[Heart Publishing Co., Ltd.] The “Reprint Edition: Elementary School Japanese Language, Middle Grades Edition,” popular among the generation that studied with this textbook during the war, is now in its fifth printing.
Heart Publishing Co., Ltd. Press Release: August 29, 2025 The “Reprint Edition: Elementary School Japanese Language, Middle Grades Edition,” popular among the generation that studied with this textbook during the war, has been reprinted for the fifth time. After the war, “important things that we as Japanese people should keep in mind” were intentionally erased. This wartime Japanese language textbook not only teaches us the beautiful sound and strength of the Japanese language, but also teaches us important moral values.
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This book is based on volumes 1-4 of “Elementary Japanese Language,” published by the Ministry of Education in 1942. While this was a Japanese language textbook for third- and fourth-grade students during the war, it is packed with important information that Japanese people should keep in mind, condensed into simple language. Since many of the “important things we should keep in mind as Japanese people” were intentionally erased from postwar education, modern people will be surprised by the content revealed in this book. Roughly divided into themes, the content includes mythology, biographies of great people, shrines, holidays, soldiers, the martial spirit, filial piety, nature, relationships with living things, and scientific thinking. The underlying theme is kindness. At the heart of this book is the Japanese view of nature, which holds that gods reside in every tree and blade of grass. This leads to compassion for others, and that compassion extends not only to nature but also to inanimate objects. Overall, I believe it was because of learning from textbooks like these that the Japanese spirit was cultivated among Japanese people during the war. Reading this book from start to finish, one cannot help but feel keenly aware of the great things that modern Japanese have lost. Kindness, martial spirit, aesthetics. It was because of kindness that we had to be strong, and it was because we were strong that we could be kind. To maintain peace, when it is threatened, one must ultimately be prepared to fight. Japanese aesthetics have always recognized beauty in people who possess that resolve. It is precisely because this textbook fostered such a mindset that SCAP deemed it dangerous and blacked it out. In order to restore Japan to its original form, the blackened ink must be removed. As you know, removing the black ink is not easy, but fortunately, it has been reprinted in this form today. Old characters have been replaced with new characters, and old kana spelling has been replaced with new kana spelling, so it is no longer exactly as it was. I feel embarrassed that the Japanese language has changed so much that it is already difficult to read as it is, but I would be delighted if this book could help us to understand the thoughts of our ancestors that are contained in it and to pass on the beautiful Japan and Japanese language to future generations. Book commentary: “Reprinting Beautiful Japan” (by Katsuragi Nami)
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/49367/189/49367-189-c19a947135139f9b3cd1fd7ccd6ffd19-920×1300.jpg [Book information] Book title: [Reprint edition] Elementary Japanese [Middle Grade Edition] Author: Ministry of Education Commentary: Naumi Katsuragi Specifications: A5 size, 312 pages ISBN: 978-4802401036 Release: 2020.08.04 Price: 2,000 yen (excluding tax) : Heart Publishing Product URL:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4802401035/
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