After a short introduction contextualizing revisionist history in Japan and controversies over the representation of imperial and wartime violence in Japanese textbooks, this piece presents translations of a wide variety of student writing projects and classroom resources from progressive educators. Focusing exclusively on textbooks results in a limited view of what actually goes on in Japanese classrooms. This collection highlights some of the ways that critical educators have resisted revisionism and brought vivid discussion of controversial issues to the classroom.

In and around Okinawa, events of unparalleled importance continue to unfold, with implications for Japan, the US-Japan and US-Japan-China relationships, and for peace and democracy generally. As former Governor Ota Masahide foresaw earlier in the year, 2013 turned out to be “the worst ever (obviously excluding the utter catastrophe of 1945) for Okinawa.”

After 9.11, the United States increased its demand for burden-sharing on the part of allies such as Japan and South Korea. In East Asia, the importance of the US presence in both of those countries as a deterrence mechanism was reinforced as political and military tensions grew due to factors including the intensification of China-Japan rivalry and associated nationalisms, territorial disputes and unsettled historical issues. Yet, even under these circumstances, anti-base movements also grew. At the root of these movements lay the impact of the bases on people's lives. Anti-base movements in Japan and Korea develop around people's everyday lives. Residents seek mitigation of the burdens of foreign military forces and bases. The case of Iwakuni City (Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan) is one example.