Introduction

The years between 1925 and 1945 were among the most turbulent in modern Japanese history. Japan experienced the effects of the Depression from 1929 into the early 1930s, and in 1931, Japan’s military takeover of north-east China marked the start of conflict that escalated into war with China in 1937, and then the Pacific War in 1941. How did Japanese children and young people experience these years? What kind of education were they experiencing?

This website illuminates these issues and provides materials in English and Japanese for teaching and research. It is based on the results of the University of Manchester research project ‘Remembering and Recording Childhood, Education, and Youth in Imperial Japan, 1925-1945’.

Read more about the project

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