Teachers’ Consciousness and Behavior on Educational Responsibility in the Latter Half of 1940s in Japan: From the Viewpoint of the Continuity and Discontinuity between Prewar and Postwar Periods

Using long-forgotten articles and books, this paper described Japanese teaches’ consciousness and behavior in the latter half of 1940s. Until defeat of Japan at the end of WWII, almost all Japanese teachers taught children super militarism. There were a few that refused to do so and others that did so reluctantly. There have been some studies on the classification of teachers’ consciousness and behavior in this era, for example that by Hara and Nakauchi (1962), and another by Aoki(1946). In their classification, the biggest teacher group is called the “ordinary teacher” group. The basis of classification is the teachers’ consciousness of responsibility on education and the war. After Japan’s defeat, many “ordinary teachers” participated in teacher unions that were strongly Marxist. Thus, a certain degree of antagonism has existed between the teachers’ unions and the Ministry of Education on democratic education for some time now. However, the attitude of “ordinary teachers” as mere followers in school is the same as before