WHA Annual Meeting: Korea 2026

Keiichi Kawashima

• “How can we ask questions from a gender perspective in Modern and Contemporary History?
-Creating a list of questions from a gender perspective in Modern and Contemporary History“, Masaki Mukai ed.,“Creating a comprehensive historical (us) story – here and now and beyond”, Minerva Shobo, 2026, (Coming soon)[Japanese]
•"How to Overcome Japanese High School Students' Prejudices Against Islam: Challenges in General History and World History Studies," in Nobuyuki Onishi and Yuki Sato (eds.),Rereading Japanese History through Religion, Yamakawa Publishing, 2025, pp. 190-206.[Japanese]
“Prospects for the future of high school education in Japan based on research on modern German history - Prescriptions for overcoming hate speech and historical revisionism”, “Geschichte”, 15, pp.61-68, 2022. [Japanese]
• “Column: Learning world history through dialogue”, Koji Ogawa ed., “What is world history” (Iwanami Lecture World History 1), Iwanami Shoten, pp.203-204, 2021. [Japanese]
• “World history class that incorporates the perspective of SDGs Goal 5 “Gender Equality” ”,
Journal of Social Science Education”, 739, pp.90-93.2020. [Japanese]
• “Report: How to incorporate a gender perspective? ―From the field of high school history education―”, “Journal of gender history”, 14, pp.69-85, 2018. [Japanese]

Institutional Affiliation:

Doshisha Junior and Senior High School in Kyoto, Japan


Session

06-25
15:20
20min
Reconstructing Historical Narratives through South Korean History Textbooks as a "Mirror": Learning Practices in Japanese High School Integrated History Classes for Transnational Dialogue
Keiichi Kawashima

Historical reconciliation remains a critical challenge in East Asia. This presentation analyzes an innovative pedagogical practice within "Integrated History" (Rekishi Sogo:歴史総合), a new subject introduced to high schools in the 2022 academic year. This practice utilized South Korean "Korean History" (한국사) textbooks regarding the March 1st Movement (3·1운동) as a "mirror" to foster transnational dialogue literacy. The analysis centers on three transformative stages experienced by the students.

First, Japanese high school students developed an acute awareness of "blanks" in their own history education. By confronting the overwhelming disparity in volume and detail—one page in Japanese textbooks versus ten in South Korean ones regarding the March 1st Movement—and the simplification of perpetrator narratives in Japanese history textbooks, the students recognized their education’s tendency toward "victimhood bias" and its avoidance of negative national history.

Second, the practice facilitated the diversification of history and the visualization of "the logic of the other." Rather than simply dismissing subjective descriptions in Korean textbooks as "biased," students analyzed the underlying social structures and human voices. Through a "rewriting" workshop focusing on Korean history textbooks, they practiced suppressing emotional expressions and objectifying facts, actively seeking a "common language" that enables constructive, multi-perspective dialogue between Japanese and Korean high school students.

Finally, the practice culminated in the formation of future-oriented dialogue literacy. By internalizing ethical protocols such as the "separation of fact from interpretation" and "respect for historical pain," students demonstrated a shift in perspective: transforming history from a "seed of conflict" into a "mirror for future friendship." This practice offers a replicable model for cultivating peacebuilders in regions with conflicting historical perceptions.

Room 201 (Seats 42)