What Justifies Japanese-Language Education in Areas Occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army? Analyzing Memoirs of Japanese Teachers Deployed to the Philippines in the AsiaPacific War

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to analyze memoirs of Japanese teachers deployed to the Philippines in the Asia Pacific War. The Japanese military tried to teach Filipinos the Japanese language in order to make them accept the legitimacy of the Japanese invasion. Education was the basis of the occupation policy, with about 180 teachers being deployed all over the Philippines. Their students were not only children but also bureaucrats, police officers, and Filipino Japaneselanguage teachers. After American forces came back to the archipelago, however, the Japaneselanguage classes were gradually terminated and teachers struggled to survive in the mountain areas. Some survivors contributed articles about their war experiences to the journal Sampaguita after the war. This paper looks into their stories to understand what they thought about their work in the Philippines. Many of them gave themselves high marks for their education, even though they criticized the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. There are several reasons for their mindset, including the influence of US colonization policies and Japanese occupation policies on the Philippines, as well as teachersʼ occupational identity. The teachers are proud of having worked at schools, because they engaged in education their entire lives and maintained good relationships with former students after the war. They considered the friendships to be evidence of their educational achievement.