Paper short abstract:

Japanese imperial interest in Judaism and Islam was at its height during the interwar period when their similarities to, or even sameness with, Shinto were claimed. This paper explores the role of education in moulding such perceptions through an examination of their depiction in school textbooks.

Paper long abstract:

During the Meiji era Japanese interest in Judaism and Islam began to develop to such an extent that in the 1920s a pastor Oyabe Zen’ichiro claimed that Shinto and Judaism had common origins, and a Muslim convert Tanaka Ippei announced the identical nature of Shinto and Islam. How did such beliefs arise, when Jews and Muslims were almost unknown to the pre-Meiji Japanese? This paper examines the role of state education in generating Japanese perceptions of Judaism and Islam, and explores the relations between the Japanese imperialist agenda and public discourse. The existing scholarship highlights the political importance of collaboration with both religious communities for Japanese pan-Asian expansionist ambition, partly due to the perceived Jewish dominance of Western finance, and partly the significant presence of Muslims in Asia as potential subjects or allies in competing with the Western/Christian bloc. Rather than focusing on strategic engagement with one or other of the two groups, this paper considers it more productive to link them as the Japanese government did as a related issue, and public interest in them grew according to the growth of expansionist ambition.

Meiji Japan emphasised the value of education in pursuing its programme of modernisation and its reconfiguration of the national character. In an effort to produce future generations who would support the restored imperial regime, it used Shinto mythology to explain the historical origins of Japan in history textbooks. In a comparable way, some Western histories also begin with Biblical stories. This paper examines the role of Shinto in presenting the world of Judaism and Islam in Japanese state school textbooks of the interwar period on history, foreign affairs and religious traditions, such as Shiryaku, Bankokushiryaku, Seiyojijo, Seiyoshi. Through an analysis of the depiction of Jews and Muslims in these textbooks, it will chart the relationship between the expansionist political agenda and public discourse. This little-studied area will contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms of knowledge formation in imperial Japan in respect of religious faiths, specifically the interplay between politics, education and public discourse.