The Importance of Getting History Right

Every country or society portrays their history and world history in their own way. Some societies place in their history books garbage about their “amazing” accomplishments. They barely dwell on their downfalls. On the other hand, there is a more truthful history that focuses on both the negatives and the positives. This method also tends to push for more critical thinking. In my opinion, it is important to get history accurate, even if it doesn’t always portray your country in the most favorable light.

For the past few weeks, I have been delving into 1984, by George Orwell. He tells the story of post WWII where people are only educated on their country’s success. The main character, Winston, even has a job, which consists of changing history books to make the country, Oceania, look better. The result is that people have little ability to reason or think for themselves. They simply accept their “false” history, without any objections. They don’t question the “whys” and “hows” of history. This brings the downfall of their society. If their history books had given accurate information, then the people would have been more educated and would have had the ability to question a government on its faults.

A program that focuses on the deeper understanding of history is Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO). They pride themselves on their ability to not simply look at the outside level of past events. They go through the mindsets of past historical figures and break down events into themes and ideas. Their goal is to make sure that certain horrible occurrences from history do not happen again. Therefore, they “face history” and then move forward in a positive direction. They not only get history right, but they manage to depict it in a favorable and beneficial way. They exemplify the importance of getting history right because out of their programming come informed student leaders.

On the other hand, the school systems in Japan seem to be going in the opposite direction. Most of their history books spend little time focusing on the time periods leading to WWII and WWII itself. They spend tons of pages focusing on Japan after the war and way before the war. They simply want to instill a sense of pride in their country after their major flaws in WWII. They are embarrassed by the atomic bomb and embarrassed by their past vulnerability. Therefore, their history books mostly leave that time period out, only including a few small details about the events. This can be a very scary practice because if the students and people of Japan don’t learn from their past mistakes, then they are bound to repeat them. Japan hasn’t really learned anything from WWII because their textbooks don’t include key information.

The importance of laying out truthful history outweighs building up a country’s patriotism. The people of Japan and Oceania have a burning love for their country, but this forces them to accept their situation and accept everything that is thrown at them. They lack the ability to question and understand. This ability is evident in truthful history, which allows for reasoning and thinking. If we get history right, we are more likely to move forward in the right direction.