What Do We Want Students to Remember about the " Forgotten War"? A comparative Study of the Korean War as Depicted in Korean, Japanese, and U.S. Secondary School History Textbooks

Abstract

Secondary school history textbooks in South Korea, Japan, and the United States have long struggled to give meaning and significance to the war waged on the Korean Peninsula between 1950 and 1953. Comparing commonly-used, contemporary history textbooks from each of these three nations, this analysis suggests that students on both sides of the Pacific are more likely exposed to text reflective of their society’s dominant orientations toward modern-day, post-Cold War, geopolitical anxieties and arrangements than to any clear narrative of historical significance that explores the varied causes or impact of the war. Such cross-national comparisons can be especially useful for educators interested in helping students construct useful historical narratives or develop more sophisticated causal reasoning about a historically significant conflict that has sometimes been thought of as a “forgotten war.”