A Consideration on the Possibilities of Local Culture Programs in Overseas Japanese Schools : On the Basis of Interviews with Returnee Students from Schools of Southeast Asia

In the 1970s, overseas Japanese schools have introduced special curriculum to promote Japanese student's understandings on the local communities and their cultures. It aimed to remove student's disparagement upon the regional cultures and societies. This paper tries to think about the possibilities of this education through interview from 8 returnees who attended overseas Japanese schools in the Southeast Asian countries. Most of the interviewees have internalized the social norm that racial prejudice should be avoided and respect should be paid to different cultures, but at the same time most of them have acquired a sense of pride for Japan's economic achievement and her status of civilized country, and finally, only some of them could recognize the causal relation between Japan's high status and Asian countries' low status, a recognition necessary to re-construct the deep structure which lies under the complimentary respect for other cultures