"Deradicalization through the textbook "Blacking out Passages" 

Did you know that after World War II, Japanese students were required to physically censor their textbooks by marking out or blacking out passages that contained militarist, ultranationalist, or anti-Western content? 

This was part of the United States and its allies' comprehensive program to deradicalize the Japanese population and transform Japan into a peaceful, democratic nation. 

This process was primarily led by the U.S. occupation forces under General Douglas MacArthur. 

Teachers and students were instructed to carry out these censorship efforts in classrooms, a process that became a visible and symbolic act of Japan’s ideological transformation.

The textbook content targeted :
- Anti-Western rhetoric and glorifications of Japanese militarism.
- Praise of Japan’s imperial conquests, such as those in China and the Pacific.
- Content that deified the emperor as a divine ruler.
- Passages that justified Japan’s wartime actions or portrayed the war as a noble cause.

By the late 1940s and early 1950s, new textbooks had been printed, emphasizing democratic values, peace, and international cooperation while downplaying Japan’s wartime role."

~ John Spencer @SpencerGuard