Group protests against removal of 'Barefoot Gen' calendar from school

Tuesday 21st October, 02:00 PM JST

HIROSHIMA —

A peace advocacy group in Hiroshima Prefecture filed a protest Tuesday with a municipal education board in the prefecture, challenging its guidance that led to a decision by a municipal junior high school to remove from its music classroom a calendar featuring popular antiwar comic “Barefoot Gen.” The Hiroshima Institute for Peace Education made the protest to the Onomichi education board in writing after the school in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, stopped posting the calendar that features Keiji Nakazawa’s classic autobiographical comic portraying the life of a boy who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.

The institute, based in Hiroshima City, has been making and donating the ‘‘Hiroshima Peace Calendar’’ to Hiroshima schools on request every year since 1982. This year’s calendar features a picture drawn by Nakazawa for the 1999 edition. The head of the Hiroshima teachers union serves as the institute’s executive director. Since 2003, the Onomichi education board has instructed principals of elementary and junior high schools in the city to refrain from posting the peace calendar, citing the neutrality of education.

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12 Comments

Nessie at 03:04 PM JST - 21st October

They'll replace it with a Kawaii Gen-baku calendar.
dennis0bauer at 03:15 PM JST - 21st October

Japan is known for its anti-war stance so why refrain to use this calender????
elbudamexicano at 03:18 PM JST - 21st October

The "neutrality of education" is a joke! Try teaching about Japanese atrocities to it's Asian neighbors and how they mistreated their POWS and you will not see much "neutrality of education"! Most kids here only learn of the atomic bombs and that Japan was a "victim" but when I was a teacher I showed them videos of Pearl Harbor, Empire of the Sun etc..many of my junior high school students cried and said they finally understood why the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
timorborder at 03:22 PM JST - 21st October

Good point Mex. If they are going to play the neutrality card over such a stupid issue, then somebody should ask if the Board of Education wouldn't mind the kids being exposed to documentary footage of Nanking, the Burma Railway, the atrocities in Manilla, etc., etc.

That would give the kids something to think about (would also traumatize them).
DenshaDeGO at 03:58 PM JST - 21st October

Is the point of all this to bring peace to the world, or to remind the world that Japan was just a victim during the war?
ca1ic0cat at 01:41 AM JST - 22nd October

perhaps a Sports Illustrated swimsuit calender would be more neutral for them?
OssanULTRA at 03:04 AM JST - 22nd October

when I was a teacher I showed them videos of Pearl Harbor, Empire of the >Sun etc..many of my junior high school students cried and said they >finally understood why the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Did they really? The decision to use the A-bombs wasn't based on what the Imperial Japanese Military did or didn't do to other countries or POWs or civilians or whatever. It was a tactical decision based on the risks involved in Operation Downfall and the Soviet advancement into East Asia.
spudman at 08:43 AM JST - 22nd October

ossan maybe they understood the hatred for the Japanese people rather than the tactics. But you're right.
CavemanLawyer at 12:04 PM JST - 22nd October

ossan maybe they understood the hatred for the Japanese people rather than the tactics. But you're right.

I would say partly right. The behavior of both the Japanese and Germans during WWII make the use of nukes and firebombs seem like justice. Without that sense, the tactical reasons might have been over-ridden.

Is the point of all this to bring peace to the world, or to remind the world that Japan was just a victim during the war?

Again with the either/or. And again, its both. --Cirroc
OssanULTRA at 11:52 PM JST - 22nd October

ossan maybe they understood the hatred for the Japanese people rather >than the tactics. But you're right.

spudman, What "hatred for the Japanese people" are you refering to? Are you suggesting that the decision to use the A-bombs was inspired by "hatred" rather than a sane tactical choice? If so I wholeheartedly disagree.
ca1ic0cat at 01:57 AM JST - 23rd October

Guys, the topic is that the school chose to take down a calender promoting peace so that they would be "neutral." Or, I guess, more "pro war." Which is about as stupid a position as you can take, under the circumstances. Anybody who wants to promote war really hasn't lived through one or studied history.
spudman at 08:54 PM JST - 24th October

#

spudman, What "hatred for the Japanese people" are you refering to? Are you suggesting that the decision to use the A-bombs was inspired by "hatred" rather than a sane tactical choice? If so I wholeheartedly disagree. # no the hatred made the tactical choice more palatable to the general population.