International Citizen’s Forum on War Crimes & Redress - Seeking Reconciliation and Peace for the 21st Century

Sunday, December 12,1999 Tokyo, Japan

Panel Symposium: Reflections on Humanity from Past Atrocities and Pacifism Against the resurgence of Militarism in Japan

Jewish Holocaust and Asian Holocaust- Humanity Education in School

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank BC Alpha and especially Thekla and Joseph for their invitation to this very important human rights conference. It is indeed an honor to be here.

I am a Canadian teacher. For the past three years I have been seconded to the Ministry of Education in British Columbia, Canada’s most western province, to help facilitate the production of a new direction in history and civics curriculum for our students. We want students to learn their history and civics lessons but we also want them to learn skills to help them combat wrongs whenever they manifest themselves in society. I will share these ideas with you in my remarks today.

There are two purposes for our work here:

The first being to seek redress for the orgy of cruelty perpetrated by the Japanese in Asia during WW II.

And the second being the need for education about these events and to give future generations the tools to fight wrongs wherever they exist. We must learn from the lessons of history and provide our future generations with skills to help them make the world a better place

It is as a educator that I speak with you this morning.

The 20th Century has seen the worst slaughter human in history.

Over 100 million people have been slaughtered in wars and genocides in the 54 years since the end of World War 2 alone.

The Holocaust in Europe saw the destruction of millions of humans in the most industrialized bloodbath the world has ever witnessed.

There have been 86 wars on this planet since WW2.

165 million people have been killed by their own government this century.(60 million in the Soviet Union alone)

The rapes and murders of hundreds of thousands of innocent people by the Japanese Army is an orgy of cruelty of monstrous proportions.

If we care about the sanctity of human life and the dignity of man then we are all responsible to make sure the horrible acts perpetrated against people in the 20th century are not repeated in the 21st century. It is incumbent upon us all to stand up to oppression, to educate against it and to bring perpetrators to justice. If we do not then we do not care and we are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past

Last night you heard the Canadians sing Oh Canada, our national anthem. (The lucky ones here may have missed it). We sang it to entertain you but we also sang it because we are proud of our country. We are proud of what it stands for as it is a free country that embraces freedom and equality for all. It does now, but not so many years ago, Europeans (my ancestors) perpetrated a horrible genocide on a people that still affects life in Canada today.

Europeans were responsible for introducing unknown diseases to North America that wiped out over 80% of the native population. If that wasn’t enough the natives were forbidden from taking part in the running of the land that they had inhabited for thousands of years. It was not until 1960 that they managed to acquire full voting rights.

Today Canadians of European decent will live, on average, 12 years longer than their First Nations counterparts.

Less than 40% of First Nations people graduate from high school in BC while their non-native counterparts are graduating over 80%. Many native people live as second-class citizens below the poverty line in a land of plenty.

In British Columbia these issues as well as others like the internment of the Japanese Canadian during WW II must all be studied by students if we are going to learn from the mistakes of the past and make the future better.

The German government acknowledged their past involvement in the most horrible mass murder in recorded history. They made the study of the Holocaust compulsory in schools, made it illegal to deny the Holocaust and paid many millions of dollars to families of their victims. This forces students to look at the events of the past and to say never again. We must acknowledge our past if we are going to make the future better.

In Nan king, China the massacre and rapes and the other acts of the orgy of cruelty that occurred in Asia before and during WW2 must also be acknowledged, apologized for, compensation paid and be taught in the schools of the country that condoned these barbaric acts. The students of the country they live in must acknowledge their past so that they will be the champions for human rights for future generations. Students cannot be champions for justice unless they have the strength to look at their own peoples past. All people must push for these issues to be addressed.

I am not here to tell Japan how to teach their children as I am not familiar with what is taught in the schools of Japan. However tomorrow I am meeting with a friend who holds a similar position to me with the Japanese Ministry of Education and I will be discussing these things with him. Next time we should have Japanese educators here too. Instead I will concentrate on how human rights issues should be taught in all schools.

CURRICULUM

I have attended education conferences in Canada, USA, Mexico, Europe and Asia and I have been impressed as human rights education is part of the education system of all the countries I have visited. This sounds like everything is fine but there is more to making a good educational program than creating curriculum.

RESOURCES

No school curriculum is strong enough to address all human rights issues to make the world a safer and better place. It is one tool in that fight. The resources books, videos, cds etc. must also be produced to give educators the tools to fight for the dignity of all people. Textbooks must contain materials which help students to gain the knowledge of historical human rights events but also to give students the opportunities to critically reflect on the events and to make reasoned judgments for future decisions.

Last year British Columbia created a new resource to help students understand the issues around Aboriginal land claims related to the Nisga people and this year we are developing a resource to teach about the Holocaust and human rights issues connected with it. Professor John Price who is here today from the University of Victoria, is working with BC ALPHA to develop resources aimed at the British Columbia Social Studies curriculum to teach the human rights violations committed by Japan prior to and during World War 2. I urge all people here to find out what the curriculum in their area and to determine if there are good resources to get the point of their organization across. Find out how the system works in their own school system. If it doesn’t have an opportunity for your message to be taught then you should pursue avenues to make change in the school system. It is the responsibility of us all to take action when we need to correct a wrong.

TEACHERS

But a curriculum and resources alone will still not make a difference. Teachers need to be trained to understand that the support of human equality and dignity are the most important lessons to impart to the students if the human race is to survive. Professional ongoing teacher training is a must.

But a curriculum and resources and trained teachers will still not make a difference. This still leaves the lessons as something that is done in school for a test at the end of the week and not part of real life. Students need ongoing opportunities to apply these lessons to real life situations.

Now we may have a chance but more support is still required if we are going to save the people of this beautiful planet.

The governing bodies of society must acknowledge past wrongs, must apologize, must pay compensation and then make it compulsory in schools and make the public aware of the issues. When all this is done we will see a change and we can stem the tide. The atrocities of the 20th century do not need to be repeated in the 21st. it is up to us all. We can do it and we must if we want our children to inherit a better place to raise their children and their children.

What happens to the work of the people gathered here when Japan agrees to do everything you are asking for? If we have a celebratory meeting and pat each other on the back about what a good job we have done and then disband, then we are really missing the boat on the most important aspect of the work of this group. I believe that the real work starts then to ensure the sad events that occurred in Asia are not repeated. If we care about the future we must not disband but continue the fight for a more peaceful world.

Don’t teach about the rape of Nanging. If you expect that by teaching the facts that you will in some way prevent these things from happening again. Forget it and get another hobby. The events and results of WW1(the War to end all wars) were studied in classrooms around the world yet were students asked to reflect on the issues and did they lobby anyone to change and try and prevent WW2 from happening? We must go beyond the simple memorization of facts.

We advocate that children should be taught about the rape of Nanging and that by some miracle that teaching about it will prevent such things from happening again. They won’t. We must fight against racism and discrimination and we must have zero tolerance for such issues. It is a matter of our survival.

Genocide, slaughter, mass murders, atrocities, orgy of cruelty, gang rapes, Holocaust and other horrible statements have all come to epitomize mans inhumanity to man in the first half of the 20th century. But many say we have learned a lot from the first half of the century and the world is a better place now. Wrong! Those statements can be used to describe the 100 million people that have been murdered at the hands of their own government since WW2. We have had 86 wars in the last half of this century alone. We have a big job ahead of us but we can make a difference.

Education must change to make a difference in the death facts from this century. In Canada like most other countries, the memorization of facts has been the dominant theme of good civics education for most of the 20th century. Did this help those good citizens prevent wars and genocide? No! In the last twenty years we have seen a new wave in education pedagogy and that is to critically reflect on the events and historical issues and to discuss and make sense of the issues and ask inquiring questions about the events. Will this new methodology stop the atrocities from happening. We don’t think so. So now what?

In British Columbia we have started down a new course give us a better hope that we can prevent the atrocities of the 20th century from repeating themselves. Starting this September every student in grades 2-10 must not only learn their history lessons and also critically reflect upon them but they must also apply their knowledge to current issues that effect their lives. In other words, at each of the grades above we have made it mandatory that all students implement a course of action to address identified issues in the world beyond the classroom. We are a making the lessons of history have a real impact on the lives of students. No longer should the lessons of history be merely school lessons. Students must relate the lessons of history to their lives and the lives of others if we are going to prevent the atrocities of the past from happening again. I encourage all present to examine the curriculum in your home countries and challenge educators to make sure that the lessons of the past are made relevant to students lives.

Our belief is that we must develop a skills at each grade so that when situations confront children and adults, they will have the tools to be able to collectively and as individuals, fight for human dignity.

Remember, Reflect and Respond

Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today.

Greg Smith

Victoria, BC

Canada