Elements of war and peace in history education in the US and Japan: a case study comparison.

History praxis can transform perceptions of the 'other' by reshaping ideas about events transpiring between groups. Nevertheless, peace education research has rarely examined history teaching. This article addresses the potential for teaching peace through history teaching. After laying out a conceptual framework for understanding the importance of teaching peaceful values in history, as well as providing a background of history teaching in the US and Japan, an analysis is given of qualitative interviews with junior high school teachers regarding history teaching in Japan and the US. Findings revealed teachers in both countries feel expected to teach mostly historical facts, find it difficult to give satisfactory coverage to events in which their country engaged in immoral acts, and are expected to teach a curriculum generally favourable to the national state. The countries differed in that American students are presented with extensive coverage of their country's activity around the world whereas Japanese students are not, and Japanese students are taught that war is an immoral act of which their country is historically guilty whereas American students are not necessarily taught this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]