5. Content Analysis of Japanese Ethics Textbooks 1 Presentation
5.2 Moral Values
5.2.2 Diligence/Persistence
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associated with patriotism and was heavily promoted both in school and outside of it.
5.2.2 Diligence/Persistence
After patriotism and loyalty, the virtues that appear most frequently are diligence and persistence. Again, for simplicity’s sake, these virtues are defined in the most basic sense of the word. With over 14% of lessons focusing on these virtues, even the textbooks intended for lower level classes consistently feature these types of lessons. For the youngest children, illustrations were accompanied by lectures that were pulled from the relevant teacher’s manual. For instance, Images H-I on the next page were to be accompanied by the following lecture:
“School is to make you a good person. But as you heard at the school entrance ceremony, you cannot become a good person automatically just by coming to school.
There are several things you must do. Even if it is hot and windy, even if the roads are bad, even if you are not feeling well, still you must come to school. You must heed what your parents say and what your teacher teaches. And you must be like the children in these pictures: you must study hard and you must play hard” (Tsurumi 1977, 137-139).
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Images H-I: Children ‘studying hard and playing hard.’
Again, the lessons are more or less presented in one of two formats. The first format presents various stories featuring virtuous characters from Japanese history. The other format is more direct, and these lessons simply tell the student why being diligent and persevering is good, and why not being so is bad. Moreover, illustrations, when present, typically show children staying up late at night studying, or sitting attentively in class, etc. Very rarely are the children or other characters in the stories shown exhibiting less than ideal behavior.
The first format, consisting of stories, almost exclusively features characters pulled from Japanese history. One such example is Takamine Jōkichi (高峰譲吉), a Japanese chemist and researcher. Takamine is described as having loved learning even as a child, and he continued his studies in Nagasaki and other parts of Japan, eventually studying abroad in England and later moving to the United States. The story also discusses his diligent
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research and his achievements, such as the isolation of the hormone adrenaline and other enzymes used in chemical fertilizers. The story ends with the following line: “Other than becoming famous, Jōkichi also made many discoveries and won many awards for his work, which was a great service to the country and to mankind.”12 A similar story describes Inō Tadataka, a surveyor and cartographer who is credited with making the first map of Japan using modern surveying techniques. The lesson entitled ‘Diligence’ in Common School Ethics, Vol. 5 (1930) discusses how a young Inō worked very hard at the family business (sake and soy sauce brewing) and made his family very prosperous. At age 50 he retires, but instead of remaining idle he goes to Edo (江戸) and studies vigorously. After several years of study, the shogunate tasked Inō with surveying Japan’s coastlines. Inō spends the rest of his life surveying the coastlines of Japan, and at the age of 72 he had finished surveying all of Japan’s main islands. The lesson ends with the Japanese equivalent of the proverb, ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’
The famous story of Ono no Michikaze (小野道風) also makes an appearance. Ono was a well-known calligrapher known as one of the founders of Japanese-style calligraphy. In the lesson entitled ‘The Frog and the Willow Tree,’ a young Ono is discouraged with the lack of progress in his studies and considers quitting altogether. One day while walking he sees a frog repeatedly jumping up and trying to reach a low-hanging willow tree branch. The frog fails many times but eventually reaches the branch, and Ono is moved by this. He determinedly pursues his studies, and eventually becomes a famous calligrapher.
The main difference between these three stories is that the first two connect diligence with helping the nation. This connection between diligence and helping the nation is very pronounced in many of the stories. The type of story which encourages academic pursuits for their own sake all but disappear in the texts published in the 1940s. Instead, these type of stories begin to feature individuals in labor intensive jobs, who do their jobs well and without complaint.
12 Common School Ethics, Vol. 6 (1930), 23-24.
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The second lesson format reads a bit more like a set of instructions or a lecture. In these lessons, there is frequent mention of the correct attitude towards work. Hard work is described as something that everyone must do in order to make society function. The lesson entitled ‘Occupations’ from Common School Ethics, Vol. 6 (1930) is a prime example of this type of lesson:
「人が職業に從事するのは人としての本分を盡すもので、生活のためばかり ではありません。いくら家に財産のある人でも、何事もしないで遊んでゐる のは、人としてまことに恥ずかしいことです。およそ職業に從事するには責 任を重んじ、誠實・勤勉でなければなりません。又自分の職業を尊重し、常 に樂しんで從事するやうにしなければなりません。職業に貴賤の別はありま せんが、從事する人の精神によって、世間から貴ばれもし卑しまれもしま す。」
“Pursuing an occupation is not just about doing one’s duty as a person to earn a living. No matter how much wealth one’s family has, doing nothing and idling away one’s time is truly shameful. As a rule, one must take responsibilities seriously and must be honest and diligent when pursuing an occupation. Also, one must respect their own work and always enjoy engaging in their occupation. There is no distinction between high-class and low-class work, but with regard to the attitude of the worker, there are respectable and poor attitudes.”13
The lesson also advises that children should pursue the same job as their parents, and that changing occupations should not be done needlessly. The lesson entitled ‘Education’ in the same textbook does indeed discuss education, but for the most part it is in the context of work and bringing prosperity to the country: “If we become virtuous and capable people who are able to carry out our tasks, then we can be said to be good Japanese.”14 It is worth mentioning that many of these types of lessons focus on work or even labor, and
13 Common School Ethics, Vol. 6 (1930), 20.
14 Common School Ethics, Vol. 6 (1930), 46.
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academic learning is usually mentioned only because it can improve one’s working efficiency or otherwise help to benefit the country.