Interview with Ms. X

"From my experience, most of Japan’s history education about World War II focuses on the Pacific War — especially the atomic bombings and the Battle of Iwo Jima. Since I went to an international school, I didn’t encounter much about that period, but our school still arranged a field trip to Hiroshima.

What struck me was how little of it was taught from a political perspective. Instead of discussing the causes of the war, its outcomes, or any deeper reflections, the lessons were usually framed around personal stories — like how a single family was affected when the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb.

Among Japanese youth, I’ve noticed there’s actually a lot of admiration for the United States, even though it was the U.S. that dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. That’s completely different from how Chinese people view the Japanese. As for Japan’s own wartime aggression, it was almost never covered.

I often compare this with my childhood in China, when I used to read many stories in our textbooks exposing Japanese atrocities. There were countless poems and essays about the resistance, so from a very young age Chinese children are steeped in this history. The contrast between the two systems is something I still think about today."