Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program Read Online Free PDF

Western countries displayed remarkable eclecticism. For
example, in the field of education Meiji leaders molded a system which resembled that of France in its organization, the United States in its curriculum, and Germany in its theoretical rationale. It was during the first two
decades of the Meiji period that the Japanese government hired, at considerable expense, thousands of Western "experts." Some of these technicians
and teachers gained considerable influence, and for a while, in the early
Christian institutions of higher education, imported texts were used and
English was the medium of instruction. The slogan "Boys Be Ambitious,"
offered by one of these imported oyatoi and inscribed on the gate to
Hokkaido University, has now motivated several generations of Japanese
youth.

    But even this early catch-up period was closely linked to a larger national purpose, especially to national defense. The modernization policy
was sometimes described by the Japanese as "using the barbarian to control
the barbarian."22 As a result, Japanese officials took a very pragmatic stance
toward the oyatoi; Hazel Jones argues that they were actually treated as
"live machines," their humanity overlooked in the rush to appropriate
their skills.23 When Japanese officials were satisfied that enough information had been provided, the oyatoi were asked to leave. While this treatment clearly frustrated some of the oyatoi themselves, it provides important insights into how Japanese approach learning from abroad. Japan's
intense preoccupation with borrowing seems to be matched only by its
drive for mastering what has been appropriated. In the early Meiji period
the heavy reliance on cultural adoption and foreign teachers and technicians did not lead to permanent dependence on foreign sources. A combination of humility and willingness to be placed in the position of learner,
on the one hand, and national pride and purpose, on the other, proved astonishingly effective in the push for modernization.
    By the i88os, however, enthusiasm for Westernizing was ending. The
Meiji oligarchs were increasingly humiliated by their treatment at the
hands of the countries they tried to emulate. It had begun with the unequal
treaty negotiated in -1858 by the American consul, Townsend Harris, under
the threat of naval power: foreign traders in Japan were protected by their own military forces and the extraterritorial privilege of trial by their own
judges under their own laws, and at the same time the tariffs that Japanese
could levy on Western imports were limited. After the turn of the century,
resentment was heightened by the failure to secure a clause on racial
equality in the Versailles Treaty and by the continued discrimination
against Japanese in U.S. immigration laws; the Japanese felt unwelcome in
the community of nations. Reaction against foreign influence took several
forms; for example, the Imperial Rescript on Education explicitly linked
education with providing glory to the emperor, and the folk religion,
Shinto, was harnessed to the goals of state building and the legitimation of
the emperor.24 The waging of "the Greater East Asian War" obviously represented the culmination of this nativist sentiment.

    The Postwar Period
    Defeat in World War II marked the beginning of another swing in public
opinion away from nationalism and toward democracy. Progressive reform
of Japan's constitution, its political system, its education system, and its
land policy, as well as dissolution of the large financial conglomerates (zaibatsu) and encouragement of unionization, were all goals of General Douglas MacArthur's temporary government. Yet because implementation of
many of these reforms was left to Japanese, and because the advent of the
cold war led Occupation authorities to concentrate on rebuilding Japan as
an ally, many were reversed after the Occupation forces left. For instance,
local boards of education, which were to be