A Critical Study of WWII Narratives in Japan-Produced High School EFL Textbooks

Wen Jiang & Dr. Xiaochen Hua,

Foreign Languages College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China & School of Foreign Studies, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China

Based on the post-WWII order, the current Japanese constitution was framed under the guidance of General MacArthur and his legal counsels. After almost 80 years, to shed light on Japanese society's attitude towards history and to predict the future of northeast Asia's geopolitics, we analyzed Japan's national narratives on WWII through an analysis of locally produced High School English-as-a-Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks. This study employed the methods of multimodal critical discourse analysis (Feng, 2021) and the social semiotic approach (Van Leeuwen, 2008) to research twelve sets of EFL textbooks produced by four main publishing houses in Japan. Four features were identified in the WWII narratives. Firstly, Japan being bombed twice by atomic bombs is narrated in textbooks produced by all four publishers. Secondly, the lives of Japan's poorest soldiers and civilians during the war are portrayed through poignant stories. Thirdly, stories of Japanese humanitarianism, such as saving British pilots and playing hockey while facing discrimination from Canadians, are also included. Fourthly, any mention of Japanese troops' military actions in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and the origins of the Pacific War are omitted. In this era of globalization and neo-liberalism, English, as the hegemonic language, not only transmits advanced knowledge to EFL learners but also empowers them to reconstruct social reality through the social meaning-making process. Through our analysis of WWII narratives in localized EFL textbooks, we discussed Japan's EFL education's language ideology.

Keywords: Japan EFL, Language Ideology, Textbooks Analysis, WWII

The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The Ninth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature (WWW.LLLD.IR), 1-2 February 2024, Ahwaz.