frontier should
follow under the Treaty, we had already a great deal of valuable information for the further proposition.”16
After the preliminary reconnaissance work, the Hungarian and Yugoslav
Commissioners prepared and submitted their proposals for modifications of
the border. These proposals normally addressed the ethnic and economic conditions of the portion of the border under consideration, and were supported
by maps and various pleas from local chambers of commerce, large property
owners, or factory owners. A meeting was then called where the Commissioners
discussed possible solutions and when needed requested additional information.
13
14
15
16
Cree, Yugoslav-Hungarian Boundary Commission, p. 93.
Ibid.
Yanagawa, Hungary Slovenia Border, p. 2.
Cree, Yugoslav-Hungarian Boundary Commission, p. 95.
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During the meetings, they also devised a program for any further inquiries on
the ground. The main idea was to allow delegations from all concerned communities to express their opinions, and a meeting held in Hungary in the morning
was balanced by a meeting in Yugoslavia in the afternoon. The local authorities
were informed a week in advance about the dates of the meetings, and the local
communities then had to elect their delegations in which all minorities had to
be represented. These delegations were headed by the mayor and consisted of six
delegates. In this way the Commission was able to obtain evidence from both
sides on the same day. In certain cases, they also provided questioners, who were
cross checked at direct public hearings by the Commission Chairman. Public
hearings were held at locations close to the villages. These were often situated in
remote areas and access by cars was rather challenging. At each hearing, about
four to six delegations were heard out. By the time the inquires on the ground
were finished, further Commission meetings were convened to deliberate proposals in the light of the knowledge gained through hearings and surveys, and
attempts would be made to reach a consensus among the Commissioners. Once
the agreement was reached, the frontier was marked in red ink on a 1/75,000
map and signed by all Commission members. In the final stage, the border was
demarcated by pickets and both Hungarian and Yugoslav governments were officially given fifteen days’ notice to occupy the line.17 The Commission continued
to work until May of 1924, when the Commissioners gathered for the last meeting in Zagreb to draft their final report.18
THE YUGOSLAV-HUNGARIAN BORDER COMMISSION AND
THE BORDER BETWEEN HUNGARY AND SLOVENIA
As planned, the Commission began working on the first section of the
Yugoslav-Hungarian border in August 1921. This part of the border, approximately 100 km long, was also known as section A and represented the Treaty
line dividing Hungary and Slovenia in the region of Prekmurje.19 What made
this section interesting is that it became the subject of the first proposal for border modification to the League of Nations. It also marked the beginning of the
17 Ibid., pp. 96–98.
18 Vagnini, Drafting the Hungarian-Yugoslav Border, p. 317.
19 Prekmurje represents a linguistically and culturally distinct region in the Northeast of Slovenia.
It was under Hungarian rule from the 11th century and after the end of World War I, the region
was captured by Yugoslav troops and incorporated into the newly formed Yugoslav kingdom. After
the conclusion of the Treaty of Trianon the whole of the district was demanded back by Hungary;
however since the population was predominantly Slovene, Hungary had difficulty in supporting its
claims.
Bertalanič: Lt. Col. Yanagawa Heisuke and the Demarcation of Prekmurje
Commission’s work and in many respects established work procedures that determined Commission activities in other border sections later on.
During the first month of work, incidents and complications were common.
As soon as the Commissioners were about to reach Varaždin, the Yugoslav authorities arrested the Hungarian courier and confiscated his official documents.
Later, this became known as the Kotoriba Incident, named after the Croatian
town of Kotoriba where the matter took place. Hungary protested and accused
the Yugoslav side of violating diplomatic protocol and demanded that they immediately reestablish train connections and allow the free passage and inviolability of Hungarian diplomatic bags.20
In the beginning of September 1921, as the Commission was preparing to
trace the border, Hungarian representative Col. Vassel tabled the first of his several proposals for border modification. He submitted a substantial memorandum, which demanded the return of the whole region to Hungary on ethnic
and economic grounds. Citing economic and ethnic reasons, the Hungarian authorities argued that Prekmurje was not a distinctive historical, linguistic and
politico-economic region as the Yugoslav side claimed. The memorandum also
argued that the majority of the people in Prekmurje opposed their inclusion into
the Yugoslav state.21
Field work began on September 5, 1921 when Commissioners surveyed and
provisionally fixed the tripoint (tri-border) between Austria, Hungary and the
Yugoslav kingdom – also the starting point of the border between Hungary and
Yugoslavia in Prekmurje.22 On this occasion, Lt. Col. Cree commented that the
Commissioners were not able to arrange a meeting with the Austro-Hungarian
20 Yanagawa, Heisuke. Hungary Slovenia Border No. 5: Submiting Document from Hungariam
Committee Member, August 30, 1921. In: Documents on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army
(JACAR Ref. C08040348900 National Institute for Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense).
21 Hungary Slovenia Border No. 9: Sending Monthly Operating Report, September 5, 1921. In: Documents
on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref. C08040349000: National Institute for
Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense); Hungary Slovenia Border No. 12: Sending Appendix of
Second Proposal from Hungarian Committee Member, September 8, 1921. In: Documents on peace
treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref. C08040349100: National Institute for Defense
Studies of the Ministry of Defense); Hungary Slovenia Border No. 13: Sending Appendix of Second
Proposal from Hungarian Committee Member, September 9, 1921. In: Documents on peace treaty
No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref. C08040349200: National Institute for Defense Studies of
the Ministry of Defense).
22 Hungary Slovenia Border No. 14: Report on Starting Field Work and Sending Map, September 16,
1921. In: Documents on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref. C08040349300:
National Institute for Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense); Hungary Slovenia Border No. 18:
Sending Monthly Operating Report and Report on Progress, September 30, 1921. In: Documents
on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref. C08040350200: National Institute for
Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense); Hungary Slovenia Border No. 26: Sending Minutes of
Committee Meeting, October 17, 1921. In: Documents on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army
(JACAR Ref. C08040349400: National Institute for Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense), 11.
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Border Commission in order to fix the common point definitely, and had to wait
until the following May when they were working at Szeged, at the opposite end
of the frontier.23
From September 19, 1921 the Commission began a series of public hearings,
which were meant to help better understand local economic relations and the
ethnic structure of the communities in the region, in part due to the Hungarian
demands for the restitution of the whole region. This was supposed to help the
Commission establish if there was really any need to modify the Treaty.24 Also it
was through these public hearings that the Commission exercised its discretionary power to propose treaty amendments in the most explicit way.
The first two days of Commission ground inquiries were followed by proHungarian demonstrations on the Yugoslav side of the frontier. Several demonstrators were arrested by the military and police. There were, however, no counter demonstrations, which suggested that they were at least in part sponsored by
the Hungarian side. In response, the Yugoslav authorities took severe counter
measures which eventually became the subject of an official complaint by the
Hungarian Commissioner. The Commission inquired into the charges and established that they were exaggerated, but that the measures were justified by the
necessity of maintaining public order.25
Probably one of the biggest incidents during the Commission’s stay in
Prekmurje was the arrest of the Japanese Commissioner Lt. Col. Yanagawa
himself by the Yugoslav police. The incident happened towards the end of the
Commission’s work in November. Yanagawa was suddenly stopped by a Yugoslav
police officer and taken at gunpoint to the nearby police station where he was
interrogated. Since his official car had no flags or other signs attesting to his
diplomatic status, the local police apparently did not recognize him as a member
of the Yugoslav-Hungarian Border Commission. Although his predicament was
eventually solved, he was outraged by the entire matter, especially the attitude of
the police officers involved, and strongly protested to the Yugoslav authorities.26
23 Cree, Yugoslav-Hungarian Boundary Commission, pp. 98–100.
24 Yanagawa, Heisuke. Hungary Slovenia Border No. 20: Sending 5th Proposal from Hungarian
Committee Member and Other Two Items, October 4, 1921. In: Documents on peace treaty No.10,
1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref. C08040349900: National Institute for Defense Studies of the
Ministry of Defense).
25 Hungary Slovenia Border No. 27: Report on Work Progress, October 20, 1921. In: Documents
on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref. C08040349500: National Institute for
Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense), pp. 4–5; Cree, pp. 100–01.
26 Yanagawa, Heisuke. Hungary Slovenia Border No. 29: Report Details of Illegal Act by Slovenian Police
Officer, November 7, 1921. In: Documents on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref.
C08040350500: National Institute for Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense); Hungary Slovenia
Border No. 31: Additional Report on Police Officer’s Illegal Act, November 8, 1921. In: Documents
on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref. C08040350600: National Institute for
Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense).
Bertalanič: Lt. Col. Yanagawa Heisuke and the Demarcation of Prekmurje
Public hearings were held through September and October 1921.27 From
these meetings, the Commission learned that in the north and north-east the
regional administrative boundaries of Murska Sobota (Muraszombat) corresponded very closely with the regional economic boundary. South of this line,
the communities were economically dependent on Murska Sobota or other economic centers close by. However, a small group of villages situated towards the
north of this line gravitated towards Monošter (Szentgotthard).
For these reasons, the Commission decided to recommend to the League
of Nations that six communities belonging to Monošter and twenty predominantly Hungarian villages north of Lendava should be returned to Hungary.28
Following the stipulations of the ’supplementary instructions for the delimitation commissions for Hungary’ approved by the Conference of Ambassadors on
June 3, 1921, the Commission then compiled its final report proposing a modified border.29 They delivered the report to the League of Nations at the end of
November 1921,30 hoping that it would be accepted. However, a year later the
Conference of Ambassadors rejected the proposal with the following ruling:
“The Conference of Ambassadors came to the conclusion that, in these
circumstances, the proposal put forward by the Frontier Commission could not be utilized, and decided that the delimitation of the Hungarian
and Serbo-Croat-Slovene frontier should be carried out in conformity
with the Treaty of Trianon, and the instructions at present in force.”31
CONCLUSION
After the conclusion of World War I, Europe faced one of the largest political
and territorial reconfigurations in its modern history. This paper has attempted
to place Japan right in the middle of these events. It has explained how Japan
was part of the peace system in Europe, not only by mere participation in the
Paris Peace Conference, but also by being represented and actively involved in
the territorial settlements that came out of the peace treaties. For example, the
27 Hungary Slovenia Border No. 26: Sending Minutes of Committee Meeting, October 17, 1921, pp.
12–27; Hungary Slovenia Border No. 36: Sending Minutes of Committee Meeting November 14,
1921. In: Documents on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army (JACAR Ref. C08040350800).
28 Cree, Yugoslav-Hungarian Boundary Commission, p. 102.
29 League of Nations,The Delimitation of the Frontiers between Hungary and the Adjoining States.
Position on Question, June 29, 1922.
30 Yanagawa, Heisuke. Hungary Slovenia Border No. 47: Sending Proposal to League of Nations and
Report on Progress, November 26, 1921. In: Documents on peace treaty No.10, 1918, Ministry of Army
(JACAR Ref. C08040350300: National Institute for Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense).
31 Delimitation of the Frontiers of Hungary. League of Nations: Note from the Secretary General,
C.751.M.455.1922.VII, 1922.
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Yanagawa reports place Japan right in the middle of the Allied efforts to stabilize
the Balkans. The Serbo-Croat-Slovene State rising up on the rubble of the collapsed Habsburg empire quickly formed into one of the central dynamic forces of
the new regional order. Especially in this regard, fixing the Yugoslav-Hungarian
frontier became a condition sine qua non for regional stability. Without doubt,
the Yugoslav-Hungarian Border Commission played a central role in this process. This was obvious already in Prekmurje, where the basic work procedures of
the Commission were set and tested. Furthermore, Yanagawa’s participation in
the demarcation process of Prekmurje represents a link between Japan and the
post-World War I nation building process – not just in Slovenia, but in Southeast
Europe in general. A considerable amount of still unread records written by
Japanese representatives who were active in other border commissions in the
Balkans also attests to that. Any future effort to better comprehend and systematize the extent of Japan’s involvement in the wider process of post-World War I
nation building in Southeast Europe should look into the work of these other
border commissions. The present article was meant as a first step in that direction. In this sense, I believe that documenting Yanagawa’s reports on frontiermaking between Yugoslavia and Hungary in the present paper has helped to
introduce the possibility of expanding and enriching the discourse of Japan’s
role in the political development of Europe after World War I.
Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974)
Riko Shiba
KATERINA
TODOROVIĆ
(1877–1974):
A Central European Pianist
and the Japanese Reception of
Western Music in the Early 20th
Century
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this article is to follow the traces of Katerina Todorović
(1877–1974), a pianist and piano teacher who spent over 30 years in Japan before
the Second World War. Katerina came to Japan in April 1909, accompanying her
husband, Dušan Nikolaević Todorović (1875–1963), who accepted an invitation
to teach the Russian language at the Military Academy School and the Tokyo
School of Foreign Languages (today Tokyo University of Foreign Studies). She
left Japan for the United States in July 1940, when war between the two countries
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was becoming increasingly likely. In this article, the first decade of her stay in
Japan will be dealt with.1
Both of the Todorovićs raised many excellent talents in each field during
their stay in Japan. However, their life and achievements are largely forgotten
today. As for Katerina, only the aspect of her life as a piano teacher has been
fragmentarily referred to – mainly in the literature on other foreign musicians
teaching and performing in Japan.2
Regarding the origin or nationality of Katerina, she has been considered to
be a so-called “White Russian.” It is possible that Katerina also described herself
in such way for the sake of convenience. However, the term “White Russian”
originally refers to Russians who chose exile and life abroad, refusing to accept
the Soviet regime established after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Katerina, who
left Russia and came to Japan eight years prior to the Revolution, did not fit this
category. She was no different from any wife accompanying her husband who
had moved to another land because of relocation or a change in his job. It is
obvious that she had no intention of going into exile anywhere. However, while
in Japan, the Russian Empire collapsed and after the establishment of the Soviet
regime, regardless of her own intentions, she lost her nationality. In the United
States, which came to be the final destination of the Todorović family, she obtained American citizenship and spent almost 30 years as an American called
“Catherine Todorović”. Katerina’s national identity seems in no way simple, because she spent the three eras of Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa in Japan, and her life
spanned the three continents of Europe, Asia and North America.
Many people have helped me in uncovering the secrets of her life, especially with
the research. My heartfelt thanks go to Dr. Michael Tripp and Mr. Dana Todorovic,
descendants of the Todorovićs. I could not have described the couple’s early life
without their help. My thanks also go to the staff of the Archives of Modern Japanese
Music, Meiji Gakuin University Library, for their help in using their materials.
1
2
This paper is based on the following article written by the author in Japanese: 柴理子「「白系ロシ
ア人」音楽家カテリーナ・トドロヴィチの日本滞在(1)――1910年代までの足跡」(Shiba, Riko. The
Stay in Japan of a ‘White Russian’ Pianist Catherine Todorovic: Her Career until the 1910s (1)). E
ジャーナル『中欧研究』(The Electronic Journal of Central European Studies in Japan. Tokyo: Josai
Institute for Central European Studies), 2, 2016.
山本尚志『日本を愛したユダヤ人ピアニスト レオ・シロタ』(Yamamoto, Hisashi. Leo Sirota: A
Jewish Pianist who loved Japan). Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbun Publishing Inc., 2004; 山本尚志『レオニ
ード・クロイツァー――その生涯と芸術』(Yamamoto, Hisashi. Leonid Kreutzer: His Life and Art).
Tokyo: Ongaku No Tomo Sha Cor., 2006; 萩谷由紀子『クロイツァーの肖像――日本の音楽界を
育てたピアニスト』(Hagiya, Yukiko. A Portrait of Leonid Kreutzer). Tokyo: Yamaha Music Media
Corporation, 2016. As for Katerina, the following article has been the only achievement: 柴宜弘「
ドゥシャン・トドロヴィチ――ロシア語を教えたセルビア人」(Shiba, Nobuhiro. Dušan Todorović:
A Serb Teaching Russian Language in Japan). In: 柴宜弘・山崎信一編『セルビアを知るための60
章』(Shiba, Nobuhiro, Yamazaki, Shinichi (eds.). 60 Chapters to Understand Serbia). Tokyo: Akashi
Shoten, 2015, pp. 323–327.
Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974)
FROM RUSSIA TO JAPAN
Early Life
It is hard to know much of Katerina’s early life in detail, partly because she
does not seem to have kept a diary – or, at least, there is no trace of such records.
According to the search result on an American genealogy website “Ancestry.
com”, Katerina was born in September 14, 1875 to the Schlesinger family in
Kiliya, a small town in the Ukraine. The birth year listed on the website is probably inaccurate. According to the inscription on Katerina’s tombstone in the
Serbian cemetery in California, 1877 should be the correct date of birth.3 The
passenger list of the Japanese liner “Asama-maru” which she took for the United
States in July 1930 shows that she was 52 years old at that time.
According to Mr. Tripp, both Katherina’s father Jacob and her mother Rivka
were of Jewish origin.4 In December 1916, Katerina said the following in an interview with a Japanese newspaper:
My mother was from Romania, where many relatives lived as well, but I
was there for only one year after my birth, because my father was from
Russia and we moved there. After that, I was educated in Russia mostly,
so I don’t have much to say about Romania. However, I often visited that
beautiful country, situated not so far from Russia, where I stayed at my
aunt’s house during the summer holidays and delighted to be in touch
with the natural scenery with its beautiful mountains.5
This interview says “Mrs. Todorović, a Romanian Lady Tells” in the headline. In spite of its declaration of neutrality, just after the outbreak of the First
World War in August of 1916, Romania entered the war on the side of the Allies.
By the end of the year however, the capital Bucharest fell into the hands of the
Central Powers. It seems that the interview was done with the aim of listening to
Romanian live voices. It is interesting that Katerina was known as a Romanian
among the Japanese public.
Katerina’s birth place, Kiliya, is a part of the Ukraine today, but historically,
it was a part of Bessarabia over which Turkey, Romania and Russia had been in
conflict with each other. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the territorial jurisdiction of Bessarabia has changed several times. At the beginning of
3
4
5
See the photographic image on the following site: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=
gr&GSln=todorovic&GSfn=catherine&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=69975584&df=
all&
Tripp, Michael. Jewish Connections (unpublished).
Tokyo Asahi, December 8, 1916.
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the century Kiliya was under Russian rule, and then was transferred to Romania
in 1856 as a result of the Russian defeat in the Crimean War. In the Asamamaru’s passenger list in 1930, Katerina declared her birth place as “Kiliya in
Bessarabia”, but in fact, under the circumstances, there was little else she could
write.
By the decision of the Berlin Conference in 1878, Kiliya was again ceded
to Russia, but in September 1877 when Katerina was born, it should have been
under Romania, as she stated in the above article. Considering that her “mother
is from Romania,” it is possible that Kiliya is her mother’s hometown, but there
is no material available to make this conclusion definite. On July 31, 1940 – the
day when the Todorovićs left Japan forever, Katerina was entered as “Romanian”
under the heading of “Race, people” in the passenger list of the Japanese liner
“Nitta-maru.” Katerina lived in Romania just for one year and spent most of her
life abroad, but Kiliya would be her homeland throughout her life.
Katerina was the eldest daughter of her family and had four siblings: two
younger brothers and two younger sisters. The birthplace of her oldest sister Clara
is unknown, but her oldest brother Boris was born in 1881 in Odessa, which was
supposed to be the place the family was to move to from Kiliya. It is situated in
the coastal area of the Black Sea and as Katerina said, it would have been possible for them to go often to Romania during the summer vacation. However, her
youngest sister Elisabeth was born in 1887 in Kiliya, and given this datum, it is
possible that the family returned to Kiliya any time between 1878 and 1887. Or,
her mother may have returned to her parents’ alone in order to give birth. Either
way, there is no material for a definitive conclusion. In addition, the birthplace of
the youngest brother Anisim, who was born in 1890, is Odessa. There are many
uncertainties regarding the family’s whereabouts after leaving Kiliya in 1878, but
it is obvious that they had a base in Odessa.
It is not known why the family moved to Odessa, but one reason might be
that the town was the largest center for Russian Jews. According to communications between Katerina and her son Jacob at a later date, her musical career also
started in Odessa. After learning the fundamentals of the piano with some local
teachers, she went on to the Vienna Conservatory of Music. Her father decided
to take her to Vienna, not to St. Petersburg or Moscow on the advice of her teachers in Odessa.
At the Vienna Conservatory, she studied piano with Prof. Robert Fischhof
(1856–1918). In 1900 she graduated from the conservatory with excellent results
also in Music History, Chamber Music and other subjects. Fischhof himself was
a graduate from the same conservatory. He studied piano with Anton Door
(1833–1919), who was a student of Carl Czerny (1791–1857), famous for his books
Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974)
of studies for the piano. After graduation, Fischhof continued his piano studies
with the virtuoso Franz Liszt (1811–1886) and Teodor Leszetycki (1830–1915), a
famous Polish piano teacher. It might be interesting to note that both Liszt and
Leszetycki were Czerny’s pupils and Czerny was Beethoven’s disciple. From the
viewpoint of this musical genealogy, it can be said that Katerina inherited an
orthodox musical tradition and excellent performance techniques in European
classical music.
Going back to Katerina’s family history, her younger brother Anisim also
engaged in music and seems to have been a renowned conductor and composer in Russia, while her sister Clara was a teacher in Chisinau, the biggest city of
Bessarabia at that time.6 Her father’s occupation is not certain, but he was probably
wealthy, as his children received a good education and could even study abroad.
A History of the Marriage of the Todorovićs and Their Arrival in Japan
Branko Vukelić (1904–1945), who came to Japan in 1933 as a correspondent
of the “Politika” which was a daily newspaper circulated in Belgrade, reported
on Katerina’s husband in his own paper dated July 2, 1934. The following is a
quote from the aforementioned discourse:
I left Serbia when I was 19 years old, after finishing the first year of a course at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Belgrade. I graduated from a university in Russia, in St. Petersburg, and obtained doctoral
degrees in physics and mathematics. At that time, I became acquainted
with my wife. She was a young musician and was going to graduate from
the Vienna Conservatory. We lived in Russia for about ten years, but in
1909 I was invited by the Japanese government and became an instructor
of the Russian language at the military academy in Tokyo. Shortly after
that I was appointed a professor of Slavic studies at a national university
of foreign languages in Tokyo. Last summer I had been working for just
20 years. And last April it was 25 years since I had first landed in Japan.7
This passage is worth notice not only because it was told by Dušan himself,
but also because it includes several important items of information about the
6
7
The Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names of the World Holocaust Remembrance Center “Yad
Vashem” contains a document about Clara. She was killed together with her husband in Chisinau in
1942. http://yvng.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&advancedSearch=true&sln_value=Roz_
Gorenstein&sln_type=synonyms&sfn_value=Ecaterina&sfn_type=synonyms
山崎洋編訳『ブランコ・ヴケリッチ 日本からの手紙――ポリティカ紙掲載記事(1933–1940)
』未
知谷 (Yamasaki Vukerić, Hiroshi (ed.). Branko Vukerić, Letters from Japan: His Articles Published in
“Politika” (1933–1940). Tokyo: Michitani), 2007, p. 120.
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
history of the first encounter between the Todorovićs and their arrival in Japan,
but unfortunately the dates are not visible. While it matches with the other
information we have, the chronology still needs to be accurately determined.
Dušan was a Serbian born on the 22nd of February, 1875 in Belgrade, the capital
city of Serbia.8 He went to Russia to study in 1894. It was probably the turn of
the century when he graduated from a University in St. Petersburg. According
to Dušan’s words, at about the same time, he came to know Katerina, who decided to graduate from the Vienna Conservatory. As mentioned above, Katerina
graduated from the conservatory in 1900.
However, there is a fact which is not told in Dušan’s story. Namely, this was
the second marriage for both Katerina and him. Before her marriage with Dušan,
Katerina had married a Jew whose name was Joseph Kogan and in September
1902, she had a son, Jacob, with Joseph.9 According to Mr. Tripp, the couple got
divorced in Jacob’s infancy. Meanwhile, Dušan had probably got married as well
and had his first son, Valerian, in October 1902 and then in May 1904 his second
son, Dragutin10. There is no information about Dušan’s first marriage. Even the
spouse is unknown.
According to the “Ancestry.com” website, the birthplace of Jacob was Ismail
in the Ukraine, while Dušan’s two sons were born in Niš in Serbia. Judging from
the above quote by Dušan, the place where Katerina and Dušan met could have
been St. Petersburg, although their first place of contact is not mentioned anywhere explicitly. There is a possibility that they met for the first time around
1900, as Dušan mentioned in the interview, but they could not have “lived together in Russia for ten years” before moving to Japan in 1909, based on the fact
that a photograph of Katerina with her little son taken in Ismail in 1905 shows
that Katerina was still in Bessarabia around this time. Considering that Dušan’s
younger son was born in May 1904, and in December 1907 Victor, the only son
between Dušan and Katerina was born, the couple must have got acquainted
with each other around 1905 at the earliest. Whatever the case may have been,
the two probably felt sympathy for each other because both were non-Russians.
Dušan came to Japan by “invitation of the Japanese government”; specifically, through the mediation of Sadatoshi Yasugi (1876–1966), a professor of the
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.11 Yasugi recognized Dušan as a suitable
person for the post, considering he had the skill of a native speaker. However, if
8
Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), Ref.A10113356400. http://www.digital.archives.
go.jp/das/image/M0000000000000052025
9 Dr. Michael Tripp is a grandson of Jacob.
10 Mr. Dana Todorovic, another relative whom the author became acquainted with and who is Dragutin’s
son.
11 柴宜弘 (Shiba, N.), Dušan Todorović, p. 325.
Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974)
Yasugi hadn’t had the unusual idea of inviting a Serb to Japan to teach Russian,
the fate of the Todorovićs would have been completely different.
Yet, things being as they were, Katerina and Dušan stepped on Japanese soil
with their four sons in April 1909.
KATERINA’S MUSIC PERFORMANCES IN JAPAN UNTIL THE
EARLY 1910S
Debut as a concert pianist in Japan
To the Japanese public, Katerina is known as “a good piano teacher” who
mainly taught children of high-class families in prewar Japan. Among her pupils were outstanding pianists and educators such as Sonoko Inoue (1926–1986),
Toyoko Oriomoto (Toyoko Kreutzer, 1916–1990), and Akiko Teranishi (1928–).12
However, it is not commonly known that Katerina herself started her musical
career in Japan not as a teacher, but as a concert pianist.
Katerina’s first performance for the Japanese public was at a welcome party for the “Russian Tourism Organization” held on July 3, 1909.13 Surprisingly
enough, she became active as early as three months after her arrival in Japan,
despite having to take care of four little children in an unfamiliar land. In the
same year, she made a full debut. She performed Chopin’s Ballade in G Minor
and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 at the 52nd concert organized by Meiji
Ongakukai (the Meiji Music Society) on December 16. The Meiji Ongakukai was
established in January 1898 under the leadership of the president of the Tokyo
Academy of Music, Rokushirō Uehara (1848–1913), and held concerts once a
month at the Academy’s own concert hall Sōgakudō. The Meiji Music Society
was an organization comprised of motivated intellectuals, while the Dai Nihon
Ongakukai (Great Japan Music Society), whose functions took place mainly at
the Rokumeikan (Deer-cry Hall), was the favored society of the members of the
upper class.14
The 52nd Meiji Ongakukai concert was not a solo recital, but a joint concert
including orchestral music and Japanese traditional music. Katerina performed
with two violinists, Wilhelm Dubravčić and George Vignetti. According to a
12 Ms. Akiko Teranishi was one of Katerina’s pupils in Japan. Two interviews with her (February 11 and
August 5, 2016) provided me with valuable information relating to Katerina’s personality and her way
of teaching piano etc. Heartfelt thanks to her for help.
13 Tokyo Nichinichi, July 4, 1909.
14 増井敬二『日本のオペラ――明治から大正へ』(Masui, Keiji. Operas in Japan: From the Meiji to
Taishō Period. Tokyo: Minon Ongaku Shiryōkan, 1984, pp. 77–79).
209
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Japanese newspaper, the Yomiuri, on February 19, 1910, only three months after
the Meiji Ongakukai concert, Katerina held a charity concert with the assistance
of the Russian ambassador and cooperated again with the same two violinists
to raise funds for the families of naval officers killed in action. The article says
that over 160 Japanese and foreign ladies and gentlemen attended the concert.15
Katerina performed nine pieces for the piano composed by Bach, Chopin, Liszt,
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and other composers, in addition to playing the accompaniment of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9 “Kreutzer.” In the “Ongakukai
(Music World)”, Katerina’s performances in “Rhapsody” “Toccata and Fugue”
and Vignetti’s performances in the “Kreutzer Sonata” and Tartini’s sonata garnered the applause of the whole hall.16
It can be said that Katerina’s debut as a pianist in Japan went very well, while
the most important thing for her was to have been able to make the acquaintance of the above mentioned two violinists. The subsequent close professional
relationship she had with them would be helpful later not only for her career as a
musician in Japan, but also in her other projects such as charity activities.
Wilhelm Dubravčić (1868–1925) came to Japan with his wife Anna in May
1901. He was appointed by the Imperial Court as director of the Gagaku (ceremonial music) orchestra and remained in this appointment until his death.
According to documents from the Imperial Household Archives, Dubravčić was
born in Fiume in Austria-Hungary on December 23, 1868, and had studied at
the Vienna Conservatory between 1881 and 1887. From 1890 to 1892, he had
worked as a violinist at the Warsaw Imperial Theater.17 In Japan he actively performed, in addition to his daily routine of directing and educating the orchestra.
By agreeing to renew his contract with the Imperial Court every two years, he
continued to support the development of Western music in Japan.
Although Dubravčić came to Japan as “an Austrian”, his birthplace of Fiume
(nowadays Rijeka in Croatia) is a Dalmatian port city on the Adriatic coast.
Judging from his family name, we can be certain that ethnically he was not
German, but of Slavic origin, probably Croatian18. This is backed up by an interview Vukelić gave together with the Czech architect Antonin Raymond (1888–
1976) written on March 3, 1935 by the correspondent of the “Politika” in Tokyo,
15 Yomiuri, February 20, 1910.
16 Ongakukai, vol. 3, no. 3, March 1910.
17 『欧州音楽教師雇入録二』(Documents on Employment of European music teachers, vol. 2), Imperial
Household Archives (宮内公文書館), 11564.
18 Dubravčić was possibly the first Croat who came to Japan. He was supposed to be an Italian, because
he also used an Italian name “Gulielmo”. Zenzō Matsumoto wrote in his book that Dubravčić was “an
Austrian of Italian origin”. See: 松本善三『提琴有情――日本のヴァイオリン音楽史』(Matsumoto,
Zenzō. Violin Is a Sentient Being: A History of Violin Music in Japan). Tokyo: Lesson-no-tomo-sha,
1995.
Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974)
wherein Vukelić refers to “the late Dubravčić who was a conductor of the Tokyo
Imperial Court Orchestra “ and “Mr. Todorović, Professor of Slavic studies” as
“my fellow countrymen”.19
In Katerina’s eyes, Japan, which is situated in a corner of the Far East, must
have been an undeveloped country from the viewpoint of classical music. Yet as
soon as she arrived in Japan, she found that Dubravčić, a graduate from the same
conservatory she had attended, was actively involved in the very heart of the
Japanese music world! Also, he was from Croatia, and what’s more, a place close
to her home town! It is easy to imagine that she felt confident that she would do
well in Japan.
As is well known, the Meiji government tried to introduce Western music
mainly via Germany and Austria, and invited experts from both countries as
“oyatoi gaikokujin (hired foreigners)”. However, when we look in greater detail at the backgrounds of the musicians who were known as “Germans” or
“Austrians”, we find that not a few were actually from the peripheral area of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. For example, Franz Eckert (1852–1916), known for
establishing the foundations of music education in Meiji Japan, and who mainly
focused on the training of Navy military bands, was a German from Prussia.
His birthplace of Neurode is now Nowa Ruda, a small city in the southwestern
part of Poland, quite close to the Czech border. According to Rihei Nakamura’s
research, it is very likely that he was a Catholic of Polish origin20. After Eckert left
Japan in 1899, it was Dubravčić who took over the work of guiding the Imperial
Ceremonial Orchestra. Rudolf Dittrich (1861–1919) was also known as an
Austrian professor, but his birthplace is Biała (nowadays a part of Bielsko-Biała
in Poland) in Galicia, located on the periphery of Austria-Hungary. Dittrich
trained pioneering Japanese musicians at the Tokyo Academy of Music.
Going back to Katerina’s performance activities from 1909 to 1910, we find
that another costar, a French violinist called George Vignetti, played a significant role as well, although his career as a performer can hardly be traced today
and even his birth and death dates are unknown. An article in a Japanese popular newspaper Yorozu Chōhō dated February 14, 1909, wrote that he was 26 years
old, so possibly he was born in 1883. However, as the same paper presented in a
sympathetic way that “the virtuosity in his performance had already been appreciated by musicians not only in France, but all over the world, and he had been
well known as a genius musician”, it seems that his tour of Japan in 1909 evoked
a huge response from the Japanese public. Before the joint concert with Katerina,
19 山崎 (Yamasaki), Branko Vukerić, pp. 196–197.
20 中村理平『洋楽導入者の軌跡――日本近代洋学史序説』(Nakamura, Rihei. The pioneers of
Introduction of European Music to Japan: An Introduction to a History of European Music in Modern
Japan). Tokyo: Tosui Shobo, Publishers & Co. Ltd., 1993, p. 350.
211
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Vignetti had already performed on February 19 and March 14 at Yūrakuza Hall
in Tokyo, on April 27 in the Imperial Hotel, and on May 12 in the Yokohama
Grand Hotel.21
After his long stay of over two years, Vignetti finally decided to leave Japan
for the United States. On April 4, a farewell concert was held at the Kazoku
Kaikan (the Peers Club) with about 150 Japanese and foreign nobles and amateurs attending from the Tokyo-Yokohama region on invitation. Katerina gave
the first public performance of Anatoly Lyadov’s Barcarolle in F-sharp major
Op. 44, as well as Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 7 with Vignetti on the violin.22
According to the “Ongaku-kai” published in March 1911, the concert was
organized by Baron and Baroness Itō. Interestingly, Baroness Itō was Vignetti’s
elder sister. “Baron Itō” is supposed to be Yoshigorō Ito (1858–1919), a Japanese
naval officer who was married to the Frenchwoman Marie Louise Frappaz (1871–
1945). At the end of the concert, Mrs. Itō herself performed an ensemble piece for
the violin and piano together with her brother. This farewell concert may have
been a good opportunity for Katerina to become acquainted with people from
Japan’s upper class, and in fact, when the Todorovićs later launched an organization in support of Serbia during the First World War, Mrs.Itō added her name to
the promoters.
Encounters with Japanese Musicians
Katerina performed together with Dubravčić at all the three concerts she
appeared in 1912.23 It seems that Dubravčić tried to provide her with playing opportunities. The first one, the 56th concert organized by the Meiji Music Society,
was held at the Kanda Youth Hall on March 21. The program was a mixture
of Western music and Japanese traditional music, including solos on the piano
and the violin, orchestral music, string music and traditional Japanese songs
(Nagauta). Katerina performed two pieces by Liszt.
The first three decades of the 20th century Katerina spent in Japan were a
very interesting period in the history of the reception of Western music in Japan.
Japanese musicians of the first generation who had studied at the dawn of the
introduction of Western music were still active, while the younger generation
that would continue to be active until the end of the Showa period after the
21 増井 (Masui), Operas in Japan, p. 40.
22 大嶋かず路「明治期日本におけるロシア音楽受容――正教会と音楽学校の功績およびその影
響関係について」(Ōshima, Kazumi. The Reception of Russian Music in Meiji-Era Japan : The Role
of the Orthodox Church and Its Interrelation with Educational Facilities).『上智ヨーロッパ研究』
(Sophia: Journal of European Studies), 6, 2014, pp. 165–189.
23 Ongakukai, vol. 5, no. 4, March; vol. 5, no. 5, May, 1912.
Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974)
Second World War had just started their careers. It is noteworthy that Katerina
performed and socialized with not only foreign musicians but also Japanese musicians, both of the older and younger generation.
On March 28, 1912, Katerina appeared with Dubravčić at the “Vocal Music
Concert”, which was held at the Imperial Hotel “under the auspices of an accomplished vocalist Sarcoli”.24 Adolfo Sarcoli (1867–1936) is an Italian tenor. He
toured Shanghai in the autumn of 1911, but was forced to move to Japan because
his contract was cancelled owing to the outbreak of the Chinese Revolution.25 He
settled in Japan and taught many pupils who aimed to be professional vocalists
at the dawn of the Japanese reception of Western music, having distinguished
achievements in introducing the art of bel canto to Japan. For this he is called
“the father of bel canto in Japan”.26
It is also noteworthy that the world-famous Japanese soprano singer Tamaki
Miura (1884–1946) performed at the “Vocal Music Concert” together with
Katerina. In December of the previous year she had sung duets from Mascagni’s
opera “Cavalleria Rusticana” together with Sarcoli at the “Teikoku Gekijō
(Imperial Theater)”, which was established in that year as the first Western-style
theater in Japan. Although only a part of the opera was performed, it was the
very first performance of an Italian opera in Japan.27 After her marriage in 1913,
she accompanied her husband who was travelling to Europe to do research. In
1915 she succeeded to debut in London, and the following year in America.
Katerina had also performed with Sarcoli at the “Japanese and Western
Music concert” held at the Yūrakuza in November 1915. It might be owing to
Sarcoli that her playing opportunities with Japanese vocalists increased remarkably after that date.
Regarding her relationship with Japanese musicians, it is also worth noting
that Katerina collaborated with Kōsaku Yamada (1886–1965), a composer and
conductor known as the organizer of the first professional orchestra in Japan.
On March 29, 1916, Katerina appeared at the 17th concert organized by the
“Tokyo Philharmonie Society.” The program consisted of two solo pieces for the
piano performed by Katerina, two songs by an alto named Waterhouse, and four
pieces for a chamber orchestra. It was the orchestra of “the Society for the Study
of Chamber Music” that performed the chamber music conducted by Yamada.28
24 Ongakukai, vol. 5, no. 5, May 1912.
25 増井 (Masui), Operas in Japan, p. 176.
26 直江学美「日本におけるベル・カントの父、
アドルフォ・サルコリの生涯」(Naoe, Manami. Adolfo
Sarcoli, the Father of “Bel canto” in Japan”).『金沢星稜大学人間科学研究』(Kanazawa Seiryo
University of Human Sciences), 4, 2, 2011, pp. 41–44.
27 増井 (Masui), Operas in Japan, pp. 175–176.
28 The program of the 17th concert by “the Tokyo Philharmonie Society” (provided by Mr. Dana
Todorović).
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The “Tokyo Philharmonie Society”, an organization for popularizing
Western music, was established in March 1910 following the initiative by a
Japanese entrepreneur Koyata Iwasaki (1879–1945), and held concerts based at
the Imperial Theater. One month before this, sponsored by Iwasaki, Yamada had
left for Germany to study and returned to Japan in 1914 after studying abroad
for 4 years. On December 6, Yamada conducted the extraordinary orchestra of
more than 80 members at the 14th concert organized by the Tokyo Philharmonie
Society, performing his own works, including the first Japanese symphony
“Kachidoki to Heiwa (Triumphant Shout and Peace)” composed in 1912. Because
this concert was a great success, Iwasaki gave the green light to Yamada to organize and manage a permanent orchestra of the “Tokyo Philharmonie Orchestra”.
In 1915 the orchestra held six subscription concerts, starting with a preliminary
concert in May. However, at the beginning of 1916, because of a personal scandal caused by Yamada, Iwasaki suddenly cut off his financial support for the
orchestra, and the Tokyo Philharmonic Society, which had been burdened by a
deficit, was forced to dissolve.29 March 1916, when Katerina performed at the 17th
concert, also marked the end of the Tokyo Philharmonie Society.
Although Yamada’s first orchestra was short-lived, he continued to take a
leading role in developing Japanese symphony orchestras. His activities would
bear fruit with the establishment of Japan’s first professional orchestra the “New
Symphony Orchestra”. Katerina not only witnessed the history of the development
of Japanese orchestras from the dawn of the introduction of classical music in
Japan, but was also to perform later with the New Symphony Orchestra. No other
musician, whether Japanese or foreign, would ever gain such unique experiences.
PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES IN THE LATE 1910S
During the First World War
As mentioned in Chapter 2, Katerina achieved a considerable degree of success as a concert pianist in only a short span of years after her arrival in Japan.
Keiji Masui, a Japanese music critic, describing the Japanese music scene in the
latter half of the Taishō period, wrote that the three musicians Dubravčić, Sarcoli
and Katerina played a significant role not only in performing, but also in training leading musicians of the next generation as teachers in the field of classical
music.30
29 増井 (Masui), Operas in Japan, pp. 258–259.
30 Ibid., p. 265.
Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974)
Just after the new era of Taishō had begun in Japan, war clouds began to
gather over the European continent, and in 1914 (the third year of Taishō), the
First World War finally broke out. All of Serbia, Romania and Russia where the
relatives of the Todorovićs lived were drawn into the war. Serbia entered the war
in July 1914, Russia in August of the same year, and Romania in August 1916,
after having remained neutral for a while. There are few materials which show
how Katerina and her family spent their days during the war. All we can do here
is to attempt to trace their footsteps by means of articles from Japanese newspapers and periodicals.
While the reason is uncertain, Katerina gave no concerts until March 1914,
after having performed at four concerts in 1912. The first item of information
to refer to the Todorovićs after the outbreak of the war is a short article in the
Ongakukai published in December 1915. According to the article, at a concert
organized by the “Nijusseiki-sha (20th Century Company)” and held at the
Kanda Youth Hall in October 29 of the same year, “Mr. Todorović from Serbia
delivered an enthusiastic speech with resentment for his home country.”31 In this
period, the war was rapidly getting worse for Serbia, following Bulgaria’s entry
into the war on the side of the Central Powers in September 1915. The Serbian
government with its military forces had already been forced to retreat from the
capital Belgrade in the autumn of 1914. In 1915–1916, they had to establish their
base outside the country, moving through Albania to the Greek island of Corfu.
In the interview in December 1916 quoted in Chapter 1, Katerina criticized
the behavior of the Romanian government, which had abruptly entered the war
without sufficient preparations aiming “to fish in troubled waters.”
To think that this beautiful country is being left at the mercy of the invading army really makes me feel so indignant, but if I may comment
on the situation, I must say without doubt the Romanian government
erred by having entered the war without preparations. They could have
prepared during the two years after the outbreak of the war. In addition,
the people do not know the facts. I think good result will be brought only
after everything goes well. I truly believe that there are many lessons to be
learned in this world, but I really feel sad that the price paid in the learning is far too high.32
Furthermore, in March 1917 (February according to the Julian calendar)
the Russian Revolution broke out. How did Katerina take the turbulence in the
31 Shinpei Higuchi, Yoshiko Nagasaka, Vasiliy Eroshenko, and the Mitsukoshi string orchestra were
present at the concert. Higuchi was a baritone(?) and Nagasaka a Soprano singer. Eroshenko, a
famous Esperantist, had been in Japan since the previous year.
32 Tokyo Asahi, December 8, 1916.
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country where her family lived? Contrary to what the above-mentioned article in
March 1916 had stated, Katerina was described as a Russian in this interview by
the same newspaper. Katerina as “a Russian” seemed to have maintained a good
relationship with the representatives of Imperial Russia in Japan, giving concerts
sponsored by the Russian Embassy. However, regarding the collapse of the government of Imperial Russia, she interrupted the interviewer who said that “it is
an unfortunate event for Russia”, and said “It’s a matter for congratulations.” She
also added that Russia should have done this earlier, with her face beaming with
joy from the bottom of her heart. In the following excerpt from this interview,
she talks about the future of the government, the people and the future of Russia.
(…) The officers and soldiers sent to the war are not professionals but
members of the military reserve force. Everyone has their own profession
and can work freely as a citizen. Therefore they have the right to assert
the freedom of the people’s will against the government. The government
should be the people’s government. What good is a despotic government
that does not respect the will of the people? In this war the government
has adopted means by which it should never have won the war against
Germany. To call it a shortage of food is fallacious. It is not a shortage but
poor government. The same goes for the supply of munitions. I have been
extremely worrying that the war could be ended, because the government
has been conducting the war in a wrong way by which it would never
gain a victory. I am really delighted to imagine the new future of Russia
in which the government will respect the people’s will.33
How did Katerina respond to the October Revolution, having been filled
with hope for the future of Russia after the collapse of Tsarist Russia? How does
the Revolution affect her life and activities? Unfortunately, we have no means of
answering these questions. However, it is a fact that Katerina organized or attended various charity concerts in the late 1910s.
On March 4, 1916, Katerina appeared at a charity concert for the “Kumamoto
Kaishun Hospital (known in English as the Kumamoto Hospital of the
Resurrection of Hope)”, held in the Aoyama Gakuin auditorium, performing
“Awakening of the Lion”, Op.115 composed by the Polish pianist and composer
Antoni Kątski (1817–1899) and some other pieces for the piano. The “Kumamoto
Kaishun Hospital” was a leper hospital which was established in the city of
Kumamoto by a British female missionary Hannah Riddell (1855–1932). At first
the hospital was run through donations – mainly from the United Kingdom and
the United States – but remittances stopped coming after Japan’s victory in the
33 Ibid.
Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974)
Russo-Japanese War. Consequently, the funds for running the hospital became
dependent on donations within Japan.34 The charity concert is interesting owing to its performers. In addition to Shinpei Higuchi and Yoshiko Nagasaka –
vocalists who performed at the above-mentioned concert by the”20th Century
Company” – we can find the name of “Haydn Quartet”, the first Japanese string
quartet, and a Russian writer and esperantist Vasili Yakovlevich Eroshenko (1890–
1952).35
After the Russian revolution broke out, no small number of Russian refugees
fled to Japan. On June 12, 1917, Katerina appeared at the “YMCA Charity Concert”
organized by the Young Women’s Christian Association (YMCA), with Japanese
soprano Nobuko Suzuki and others, and played her favorite pieces, Lyadov’s
Barcarolle and Chopin’s Ballade. According to the “Ongakukai” published in July
1917, the concert was given “to aid Russian children facing starvation caused by
the war”.36
On March 16, 1918, a charity concert was held at the Kanda Youth Hall in
support of Serbia, which had suffered great damage in the war. Two articles in
Ongakukai and Gekkan gakufu reported on this concert, but they are slightly
different from each other. According to Ongakukai, this charity concert was
sponsored by “‘the Association for the Relief of Serbia’ representing the Serbian
Red Cross Society.”37 In October 1914, just after the outbreak of the war, Dušan
had privately donated 150 yen to the Serbian Red Cross through the Japanese
Red Cross Society. It was at the request for emergency aid from the Serbian Red
Cross that he came to initiate the establishment of the Association38. Katerina
attended meetings of the Association as an originator, together with five ladies of
the peers, including the Marquis Nagako Nabeshima as a leader and the abovementioned Baroness Mariko Ito (Marie Louise Frappaz).39 The Association for
the Relief of Serbia collected donations from Japanese citizens, as well as relief
supplies such as medical goods, drugs and clothing and sent them to Serbia. The
concert on March 16 was clearly held as a part of the Association’s activities.
According to a small report in the March issue of Gekkan Gakufu, it was Mrs.
Todorović who as “a compatriot” had organized the concert for “the Serbian
people who had suffered the most disastrous damages in their history.” Although
it is a misunderstanding that Katerina was a Serb, it was probably true that she
took the initiative in planning and organizing the concert.
34 Many officials and prominent persons such as Shigenobu Ōkuma (1838–1922), Eiichi Shibusawa
(1840–1931), Gentarō Kodama (1852–1906) made donations and supported the hospital.
35 Gekkan Gakufu, the April issue, 1916, p. 25; Ongakukai, no. 174, April 1916.
36 Ongakukai, vol. 18, no. 189, July 1917.
37 Ongakukai, no. 198, April 1918.
38 柴宜弘 (Shiba, N.), Dušan Todorović, pp. 325–326.
39 Crveni krst Srbije 11–1tif, Arhiv Srbije.
217
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Joint Performances with the Polish Pianist Jadwiga Zaleska
Katerina performed constantly – not only with Japanese, but also with foreign performers who lived in Japan and overseas, even after the outbreak of the
First World War. In 1918 she was particularly active, performing at six concerts
within the year – the most in her career as a pianist.
From the mid-1910s to the end of the decade, the arrival of foreign musicians
declined drastically due to the war, but in turn, a number of Russian musicians
came to Japan, directly or indirectly influenced by the revolution and forced to
earn a livelihood elsewhere, some of whom Katerina also performed together
with.
Jadwiga Zaleska (nee Iwanowska, 1879–1944) might deserve greater attention here, because she was not a Russian but a Pole, although she did come to
Japan from Russia in this period. An article in the April 1918 issue of Gekkan
gakufu described her as the most brilliant pianist among those who had come
from Russia. She had studied the piano with the Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein (1829–1894), known as the founder of the St. Petersburg
Conservatory. Apparently, another world-famous Polish pianist, Josef Hofmann
(1876–1957) had been her fellow student. She got married at the age of 18 and
was appointed as the director of an imperial school of music in Tomsk only one
year later. As a pianist, it seems she performed in Siberia, mainly in Tomsk.40
Judging from the fact that before coming to Japan she had been “a professor at
the Petrograd Imperial Music School”, she was probably highly valued in Russia.
Zaleska’s first public performance in Japan was at the “Ballet and Music
Concert” held in Gēte-za (the Gaiety Theater) in Yokohama on January 11,
1918.41 According to the article titled “The movement of a foreign music star”
in the July issue of Ongakukai, Zaleska traveled across Japan from Hakodate
to Fukuoka, performing about 40 times in total. It was at her first concert in
Tokyo on February 23, that she played with Katerina. In the second part of the
concert the two pianists played Anton Allenksky’s composition “Suite no. 2 for
two pianos.” Perhaps Katerina was favorably impressed by this collaboration,
as on March 16, Zaleska played several solo and ensemble pieces at the abovementioned charity concert for Serbia.42
40 According to Marta Sajdek, Zaleska had already performed at a concert in Poland in February 1894.
See: Sajdek, Marta. Akcje koncertowe krakowskiego Towarzystwa Muzycznego w ostatnich latach
XIX wieku. Młoda Muzykologia, Rocznik 2009, Instytut Muzykologii Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego,
p. 124.
41 升本匡彦『横浜ゲーテ座――明治・大正の西洋劇場』(Masumoto, Kunihiko. The Gaiety Theater
in Yokohama: A Western-style Theater in Japan in the Meiji and Taishō Period). Tokyo: Iwasaki
Museum, 1986, p. 230.
42 Tokyo Asahi, February 26, 1918.
Shiba: Katerina Todorović (1877–1974)
From the viewpoint of a history of Western music in Japan, we also must
not ignore the “Mrs. Zaleska’s Piano Concert” held on 7th, 9th and 11th May 1918.
Zaleska gave a solo recital on the second evening, while on the first and third day
she played together with other musicians including Katerina. It is worth noting
the Japanese musicians who performed at the concerts, because all of them had
played a pioneering role in the history of Western music in Japan. On the first
day, the sisters Nobu Kōda (1870–1946) and Kō Andō (nee Kōda, 1878–1963)
appeared on stage. Nobu had studied both the piano and the violin in Japan
and abroad, excelling at composition as well, while Kō was a pioneering and
excellent violinist and instructor of the instrument. On May 11, Sueko Ogura
(1891–1944), the first Japanese pianist who was active internationally, played
Rachmaninoff’s “Suite” no. 1 or no. 2 together with Zaleska. On the third day,
Katerina also played with Zaleska: Tchaikovsky’s “Concerto” and two pieces by
Rubinstein, “Concerto” and “Trepak”.43 These concerts provided a rare opportunity for Katerina to perform together with the professors of Tokyo Music School,
because Katerina never taught at Japanese music schools, always teaching privately until her departure to the United States in 1940.
An article in the December 1918 issue of Gekkan gakufu reported on
Katerina’s charity concert with the Russian musicians on November 2, introducing her as a pianist who “had been enjoying fame in Tokyo since that spring”.
Her achievements as a pianist would bring her opportunities to teach a number
of pupils – mainly from upper class society – in the 1920s.
CONCLUSION
From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, no small number of
European musicians came to Japan. A part of them were from Central Europe,
but this fact has long been unnoticed among the Japanese public. As their homelands were under foreign rule at that time, these musicians were often regarded
as Germans, Austrians or Russians. To help find a clue as to their motives or
reasons for coming to “a developing country” in the field of Western music far
from Europe, it would be indispensable to know their origins or backgrounds.
For those who were forced to emigrate from their homeland due to wars or revolutions, Japan provided a place where they could earn a livelihood as well as meet
each other.
43 “Zaresuka-fujin-piyano-ensōkai” (program of the concert), Archives of Modern Japanese Music,
Meiji Gakuin University Library.
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As mentioned above, the first three decades of the 20th century Katerina
Todorović spent in Japan were a very interesting period in the history of the reception of Western music in Japan. And although chance may have led Katerina
to Japan, she became not only a witness, but also a contributor to the development of Western classical music in this country, performing together with both
Japanese and foreign musicians. It would be interesting to further follow her
traces in Japan in the next decades.
Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović and his Early Life …
Nobuhiro Shiba
A PROFESSOR OF THE
RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
IN TOKYO, DUŠAN
TODOROVIĆ AND
HIS EARLY LIFE:
An Introduction for Studying
a ‘Marginal Man’
INTRODUCTION
Considering the modern history of Central and Eastern Europe, we could
easily find cases in which people had to select their own nationality because their
country had collapsed and a new country had been built. One of the most recent
such cases was that of a popular musician, Ms Jadranka Stojaković, who lived in
Japan and who passed away in the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina
in 2016. She was born in Sarajevo in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
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of the Former Yugoslavia, and was very active on the popular music scene in
Europe as well as in the Former Yugoslavia. When Jadranka had come to Japan
for a recording in 1988 and then performed as a singer, the Bosnian wars began and her homeland dissolved. As the Former Yugoslavia for which she had
a deep love had disappeared, she had to change her nationality into Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Such cases came into being in various ways when nation states were founded as
a result of the collapse of three Empires in Central and Eastern Europe, where the
new, emerging countries had been under the occupation of the Habsburg Empire,
the Russian Empire and the German Empire until the end of World War I.
Professor Dušan Todorović (1875–1963), who had taught Russian language
for 31 years from 1909 to 1940 at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages (now,
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) is one of these cases. When he was in Tokyo,
World War I broke out and his homeland, the Kingdom of Serbia, was integrated into the new ensuing state, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (The
Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929). Such cases where people’s homelands had been
changed while they were living abroad like Prof. Todorović can also be found
here and there among soldiers who were taken prisoner by enemy countries.
During World War I, Czech and Slovak soldiers under the Habsburg Army
surrendered to the enemy, i.e. the Russian Army, and were taken prisoner. This
is a relatively well-known event in relation to the later Czech and Slovak Legion.1
A number of the Croat, Serb and Slovene soldiers in the Habsburg Army also
surrendered to the Russian Army. A considerable number of Serbian officers
and soldiers in particular deserted, and upon returning to their homes surrendered to the Russian Army and joined it. In April of 1916 before the formation of the Czech and Slovak Legion, the First Serbian Voluntary Division was
founded under the command of the Russian Empire by such South Slav prisoners of war (mainly Serbs) and officers from the Army of the Kingdom of Serbia,
which had withdrawn at Corfu.2 Although the Serbian Voluntary Divisions will
be examined in another of my papers, I only wish to point out that the South
1
2
For a recent work on the Czech and Slovak Legion in Japanese, See: 林忠行「チェコスロヴァキア軍
団――未来の祖国に動員された移民と捕虜」(Hayashi, Tadayuki. The Czech and Slovak Legion:
The Migration and Prisoners Mobilized for the Future Homeland). In: 山室信一・岡田暁生・小関
隆・藤原辰史編『現代の起点 第一次世界大戦 2 総力戦』岩波書店 (Yamamuro, S., Okada A.,
Koseki T., Fujiwara T. (eds.). World War I: The Starting Point of Contemporary Period, Vol. 2, Total
War. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), 2014, pp. 55–77.
Regarding recent research on the Serbian Voluntary Divisions, See the following three books by
Milan Minić. Минић, Милан. Српско добровољачко питање у Великом рату (1914–1918). Ново
Милошево: Банатски културни центар, Београд: РадиоТелевизија Србије, 2014; Незапамћена
битка: Српски добровољаци у Русији 1914–1918. Ново Милошево: Банатски културни центар,
2016; Српски добровољаци 1914–1918: Животи, сећања. Ново милошево: Банатски културни
центар, 2016.
Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović and his Early Life …
Slav prisoners of war each had to change their nationality at the advent of the
building of the new country, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, after
World War I.
We can also find similar cases to the above in Japan. After entering World
War I, Japan sent an army numbering over 70,000 men to possess Jiaozhou
Wan(膠州湾)on the Shandong Peninsula (山東半島、then a territory under
German lease) in China in August of 1914. The German Army surrendered in
November of the same year and about 4,600 officers and soldiers of the German
Army were taken prisoner.3 They were interned separately in prison camps in
various locations in Japan until 1919. Around 400 prisoners of the Habsburg
Army4 were found among these German Army prisoners, and many of them
were also Czechs, Slovaks, Croats and Slovenes. Before their repatriation in 1919,
the prisoners were confronted with the necessity of choosing a nationality. Japan
respected the intentions of these prisoners, allowing them time for deliberation
and to make their own choice.5
And what do we know about the case of Dušan Todorović? Mr. Todorović
came to Japan as a professor of the Russian language in 1909. At the time when
he was teaching Russian Language at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages,
World War I broke out. Teaching as a ‘Russian’, Todorović made a start in
supporting Serbia with funds in the autumn of 1914, just after hearing of the
Japanese Red Cross’s campaign to provide relief through the Serbian Red Cross
in the form of goods and bandages for this country caught up in the turmoil
of war.6 These actions reflect how strongly he identified himself with Serbia.
Todorović played an active part in the diplomatic works as ‘a private ambassador’ of the new country of Yugoslavia in Japan (and was the only person in Japan
3
4
5
6
For more on the labor and life of the prisoners during World War I, See: 大津留厚『捕虜が働くと
き――第一次世界大戦・総力戦の狭間で』人文書院 (Otsuru, Atsushi. Prisoners and Labor during
World War I as Total War. Kyoto: Jimbun Shoin), 2013.
瀬戸武彦『青島(チンタオ)から来た兵士たち――第一次大戦とドイツ兵俘虜の実像』同学社
(Seto, Takehiko. Soldiers Coming from Tsigtao: The World War I and the True Picture of Prisoners of
the German Army. Tokyo: Dogakusha), 2006, p. 61.
Bertalanič, Boštjan. Exploring the Origins of Japanese-Yugoslav Relations during World War I
through the Case of Yugoslav POWs in Japan. The Electronic Journal of Central European Studies in
Japan, 1, 2015.
In Great Britain, a woman by name of Flora Sandes also supported Serbia with funds. She served in
the Serbian Army from 1915; at first as a nurse and then as a soldier, organizing a relief foundation
for Serbian soldiers in Great Britain when she returned home on a leave of absence from her military
service. During this time she was busily engaged in charity activities, organizing relief goods. See:
林田敏子「女性であること、兵士であること――バルカン女性兵士フローラ・サンデスの大戦経
験」(Hayashida, Toshiko. To Be a Woman, To Be a Soldier: The Experience during the War of Ms
Flora Sandes, a Woman Soldier in the Balkans). In: 山室ほか編『現代の起点 第一次世界大戦 2
総力戦』(Yamamuro et al. (eds.). World War I: The Starting Point of Contemporary Period, Vol. 2,
Total War), pp. 230–231.
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from Yugoslavia at the time), as Yugoslavia had not set up its embassy in Japan
yet during the inter-war period.
He didn’t leave any memoirs and wrote but a few essays about his personal
views. He did however write several textbooks on the Russian language in Japanese.7
Therefore we have no way of gleaning his views and thoughts about Serbia, Russia,
Yugoslavia, Japan and the United States and his national identity from the related
materials on him. This paper is an introductory and preparatory work to researching the changes in the national identity of a ‘marginal man’ (Robert E. Park) whom
we cannot follow within the framework of a national history.
1. TODOROVIĆ’S ORIGINS AND HIS BIRTHPLACE,
SREM (SRIJEM)
When I first introduced the subject of Todorović’s activities in Japan in 2015,8
I could not yet specify his exact date of birth and his birthplace. Therefore the
process of ascertaining them will be shown in this paper. Needless to say, it is
not easy for us to specify the origins of ‘an ordinary person’ living over 100 years
ago, even if he was an intellectual. One clue, however, came up in an article by
Branko Vukerić, a correspondent of the Belgrade based newspaper “Politika”.9
As Vukerić had written in the article that Todorović was awarded a high decoration from the Japanese Government, Riko Shiba looked through the database
of the Japanese Center for Asian Historical Records of the National Archives
of Japan (JACAR), where she was able to find a file about his decoration.10 An
account of his career was also included in the file. According to the account, he
was born in Belgrade on February 22 in 1875. We could then follow his activities
For example, デ・エヌ・トドロウィチ『露西亜語書簡文』大倉書店 (Todorović, D.N.. An Epistolary
Style of Russian Language. Tokyo: Okura Shoten), 1921;『日本人用實用露語発音指針――新正字
法適用』大倉書店 (A Way of Practical Pronunciation of Russian Language for the Japanese: Based on
the New Orthography. Tokyo: Okura Shoten), 1923.
8 柴宜弘「ドゥシャン・トドロヴィチ――ロシア語を教えたセルビア人」(Shiba, Nobuhiro. Dušan
Todorović: A Serb Teaching Russian Language in Japan). In: 柴宜弘・山崎信一編『セルビアを知
るための60章』明石書店(Shiba, Nobuhiro, Yamazaki, Shinichi (eds.). 60 Chapters to Understand
Serbia. Tokyo: Akashi Shoten), 2015, pp. 323–327.
9 For a book containing translations into Japanese of Mr. Vukerić’s articles in “Politika,” See: 山崎
洋編訳『ブランコ・ヴケリッチ 日本からの手紙――ポリティカ紙掲載記事(1933–1940)
』未知谷
(Yamasaki Vukerić, Hiroshi (ed.), Branko Vukerić, Letters from Japan: His Articles Published in
“Politika” (1933–1940). Tokyo: Michiya), 2007.
10 柴理子
「
「白系ロシア人」
音楽家カテリーナ・トドロヴィチの日本滞在(1)――1910年代までの軌跡」
(Shiba, Riko. Katerina Todorović (1877–1974): A Central European Pianist and the Japanese
Reception of Western Music in the Early 20th Century). In: Eジャーナル『中欧研究』(The Electronic
Journal of Central European Studies in Japan), 2, 2016, note 14; JACAR(アジア歴史資料センター),
Ref. A10113356400: The Document on Decision of Decorations in 1940, Vol. 20, Foreigners 1, National
Archives of Japan(国立公文書館).
7
Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović and his Early Life …
during his stay in Japan through books on University history11 and the newsletter of the Russian Association of the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages,12 but
were completely unable to ascertain anything about his career in Russia before
coming to Japan in 1909, or his life during his stay in the United States (where
his sons lived) after he left Japan in 1940.
We were however able to trace an imperfect family history of Todorović
through the website Ancestry.com in the United States, which assists people in
finding the individual family histories of American people. Several photographs
including the graves of Mr. and Mrs. Todorović and their family were on the
website. One of them is a photograph of his grave with the inscription of his
date of birth and death being 1875–1963, in the Serbian graveyard of Colma
in California. The person in charge of the photos was Dana Dušan Todorović,
so I called for his response to my message on the electronic bulletin board of
Ancestry com. Fortunately, I received his reply not long after posting. Dana is
the son of Todorović’s second son, Dragutin, one of four brothers. He has been
living in a town in California since his retirement, which is only about two hours
away by car from Palo Alto where Todorović and his wife Catherine (Katerina)
lived13 until the end of their lives.
We met Dana at a hotel in Palo Alto in 2016. He seemed to have a strong interest in the lives of his grandfather and grandmother, especially Dušan, which
was not surprising as he was his grandfather’s namesake. When his grandfather
passed away in 1963, Dana was still attending elementary school. For this reason, he said, he had only fragmented memories of his grandfather and scarcely
knew anything about him as there was no chance for him to ask the Todorovićs
anything directly during the early years of his life when they were living in the
United States. He showed us a lot of photographs of the decorations which were
given the Todorovićs, various letters of invitation, the covers of Todorović’s
books on the Russian language and photos with them and friends or acquaintances. After the meeting, we continued our exchanges via e-mail. With every
e-mail, he also sent us a new photo he had recently successfully searched for, but
curiously, we still hadn’t any clues of Todorović’s origin and early years.
There is an article however written by Vukerić about Todorović’s early years
based on an interview he had with him.
11 『東京外国語大学史』東京外国語大学 (A History of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Tokyo:
Tokyo University of Foreign Languages), 1999; 野中正孝編著『東京外国語学校史――外国語を
学んだ人たち』不二出版(Nonaka, Masataka (ed.). A History of Tokyo School of Foreign Languages:
People Who Studied the Foreign Languages. Tokyo: Fuji Shuppan), 2008.
12 『会報』(The Newsletter) was published twice a year from 1926 by東京外語露西亜会(the Russian
Association of Tokyo School of Foreign Studies).
13 For more on Catherine, See: 柴理子(Shiba, R.), Katerina Todorović.
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I left Serbia just after turning 19 years old when I had finished my first
year of studies at the faculty of Technology, University of Belgrade. Then
I graduated from Petersburg University in Russia, where I later also received a doctorate in physics and mathematics. At that time I became
acquainted with my wife.14
My research started at the Archives of Serbia, based on the above account. At
first, all I could find was a manuscript containing the list of scholarship students
of the Russian Government.15 The name of a Dušan Todorović, who was sent to
Petersburg to continue his studies, appeared on the page as number 1894 in the
list. Regrettably, the list contained no other data but the above. He must have
matriculated at the Faculty of Technology, University of Belgrade (then Velika
Škola of Belgrade, University of Belgrade since 1905), so he might have been
enrolled in a gymnasium in Belgrade. I then searched the enrolments lists of
the two gymnasiums in Belgrade in the 1890s, which were held in the room for
archival materials at the Pedagogical Museum in Belgrade.
Fortunately, the First Gymnasium in Belgrade had published a list of its
graduates to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the school’s founding. It was
not so difficult for me to find Todorović’s name among the 30 graduates of the
class of 1893–94.16 His results at the end of the 7th grade of Gymnasium (8 school
years) were also kept in the same room. According to them, Todorović had taken
11 courses during that school year and his final marks for five subjects were 5 (on
a scale of one to five), and 4 for the other six subjects. He was a leading student.17
It seemed that students had to select French or German in the 7th grade and it
was not clear whether they could study the Russian language or not. It was very
interesting to find that his final grade in Geometry was 5 in comparison with
the 4 he got in Algebra, and that he got a 5 in Botany and a 4 in Physics. As the
Velika Škola of Belgrade then consisted of three faculties: Law, Technology and
Theology, he matriculated at the Faculty of Technology.
Naturally, we also sought the Birth Registry and the Marriage Registry at
the Historical Archives of Belgrade to specify his birthplace and his parents,
as he’d graduated from the First Gymnasium in Belgrade, but we failed to
find his name in these documents. His grandson, Dana, told us that his father
Dragutin may have been born in Niš, a city in the south of Serbia, so we asked
14 「23. 1934年7月2日
(月)滞日25年のセルビア人、
教え子には日本の大臣、
将軍、
外交官」
(No. 23,
A Serb Staying in Japan for 25 Years: Minister, General and Diplomat among his Students). In: 山
崎編訳『ブランコ・ヴケリッチ 日本からの手紙』(Yamasaki Vukerić, Branko Vukerić, Letters from
Japan), p. 120.
15 Архив Србије, МПС-п, Велика школа, деловодник за 1893, бр. 1209 i 2194
16 Прва београдска гимназија ”Моша Пијаде“ 1839–1989, Београд, 1989, p. 436.
17 Оцене ученичког успеха у I београдској гимназији 1891/92, Београд, 1892.
Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović and his Early Life …
the Historical Archives of Niš whether we could search for Dragutin’s entry in
the Birth Registry, but their answer was that they did not keep the documents
for the relevant year of birth.
It was far from easy for me to find a clue to Todorović’s origins at the Historical
Archives of Belgrade and Niš. At last, I sought it again at the Archives of Serbia in
Belgrade because I’d heard from a professor of the University of Belgrade, Milan
Ristović, that the Archives kept students’ record files from the Velika Škola of
Belgrade. I reasoned that I could maybe find his name among the students matriculating at the Faculty of Technology in 1893 and obtain copies of his registration for matriculation along with the letter of application for the scholarship in
his own handwriting.18 My hopes proved well founded and in this way, after my
long search, I finally discovered his birth place and his father Nikola Todorović’s
occupation.
We now know that Dušan’s father was Nikola Todorović, a leather worker
from Surčin, born on February 20, 187519 from Dušan’s registration for matriculation recorded on an blue paper. His birthplace was Surčin (then under
the government of the Habsburg Empire), his religion Orthodox Christian, his
nationality Serbian, the state of his finances was poor, he graduated from the
First Gymnasium in Belgrade, and so on. Todorović himself had stated that his
family was poor and that he’d sent in an application letter for a scholarship with
a revenue stamp of 30 paras and a certificate from the District Court of the City
of Belgrade. This certificate shows that his father Nikola possessed no movable or immovable property and received no additional income apart from his
craftsman’s earnings nor a pension, thus qualifying for tax exemption. Nikola
Todorović also had to support his second son Ilija, who was a student in the
7th grade of gymnasium. Evidently, Todorović’s family was fairly poor while dependent on the income of his father, a leather worker. We are forced to wonder
how Todorović and his little brother Ilija could continue to study at the gymnasium given the state of the family finances. It is not clear whether they had any
relatives in Belgrade or whether their family had just moved to Belgrade at that
time. Nor do we have any information about his mother.20
18 Архив Србије, МПС-п, Велика школа, деловодник за 1893, бр. 1209, 2194.
19 His birth date was listed as February 22, 1875 in his personal history published by the Tokyo School
of Foreign Languages. See: note 8 of this article.
20 Though I cannot go into detail on this in this article, Todorović was busily engaged in activities
in support of Serbia during World War I. When he contributed money to the Red Cross of Serbia
through the Red Cross of Japan, he stated the following in response to a question during an interview
with a newspaper journalist: ’serbia is similar to Japan in its small territory and brave people. Now
my brother has fought bravely against Austria and my sister has worked as a nurse at the Red Cross
of Serbia.’『東京朝日新聞』
,
(Tokyo Asahi Newspaper), the morning paper, October 4, 1914.
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Moreover, it will be necessary to explain his birth place, Surčin, which also
indicates a complicated history. Surčin is a well-known place-name where the
International airport Nikola Tesla in Belgrade is now situated. It is located only
20 km west across the Sava river from the center of Belgrade. Surčin is now a
part of Belgrade city, but going back in history, it was in the northwest of the
Kingdom of Serbia and belonged to the border land called Srem (Srijem in the
Croatian language) between Serbia and Croatia – a region where Serbs, Croats,
Germans, Hungarians, Slovaks, Romanians, Vlachs and Ruthenians all lived together. The land of Srem is fertile and is suitable for cultivating fruits, especially
grapes, so that a lot of people have been coming and going to and from this region since ancient times.
Srem was under the rule of the Kingdom of Hungary from the 12th to 16th
century, under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to 18th century and
under the rule of the Habsburg Empire from the 18th century up until World War
I. At the time of the 1848–49 Revolution, when the Hungarian Revolution broke
out against the rule of the Habsburg Empire, Serbs living in the southern part of
Hungary including Srem as well as in Croatia, rose in revolt against Hungarian
rule, demanding the right to use their mother tongue – the Serbian language,
and so forth. In May of 1848, the foundation of the Duchy of Serbia (Vojvodstvo
Srbija) was declared at Karlovci, the center of Srem, which included the following four regions: Srem (the region between the Danube River and the Sava river),
Baranja (the region between the Danube River and the Drava river), Bačka (the
region between the Tisa river and the Danube River) and Banat (the region between the Mures, the Tisa river and the Danube River, the eastern region of
which turns toward Pannonia). This declaration showed that the Duchy of Serbia
forming the basis of today’s Vojvodina was a free political entity that had complete equality with the ‘Triune Kingdom’ (Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia) under the Habsburg Empire.21
The Duchy of Serbia was changed into the Duchy of Serbia and Banat of
Timišoara (Vojvodstvo Srbija i Timiški Banat) after the suppression of a chain
of revolts by Serbs and the Military Border was revived in the southern parts
of Srem and Banat. The Military Border consisted of the administrative units
which the Habsburg Empire had founded in the first half of the 16th century in
preparation for the attack of the Ottoman Empire. The peasants living in the
Military Border region enjoyed the privilege of tax exemption, but in turn had
to do military service in wartime. Therefore they were called ‘free peasants and
soldiers’.22 A lot of people moved to the Military Border from the neighboring
21 Ćirković, Sima M.. The Serbs. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 200–202.
22 Kaser, Karl. Die Militarisierung der agrarischen Gesellschaft an der kroatisch-slawonischen
Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović and his Early Life …
Serbia as well as the interior regions of the Habsburg Empire in response to the
Emperor’s appeal, so that the Military Border was a mixed, multi-ethnic society. The Military Border Administration continued until 1881, but it had already
been abolished at Surčin in 1871. When Todorović was born in 1875, Surčin was
transferred under civil administration.
The Surčin region (satnija), comprised of six settlements including the village of Surčin, was incorporated into the Slavonian Military Border by the decree of 1746 by Maria Theresa. At the time, the total population of the Surčin
region was 5128 (725 households), of which 4,712 were Orthodox, 328 Catholic
and 48 Lutheran.23 Many people quickly migrated to this region in the first half
of the 18th century and the parish of the Serbian Orthodox church in the region
was solidly prepared for the big influx. According to the Birth Registry of the
Serbian Orthodox church, 800 Serbs (134 households)24 lived in only the village
of Surčin in 1746, which had grown to 1,034 Serbs (200 households)25 in 1878 by
the time Todorović was three years old. Srem, including the Surčin region, was
removed from the Military Border in 1871 and Surčin was absorbed into the
district (kotar) of Zemun through the reorganization of the administrative units
in 1881, and had developed considerably by then – both in the field of agriculture
and of commerce. The social condition of the district from the end of the 19th
century to the beginning of the 20th century and the origins of the Todorović
family are of considerable interest to us,26 but I cannot go into much detail on
this topic at present.
Dušan Todorović was born as a Serb in the borderland of the Habsburg
Empire, enrolled in the gymnasium in Belgrade, the capital of the Kingdom of
Serbia situated across the Sava river, and matriculated in the Velika Škola in
Belgrade. He entered his nationality as Serbian in the above-mentioned students’
record file of the Velika Škola, so he might have moved to Belgrade with his family at that time. Considering the economic condition of the Todorović family and
the near distance, it seemed a natural decision that he selected to enter the school
in Belgrade, not in Vienna, the then capital of the Habsburg Empire.
23
24
25
26
Militargrenze. Wien, 1997 (Japanese translation: 越村勲・戸谷浩編訳『ハプスブルク軍政国境の
社会史――自由農民にして兵士』学術出版会(Koshimura, Isao, Toya, Hiroshi (eds.), A Social
History of Military Border in the Habsburg Empire: Free Peasants and Soldiers. Tokyo: Gakujutsu
Shuppankai), 2013.
Kljajić, Marko. Surčin kroz povijest. Petrovaradin, 2010, p. 54.
Ibid., p. 264.
Ibid., p. 268.
The Orthodox church, St. Petka (Crkva sv. Petke) in Surčin keeps the registration books of the births,
marriages and deaths in the parish from the end of the 18th century, but unfortunately the registration
books of around 1875 have gone missing for unknown reasons.
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TODOROVIĆ AS A RUSSIAN LANGUAGE PROFESSOR
IN JAPAN
As I have mentioned above, we have few materials about the course
he followed from the period when he finished his first year at the Faculty of
Technology, Velika Škola in Belgrade and went to St. Petersburg to study as a
scholarship student of the Russian government in 1894, up until the date he arrived Japan in April, 1909. Vukerić’s interview article is one of the important
clues and he stated that Todorović became acquainted with Catherine (Katerina)
and got married with her just after he had received a doctorate in Physics and
Mathematics at the University of St. Petersburg, and they subsequently lived in
Russia for ten years or so.27 Vukerić didn’t write down the exact date and place
of Todorović’s first meeting with his wife. Even now the details of their life in
Russia are not clear. But Catherine had married Joseph Kogan, with whom she
had a son, Jacob (James) in September, 1902 before her marriage with Todorović,
as Riko Shiba mentioned.28 Todorović had also been married – most likely with
a Serbian woman, with whom he had two sons, Valerian in October, 1902, and
Dragutin in May, 1904. It was the second marriage for both of them, with both
having children from prior marriages, a fact that Todorović was probably reluctant to reveal in the interview.
According to Dana, a son of Dragutin living in California, the birthplace of
Valerian and Dragutin would have been Niš in Serbia. However, I couldn’t find
confirmation of their birthplace to this effect at the Historical Archive in Niš. I
presume that Todorović became acquainted with Catherine in 1905 or so, but
there is nothing to tell about where they met each other, or whether it was in St.
Petersburg or Kilija in Bessarabia, a borderland of the Russian Empire, and how
they became further acquainted.
Todorović didn’t leave any essays about his life when he studied at the
University in St. Petersburg, but a student who studied at the Faculty of Medicine
of the University of St. Petersburg in 1896 two years later than Todorović left a
number of his letters to his friends. This scholarship student, M. Ivković, depicted a few aspects of his student life as follows:29
Two months have already passed since I came here, but I could not inform you at all. Don’t think badly of me. Whenever I tried to write to
27 山崎編訳『ブランコ・ヴケリッチ 日本からの手紙』(Yamasaki Vukerić, Branko Vukerić, Letters from
Japan), p. 120.
28 柴理子(Shiba, R.), Katerina Todorović, p. 7.
29 Писмо српског студента у Петрограду М. Ивковића новинару и књижевнику Р. Одавићу, о
студентском животу у Русији, словенофилским круговима и предабању о Србији студента В.
Н. Корабљова. In: Москва-Србија Београд-Русија: Документа и материјали, том 3 (Друштвенополитичке и културне везе 1878–1917). Москва-Београд, 2012, pp. 550–551.
Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović and his Early Life …
you, someone bothered me and I had to make the time for them. …I had
no time for myself. It is not too much to say that I have no time to spend
freely in the least. I go out from my room in the morning to work as an
intern and I come back to my room at 8 p.m. in the evening. After that,
I usually study the reference books from 10 at night to 3 in the morning.
We are obviously dealing here with a medical student and from what he
says, we can only imagine that Todorović had to work hard to graduate from the
University, let alone achieve his doctorate in Physics and Mathematics.
Todorović had an opportunity to talk about the part of his career after taking his degree at the University of St. Petersburg in his speech at the a party
celebrating the 25th anniversary of his tenure of employment at the Tokyo School
of Foreign Languages. The party was held at the Ueno Seiyoken (上野精養軒)
restaurant in Tokyo. Over 50 men were present at the party and Vukerić was one
of the guests.30 To our surprise, most of the speeches of the participants were
in the Russian language. Todorović expressed his thanks at the very end of the
party. His speech in the Russian language which also included a brief account
of the history of his life was published in The Newsletter edited by the Russian
Association of the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages.31 Although he didn’t state
the exact dates in his brief history and we cannot know precisely when, it seems
he taught physics and mathematics at several schools for seven years. Then he became interested in life in the Far East and went to work as a government official
at the Pri Amur tax office at Khabarovsk for three years. His life at Khabarovsk,
a town in the Far East of the Russian Empire is very interesting. Catherine, who
was born in the southern borderland of the Russian Empire, was now fated to
live in the coldest town in the Far East of the Empire.
About 300 Japanese were living in Khabarovsk when Todorović, Catherine
and their three sons moved there in 1907. Japanese people began to be settled at
Khabarovsk in the 1880s, but they returned to Japan during the Russo-Japanese
War (1904–05) and only came back to the town again after the war to rebuild the
social fabric of their settlement. Todorović wrote in his brief history that already
then he’d had his sights on a country in the Far East he’d heard of and ever since
hearing of it, he’d wanted to live in Japan.32 Todorović and Catherine had their
first son, Victor, in Khabarovsk in December, 1907. We are struck with their
decision to move to a strange country, Japan with four children and cannot help
30 溝部壽六「トドロウイチ先生勤続25年祝賀会記事」(Mizobe, Juroku. Report on the Party Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Professor Todorovic).『会報』(The Newsletter), 21, December 1935, p. 42.
31 Прощалиная речь проф. Д. Н.Тодоловича.『会報』(The Newsletter), 21, December 1935, pp. 20–27.
32 Краткйе сведенйя из жйзни проф. Д.Н.Тодоровича.『会報』(The Newsletter), 21, December 1935,
p. 27.
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feeling the mental strength they showed in the way they crossed this national
border with great ease. It may be that differences in nationality or language mattered less to the ‘marginal men’ born in the borderlands between the Habsburg
Empire and the Russian Empire.
Whatever the case may have been, Todorović and his wife arrived in Japan
on April 15, 1909. Calculating backward from this date, he most likely received
his doctorate in 189933 and lived in Russia until 1906. However, he had his eldest
son in 1902 as mentioned above, so we can conclude that he had married with his
son’s Serbian mother some time in between. We cannot tell where he met his first
wife and where they had lived together. He only noted in his brief history that he
had taught physics and mathematics at several schools for seven years after getting his degree. He also said that he had taught in Russia for seven years in the
speech he made at his farewell party at the Eiraku Club (永楽クラブ) restaurant
in Marunouchi (丸の内) in Tokyo when he’d reached the age of retirement during his work at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages on May 12, 1940.34
If his first wife was a Serbian woman, he might temporarily have come back
to Serbia after finishing his studies in St. Petersburg. Assuming this was so, it
makes one think that he must have had a reason why he didn’t want to reveal this
part of his life in the brief history he gave in his speech. Although the name of
Dušan Todorović is not rare in Serbia and there is a possibility of another person
with the same name featuring in the records, I nonetheless believe I have found
some interesting material pertaining to “our” Dušan. The table of personal interchanges among diplomats, officers and students is listed at the end of the book,
and quoted in note number 27, we can find the name of Dušan Todorović listed
as follows: ‘III Scholarship students of the Serbian Government for studying the
Russian Empire and Officers of the Ministry of War in Serbia received by the
Russian Government’. This Todorović was a second lieutenant belonging to an
artillery unit of the Serbian Army and was sent to an artillery school for shooting training in Russia.35
I have two photos by me now which may serve as proof that Todorović was
an officer of the Serbian Army. The dates and places are not known, but one
is a commemorative photo in which four young officers in military uniform –
33 In July, 1959, Todorović received the Golden Order of Merit from the Red Cross of Japan for his
great contribution to the Red Cross of Japan. The party celebrating his receiving the Order was held
at Berkley in California in September. The wife of Catherine’s son James worked as the president of
the volunteers for the Berkley Red Cross. The Berkeley Daily Gazette reported that Todorović was
the first American recipient of the Order from the Red Cross of Japan, that he had received a octorate
from the University of St. Petersburg in 1898 and become a United States citizen in 1945. Japanese
Red Cross Honors Dr, D.N. Todorović at Berkeley Ceremonies. Berkeley Daily Gazette, September
23, 1959.
34 Прощалиная речь проф. Д.Н.Тодоловича.『会報』(The Newsletter), 30, July 1940, p. 21.
35 Москва-Србија Београд-Русија: Документа и материјали, том 3, 666.
Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović and his Early Life …
including Todorović – were taken with two men in civilian clothes, and the other
is a photo in which Todorović, dressed in military uniform, is happily smiling
with his healthy-looking child on his shoulder. His son looked to be one year old,
so the date this photo was taken could either be 1903 if the child in the picture is
his eldest son Valerian, or 1905 or so if the child was his second son, Dragutin. The
place where this photo was taken may have been Niš in Serbia, according to Dana.
Considering that the Kingdom of Serbia had a well-established military system
at that time, and had adopted the conscription system,36 Todorović most likely
returned home for a short time to carry out his compulsory military service and
was a member of the Serbian Military. But there is no evidence to prove this conjecture.37
As Riko Shiba presumes in her article, Todorović married Catherine in
1905 or so, after those mysterious seven years in which he had been a teacher of
physics and mathematics.38 Now I would like to consider, based on a few clues,
how he came to Japan from Khabarovsk as a professor of the Russian language.
Vukerić wrote that Todorović became a professor of the Military Academy at
the invitation of the Japanese Government, after which he was appointed as a
professor at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages.39 However, his colleague
Professor Sadatoshi Yasugi’s speech at the party celebrating the 25th anniversary of his tenure of employment at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages
shows that the situation was a little bit different from Vukerić’s article. When
the employment period (1906–09) of his predecessor, Professor Aleksandor
Petrov at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages had expired in 1909, Petrov
was expected to recommend a successor before leaving Japan. For some reason,
though, Petrov had difficulties in deciding upon a new staff member, so Yasugi
contacted his acquaintance Ksimidov, who was living in Vladivostok, to ask him
to recommend a suitable person. The Tokyo School of Foreign Languages had a
student exchange agreement with the first University in Far East Russia, i.e. the
Oriental Institute (東洋学院)40 at that time and received students every year
36 About the military system and the conscription system in the Kingdom of Serbia, See: Милићевић,
Милић, Регрутни састав војске Србије 1883–1912: Систем позива и неки његови друштвени
аспекти, Војно-Историјски Гласник, 1, 2016, pp. 9–25.
37 I had a chance to ask two photos to a researcher of the uniforms of Serbian army, Mr. Saša Ružesković
who works at Archives of Serbia in September 14, 2017. According his opinion, Todorović’s uniform
is maybe not from Serbian army, but the Russian government official. The further verification of two
photos shall be needed.
38 柴理子 (Shiba, R.), Katerina Todorović, p. 8.
39 山崎編訳『ブランコ・ヴケリッチ 日本からの手紙』(Yamasaki Vukerić, Branko Vukerić, Letters from
Japan), p. 120.
40 About the Oriental Institute, See: A. ディボフスキー「極東ロシアにおける日本研究日本語教育
の行方――東洋学院(1899–1920)の日本学を中心に」(Dybovski, Alexander. The Developmental
Problems of Japanese Studies and Japanese Language Education at Far East Russia: Japanology at the
Oriental Institute (1899–1920).『言語文化研究』(Language and Culture Studies, Osaka University),
35, 2009, pp. 95–117.
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who majored in Japanese language studies from the Oriental Institute. Ksimidov
was one of these exchange students and kept in touch with Yasugi. The person
whom Ksimidov selected and recommend to Yasugi was Todorović, who was
then living in Khabarovsk.41
Russian language studies in Japan came into full swing after Japan’s victory
in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, because it was clear that Japan would be in opposition to Russia over various interests in Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula
if Japan wanted to advance into China. In this situation, the National Institutes
for Foreign Languages were reorganized and the Tokyo School of Foreign
Languages started off the academic year of 1897 with six new departments for
foreign language studies in: English, French, German, Russian, Chinese and
Korean. (The Italian department was added in 1899). Russian language studies
were also introduced in the Military Preparatory School as a regular subject in
1897. From 1900 onwards, a native speaker from Russia was officially invited to
the Department of Russian Language Studies of the Tokyo School of Foreign
Languages and this invitation system was to continue, making Todorović the
fifth professor from Russia42 to be invited.
Getting back to Yasugi’s speech, we see that he also introduced a part of
Ksimidov’s letter recommending Todorović to him. Ksimidov wrote to Yasugi
that Todorović was working as a government official at Khabarovsk at the time,
but that he wanted to teach the Russian language in Japan, that he was a person
with an advanced academic background with a sincere character, steady and
diligent, and that he had enough experience to teach at schools. Ksimidov recommended him as being just the right person for a professorship at the Tokyo
School of Foreign Languages. Finally, he concluded in his letter that Todorović’s
best point was that he did not care much for alcohol. Yasugi said that Ksimidov
had been informed that Todorović’s predecessor Petrov had liked to drink alcohol, although not to the extent that it would impair his work, and this is why he
may have added Todorović’s dislike of the beverage as his final recommendation.43 This turned out to be the decisive factor in securing Todorović the post,
regardless of the fact that he was a Serb and not a native speaker of the Russian
language.
In Todorović’s words, he set sail for the Japan Sea from the dark Siberian
lands deeply covered with snow in the midst of a raging rainstorm onboard the
Hozan Maru (ホザン丸), like Rip Van Winkle and came to the Empire of the
41 Table Speech at the Celebrating Party by Professor Sadatoshi Yasugi.『会報』(The Newsletter), 21,
December 1935, p. 9.
42 『東京外国語大学史』(A History of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), pp. 795–799.
43 Table Speech at the Celebrating Party by Professor Sadatoshi Yasugi.『会報』(The Newsletter), 21,
December 1935, pp. 9–10.
Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović and his Early Life …
Rising Sun.44 When he disembarked from the train at Shinbashi Station (新橋
駅) in Tokyo on April 15, 1909, where Yasugi was already waiting to meet him,
the cherry blossoms were fluttering down all over Tokyo. Todorović was employed promptly – on the very day of his arrival – by the Tokyo School of Foreign
Languages.45 As mentioned above, the Department of Russian Language Studies
at the Institute had employed foreign professors since 1900. These professors
usually returned to their countries as soon as the period of their employment
had ended, but Todorović worked as Professor of the Russian Language at the
Institute for 31 years until his retirement. He was also employed as Professor of
the Russian Language on September 146 at the Military Academy where Petrov
had held the post before him and taught the Russian language at the Military
Academy for two and half years until 1912.47
BY WAY OF A CONCLUSION
Todorović changed his domestic base four times, living 19 years in the
Habsburg Empire and Serbia, 15 years in Russia, 31 years in Japan and 23 years
in the United States. It is interesting to wonder how such a person perceives
their national identity. Though we cannot go into greater detail regarding his
later life in Japan and the United States in this paper, we may say that he identified strongly with his home of Serbia (Yugoslavia) at this time. What kind of
identity change did their stay in Japan for 31 years, when Todorović worked as a
Professor of the Russian language and Catherine as a concert pianist and piano
teacher, cause them? The subject is discussed further in another article.48
Michael Tripp, one of their great-grandsons who lives in Canada, has written
his reminiscences on their later life in the United States and the great –grandmother’s Jewishness,49 so a fragment of his writing will be quoted instead of a
conclusion to this paper:
44 Ibid., pp. 21–22.
45 JACAR, Ref. A10113356400: The Document on Decision of Decorations in 1940, Vol. 20, Foreigners 1,
National Archives of Japan.
46 『陸軍士官学校 明治42年歴誌』(The Military Academy: Report on Human Affairs in 1909), Vol. 4,
防衛省防衛研究所(The National Institute for Defense Studies).
47 JACAR, Ref. C06085149700: 士官学校外国語教師外国人接待の件 (On the Entertainment to
the Foreign Professors at the Military Academy), March 9, 1912, 防衛省防衛研究所 (the National
Institute for Defense Studies).
48 Shiba, Nobuhiro. National Identity of a 'Borderland Man': The Case of Dušan Todorović, Russian
Language Professor in Tokyo – From Early Days until End of World War I. Godišnjak za društvenu
istoriju, Belgrade, XXIV, No. 3, 2017 (published in October 2018), pp. 27–50.
49 The unpublished article on his family history written by Mr. Michael Tripp is titled Jewish
Connections.
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As a child and well into my teen years all these individuals, except for my
grand-father’s father, whose existence to me served only as a genealogical placeholder, were very much alive and integrated into the rounds of
visiting that entwined us all. Great-grandmother Catherine Todorovic,
once Kogan, born Gitel Schlesinger, lived with her husband Dushan in
Palo Alto, California. Their home was a classic Arts and Crafts Bungalow
stuffed with all the treasures and bric-a-brac that had accompanied them
from their decades in Japan. A cluster of statuary greeted us in the entrance alcove, including my mother’s favorite of a boy holding one hand
high above his head feeding a goose whose neck stretched for the offering.
As children, well-scrubbed, warned to be on our best behaviour, hands
held tightly to our sides, we were directed forward and seated. GreatGrandmother eventually was persuaded to play for the gathering. We
listened politely – no fidgeting. It was vaguely understood by us that
she once had been a renowned concert pianist. The recital completed,
we were dismissed to entertain ourselves in the garden until summoned
for a kitchen supper, eventually over the years graduating with pride to
the adult’s dining room table. I cannot recall the discussions that took
place there, at least none in which I was directly involved beyond the
occasional words of praise for competent behaviour – definitely nothing
that I recall about our Jewish ancestry. Yet great-grandmother’s strong
accent and the obvious fact that when you were with her the experience
was singularly unique even amongst our many unique relatives hinted at
un-examined cultural roots.
Shiba: A Professor of the Russian Language in Tokyo, Dušan Todorović and his Early Life …
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Notes on the Contributors
Notes on the Contributors
Andrej Bekeš, PhD in Linguistics – University of Tsukuba, 1986. Taught at
the University of Ljubljana and the University of Tsukuba. From 1995 to 1999
he was the first head of the new Department of Asian Studies at the University
of Ljubljana. In the years 2010–2013 he was Professor at the Graduate School of
Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba. Since 2017, he has held
the post of Professor Emeritus at the University of Ljubljana. Since September
2017, he has also served as President of the Council of EAJS. He has authored and
co-authored several monographs and co-founded the journals “Asian Studies”
and “Acta Linguistica Asiatica”. His areas of interest are: Japanese text linguistics, language policies, and writing systems. Decorations: 2008 Japanese ‘Order
of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette’; 2017 ‘Japan Foundation Award’.
Boštjan Bertalanič holds the post of Associate Professor for International
Relations and European Affairs at Josai University in Tokyo, Japan. He is also
Adjunct Professor at the Hitotsubashi Univeristy Graduate School of Law and
a Research Fellow of the Josai Institute for Central European Studies (JICES).
During 2013 and 2014 he was a JSPS postdoctoral research fellow at the University
of Tokyo, where he had previously obtained his PhD in 2012 in the field of
International Relations. From 2011 to 2013 he was appointed Teaching Fellow at
the Department of Asian and African Studies, Univeristy of Ljubljana. His main
research interests include the diplomatic history of Japan in the 20th Century and
Japanese-European relations within the context of European integration history. His recent publications include: Exploring the Origins of Japanese-Yugoslav
Relations during World War I – the case of Yugoslav POWs in Japan, Electronic
Journal of Central European Studies in Japan, No.1, 2015; Les rapports entre le
Japon et le Royaume des Serbes, Croates et Slovenes lors de la Conference de
paix de Paris. In: Andrej Rahten and Janez Šumrada (eds). Les Cinq Grands et la
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création du Royaume des Serbes, Croates et Slovènes ed., Ljubljana: ZRC, 2011, pp.
393–416; Political culture in transition: Changing values and the consolidation
of democratic rule in Slovenia, 1991–2004, Inter Faculty, No. 2, 2011, pp. 1–29.
Luka Culiberg, Assistant Professor at the Department of Asian Studies,
University of Ljubljana. Specializing in the sociology of culture and Japanese
Studies, he earned his degree from the University of Ljubljana and continued
his research at the Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo with support from MEXT
and later as a Fellow of the Japan Foundation. His main research interests lie
in the theory of ideology, culture, and modernity, all with a focus on Japan,
as well as research in the epistemology of the social sciences and humanities
in general. His recent publications include Kangaku, kogaku, kokugaku, rangaku: reinterpretation of Confucianism in the nation building process in Japan,
in Jana S. Rošker, Nataša Visočnik (eds.), Contemporary East Asia and the
Confucian revival (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2015, pp. 3–22); Bušido: pot bojevnikov
ali romantično brezpotje? (Bushidō: The Way of the Warriors or the Uncharted
Way of Romanticism), in Tomaž Lazar (ed.), Poti samurajev: japonsko orožje in
bojevniška kultura na Slovenskem (The Paths of the Samurai: Japanese weapons
and Martial Culture in Slovenia) (Ljubljana, 2017, pp. 45–59).
Yoshihiro Endo, Part-time Lecturer at Aichi University of Education in 2017,
and since 2018 Part-time Lecturer at the National Institute of Technology, Gifu
College. Main research interests: the political and military history of Yugoslavia.
Aleš Gabrič is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History
in Ljubljana and Associate Professor at the Faculty for Social Studies of the
University of Ljubljana. His main research fields of interest are Slovene political history, cultural history, the history of censorship, and the history of education. Some of his recent publications: Slovenski zgodovinski atlas (Slovenian
Historical Atlas) (co-author, 2011); University of Ljubljana professors under political constraints. In: BIEBER, Florian, HEPPNER, Harald (eds.). Universities
and Elite Formation in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Wien,
Zürich, 2015, pp. 129–150; Slovenska matica v času politične netolerantnosti. In:
JANČAR, Drago… [et al.] (eds.). Slovenska matica: 150 let dela za slovensko kulturo. Ljubljana, 2015, pp. 22–61; Die Slowenische Akademie der Wissenschaften
und Künste und die Politik 1945–1958. In: FEICHTINGER, Johannes, UHL,
Heidemarie (eds.). Die Akademien der Wissenschaften in Zentraleuropa im
Kalten Krieg : Transformationsprozesse im Spanngsfeld von Abgrenzung und
Annäherung. Wien, 2018, pp. 69–101
Notes on the Contributors
Noboru Hirayama is Associate Professor at the Department of Tourism,
Faculty of Collaborative Regional Development, Kyushu Sangyo University.
Specializing in the history of modern Japan, he earned his degree from the
University of Tokyo. Main research interests: the formation of modern tourism
mainly focusing on railways, the interaction between pilgrimage tourism and
social ideologies in modern Japan. Recent publications: How Railways Changed
Pilgrimages to Shrines and Temples(『鉄道が変えた社寺参詣』)(Tokyo, 2012);
A Social History of Hatsumode: An Interaction Between an Amusement Formed
by the Railways and Nationalism(『初詣の社会史——鉄道が生んだ娯楽とナ
ショナリズム』)(Tokyo, 2015).
Shinichi Ishida, Professor of European History at the Faculty of Letters,
Atomi University, Tokyo. Main research interests: 19th and 20th century
Habsburg and South-East European cultural and political history, the history
of nationalism and nation building, the history of historiography and history
education. Recent publications: The Process of National Integration in Dalmatia(
『ダルマチアにおける国民統合過程の研究』)(Tokyo, 2004); Local SelfGovernments and Elections in the Yugoslav Successor States, in: Lingua-Culture
Contextual Studies in Ethnic Conflicts of the World, 11 (Osaka, 2010); Le SudEst europeen et le Japon dans les manuels de l’histoire, in: Actes: Xe Congres de
AIESEE (Paris, 2011); 60 Chapters to Understand Croatia(『クロアチアを知るた
めの60章』)(co-editor, Tokyo, 2013); The Image of the Balkans in the Japanese
School Textbooks Today, in: Revue de l’Association Internationale d’Etudes du
Sud-Est Europeen, 40–44 (Bucharest, 2015).
Dragica Koljanin is Associate Professor at the Department of History, Faculty
of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad. The subject of her scientific interest is the
history of Yugoslavia during World War II, primarily the regions of Vojvodina
and Eastern Bosnia, and also the history of education and history teaching. Her
second research field is history teaching methodology, the processes of education
reform in Serbia, the concept, application and influence of history textbooks,
and the relation between history as a scientific discipline and a school subject.
She has participated in numerous national and international conferences and is
currently collaborating in the realization of several research projects. She is the
author of numerous papers published in expert scientific journals and the books
of proceedings and monographs Izgrađivanje identiteta: Istorija Jugoslavije
u udžbenicima za osnovne škole u Srbiji 1929–1952 (Building identity: History
of Yugoslavia in textbooks for primary schools in Serbia 1929−1952) (Novi Sad,
2014).
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Žarko Lazarević is currently affiliated with the Institute of Contemporary
history/ Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino in Ljubljana and holds the post of Professor
of Economic and Social History at the Department of History, University of
Primorska in Koper. The subjects of his research work are: developments in agriculture, the industrialization process, cooperative societies, entrepreneurism
and the role of nationalism in the economy, the representation and perceptions
of national interest, consumerism and advertising, and the development of the
financial sector in Slovenia within the European context in the period of the late
19th and the 20th Century. Recent publications: Backgrounds and concepts of
economic sanctioning in Slovenia during the 20th century. In: KOSTER, Margo
de (ed.). Justice in wartime and revolutions: Europe, 1795–1950: Europe, 1795–
1950. Bruxelles, Brussels, Brussel: Algemeen Rijkarchief, Archives générales du
Royume, 2012, pp. 239–256; The concept of progress in the teaching of history:
some observations from textbooks. In: SHIBA, Nobuhiro (ed.), GABRIČ, Aleš
(ed.), SUZUKI, Kenta (ed.), LAZAREVIĆ, Žarko (ed.). School history and textbooks: a comparative analysis of history textbooks in Japan and Slovenia, Ljubljana:
Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, 2013, pp. 205–217; Comparative banking performance in Eastern Europe in the interwar period. In: Etudes Balcaniques 2015,
Vol. 51, Nr. 3, pp. 150–177; Peasant economy in interwar Slovenia : policies of
income diversification. In: PANJEK, Aleksander (ur.), LARSSON, Jesper (ur.),
MOCARELLI, Luca (ur.). Integrated peasant economy in a comparative perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and beyond. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem: =
University of Primorska Press. 2017, pp. 351–374 and Carol ROGEL, Leopoldina
PLUT-PREGELJ, Gregor KRANJC, Žarko LAZAREVIĆ. Historical Dictionary
of Slovenia, Rowman-Littlefield, 2018.
Hiroshi Mitani is Professor at Atomi University and Professor Emeritus at
the University of Tokyo. His first position was that of Lecturer at Gakushuin
Women’s Junior College. In 1988 he became a Professor at the School of Arts and
Sciences, University of Tokyo, in 1995 a Professor of Area Studies at the Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, and since 2015 has held the
post of Professor at Atomi University. Main research interests: Japanese political
and social history during the 19th century, especially of the Meiji Revolution,
the comparative history of modern revolutions, East Asian regional history, and
the historical dialogue among East Asian countries. Recent publications: Escape
from Impasse: The Decision to Open Japan (Tokyo, 2008); A Modern History for
Adults: 19th Century East Asia(『大人のための近現代史)edited with Yorihisa
Namiki and Tatsuhiko Tsukiashi (Tokyo, 2009); Toward a History beyond
Borders: Contentious Issues in Sino-Japanese Relations, edited with Daqing Yang,
Notes on the Contributors
Jie Ryu and Andrew Gordon (Cambridge, MA, 2012); Nationalism, Revolution,
democracy: Lectures on Comparative History(『愛国・革命・民主』)(Tokyo,
2013); Rethinking Meiji Revolution(『維新史再考』)(Tokyo, 2017).
Takuya Momma is a Visiting Researcher at Gakushuin Women’s College
Institute of International Studies. As a PhD candidate at the Graduate School
of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, he is currently preparing a doctoral
thesis about the education policy in the Independent State of Croatia, focusing
on national ideology as a political religion and the collusive relationship between
the regime and intellectuals in the process of nationalization. After completing
a Master’s Program in European Studies at the University of Tokyo, he studied in the doctoral course at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
University of Zagreb (2010–2011), and worked as a Researcher/Adviser at the
Embassy of Japan in Croatia (2012–2014). Recent publications: ‘Ustasha spirit’
and Nationalism in the Independent State of Croatia(クロアチア独立国に
おける「ウスタシャ精神」とナショナリズム——週刊新聞『スプレムノスト』
の言説に注目して), in: Russian and East European Studies, 45 (Tokyo, 2017);
Totalitarian regime and National Education in the Independent State of Croatia:
an Analysis of Schoolteachers’ Nationalism and the Ustasha Movement(「クロ
アチア独立国の「全体主義体制」と「民族教育」——ウスタシャ運動を巡る
学校教師たちのナショナリズムの分析」), in: The Journal of East European
Studies, 40 (Tokyo, 2018).
Nobuhiro Shiba, Professor of Josai International University. From 1980
onwards he was a Part-time Lecturer at a number of universities and between
1986 and 1992, Full-time Lecturer and Associate Professor of History at Keiai
University. From 1992–2010 he was Associate Professor and Professor of East
European Studies at the University of Tokyo. At present, he holds the post of
Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo. Main research interests: Modern
history of the Balkans, the collapse of Yugoslavia in history, the history of the
relationship between Japan and Yugoslavia, reconciliation and history education. Recent books: Contemporary History of Yugoslavia(『ユーゴスラヴィア
現代史』)(Tokyo, 1996–2017); Nationalism in the Balkans(『バルカンの民
族主義』)(Tokyo, 1996); Illustrated History of the Balkans(『図説バルカン
の歴史』)(Tokyo, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2015); World War I and the Beginning of
Contemporary Culture (World History 26)(『第一次世界大戦と現代文化の開
幕』世界の歴史26), together with Seiji Kimura and Hideyo Naganuma (Tokyo,
2009). Edited volumes: In Search of a Common Regional History: The Balkans
and East Asia in History Textbook (Tokyo, 2006); 60 Chapters to Understand the
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The 20th Century Through Historiographies and Textbooks
Balkans(『バルカンを知るための65/66章』)(Tokyo, 2005, 2016); History of
the Balkans and History Education(『バルカン史と歴史教育』)(Tokyo, 2008);
New Perspectives on East European Studies(『東欧地域研究の現在』)(coeditor, Tokyo, 2012); School History and Textbooks: A Comparative Analysis of
History Textbooks in Japan and Slovenia (co-editor, Ljubljana, 2013); 60 Chapters
to Understand Croatia(『クロアチアを知るための60章』)(co-editor, Tokyo,
2013); 60 Chapters to Understand Serbia(『セルビアを知るための60章』)(coeditor, Tokyo, 2015); 60 Chapters to Understand Slovenia(『スロヴェニアを知る
ための60章』)(co-editor, Tokyo, 2017).
Riko Shiba is Associate Professor at the Department of International Exchange Studies, Faculty of International Humanities, Josai International University,
Chiba, Japan. Between 2001 and 2014 she was Lecturer Associate Professor at
the Department of Media and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Informatics, Tokyo
University of Information Sciences, Chiba. Main research interests: the 19th and
20th century political, social and cultural history of Poland, the history of PolishJapanese relations, and media studies. Recent publications: Image of Eastern
Europe in Japan of the Tokugawa Period(「江戸時代の『東欧』イメージ——
蘭学書と新聞報道を手がかりに」)(Bulletin of Tokyo University of Information
Sciences, 10, No. 2, Chiba, 2007); Images of the Balkans in the Japanese Media
of the Meiji Period, (Godišnjak za društvenu istoriju, XVIII, sv. 3, Belgrade,
2011); Between Japan and Russia: The Balkans in Meiji-Japan’s Newspapers, in:
School History and Textbooks: A Comparative Analysis of History Textbooks in
Japan and Slovenia edited by Nobuhiro Shiba, Aleš Gabrič, Kenta Suzuki and
Žarko Lazarević) (Ljubljana, 2013); The Stay in Japan of A ‘White Russian’
Pianist, Ms. Catherine Todorovic: Her Career until the 1910s (1)(「『白系ロ
シア人音楽家』カテリーナ・トドロヴィチの日本滞在(1)——1910年代まで
の足跡」)(The Electronic Journal of Central European Studies in Japan, No. 2,
Tokyo, 2016); E. Pałasz-Rutkowska and A.T. Romer, Historia stosunków polskojapońskich1904–1945 (translation from Polish into Japanese) (Tokyo, 2009).
Kenta Suzuki is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Global
Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and also a Part-time Lecturer at
the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and several other universities in Tokyo.
He will obtain a doctoral degree in Philosophy in the field of Area Studies from
the University of Tokyo. His major research area is the contemporary history of
the former Yugoslav region, especially the history of Socialist Yugoslavia, focusing on the theme of nationalism and political and social changes during the
late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Recent publications: School History and Textbooks:
Notes on the Contributors
A Comparative Analysis of History Textbooks in Japan and Slovenia (co-editor,
together with N. Shiba, A. Gabrič, K. Suzuki and Ž. Lazarević, Ljubljana, 2013);
I Love “YU-GO”: Yugoslav Nostalgia(『アイラブユーゴ——ユーゴスラヴィア・
ノスタルジー』)in 3 volumes (co-author, Tokyo, 2014–2015); The Intra-Party
Disputes and the Arguments over Nationalism in Serbia in 1987: The Paraćin
Case and the Eighth Session of the LCS Central Committee(「1987年セルビ
アの党内論争とナショナリズムをめぐる議論——パラチン事件とセルビア
党中央委員会第8回総会」), in: The Journal of East European Studies, Vol. 38
(Tokyo, 2016); Mass Movements and Nationalism in Serbia and Yugoslavia in
1988: The Case of Vojvodina(「1988年セルビアにおける大衆運動とナショナ
リズム——ヴォイヴォディナの諸集会についての一考察」), in: Slavic Studies,
No. 65 (Sapporo, 2018).
Peter Vodopivec was Professor of Modern European and American History at
the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (1980–1999).
From 1999 until 2012 (when he went into retirement), he was a Senior Scientific
Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History in Ljubljana. He has published
widely on the social, political, economic and cultural history of the 18th, 19th
and 20th century. His most recent publications are: A Slovene History, Society,
Politics, Culture, co-authored with Vasko Simoniti and Peter Štih (2009), www.
sistory.si, Francoski inštitut v Ljubljani (French Institute in Ljubljana) 1921–1947
(2013), Slovenska zgodovina (Slovene History), co-authored with Vasko Simoniti
and Peter Štih (2016).
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