Citizens Continued.
“When we got back in the classroom after working in the factories, the content of our education had already been revised. Teacher introduced new ideas about democracy and I was shocked by the speed of their drastic changes. Many in my generation were fascinated by the new politics, and I was especially interested in the creation of a new constitution. When the newspaper reported the drafts of the new constitution, I followed it closely. We learned that the draft was patterned after the American constitution, and I knew if Japan was to create its own constitution, it’d be like the disaster we’d had before. So I was enthusiastic about the new constitution and studied it carefully.[14]
Though his reaction was that of excitement not everyone felt that same. One teacher named Nobou Kawamura struggled with the changes:
“At the end of the war, and within days of leaving the army, I became so confused. So much had changed. For one year I stayed away from the school to recover from this psychological breakdown, because I couldn’t stand teaching the new curriculum. I’d believed so strongly in the militarist education that I had taught my students. And now I just teach them democracy. However, there was a critical shortage of trained teachers, so I was eventually asked to take up my old profession again…It was very difficult for me, but I began to recover, and soon became interested in some ideas of socialism.[15]
Kawamura emphasizes the difficulties of many teachers during this time as they took pride in what they taught, but they were told it was wrong and that it needed to be changed.[16] Education played a major role in the lives of civilians then and now, and that is why its coverage was so wide ranging.