（2）GHQ Directives concerning Supervisory Policies and Educational Administration

The attitude of the Occupation authorities concerning education was clearly set forth in a series of four directives issued during the last three months of 1945. The overriding theme of GHQ policy was the abolition of the militaristic, ultra-nationalistic thought and education which had dominated the preceding decade.

The first directive relating to education, titled Administration of the Educational System of Japan, was issued on October 22, 1945, and dealt with educational content, personnel, and facilities. With respect to educational content, the following points were made:

"(1) Dissemination of militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideology will be prohibited and all military education and drill will be discontinued.

(2) Inculcation of concepts and establishment of practices in harmony with representative government, international peace, the dignity of the individual, and such fundamental human rights as the freedom of assembly, speech, and religion, will be encouraged."

Concerning educational personnel, the directive stated:

"(1) Teachers and educational officials will be examined as rapidly as possible and all career military personnel, persons who have been active exponents of militarism and ultra-nationalism, and those actively antagonistic to the policies of the occupation will be removed.

(2) Teachers and educational officials who have been dismissed, suspended, or forced to resign for liberal or anti-militaristic opinions or activities, will be declared immediately eligible for and if properly qualified will be given preference in reappointment.

(3) Discrimination against any student, teacher, or educational official on grounds of race, nationality, creed, political opinion, or social position, will be prohibited, and immediate steps will be taken to correct inequities which have resulted from such discrimination."

Finally, with regard to the "instrumentalities of educational processes," the directive indicated:

"(1) Existing curricula, textbooks, teaching manuals, and instructional materials, the use of which is temporarily permitted on an emergency basis, will be examined as rapidly as possible and those portions designed to promote a militaristic or ultra-nationalistic ideology will be eliminated.

(2) New curricula, textbooks, teaching manuals, and instructional materials designed to produce an educated, peaceful, and responsible citizenry will be prepared and will be substituted for existing materials as rapidly as possible.

(3) A normally operating educational system will be reestablished as rapidly as possible, but where limited facilities exist preference will be given to elementary education and teacher training."

The strict measures called for in this directive, in particular those of screening and purging the teaching staff and of revising the educational curricula necessitated changes that cut at the very heart of the educational system. The determination of the Occupation authorities to vigorously pursue these policies was demonstrated by the speedy issuance of three additional directives spelling out various details for the implementation of these measures.

The second directive of October 30, 1945, titled Investigation, Screening, and Certification of Teachers and Educational Officials, elaborated procedures for screening and purging educators as specified in the first directive. The third directive of December 15, 1945, titled Abolition of Governmental Sponsorship, Support, Perpetuation, Control, and Dissemination of State Shinto (Kokka Shinto, Jinja Shinto), forbade government protection and support of the Shinto religion and removed Shinto education from the schools. The motivation for this measure was the underlying belief that the ideas of national and shrine Shinto had been used to legitimate the militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideology thus leading the Japanese people into the war. The fourth directive of December 31, 1945, tilted Suspension of Courses in Morals (Shushin), Japanese History, and Geography, removed these subjects from the educational curricula until such time as GHQ granted permission for their resumption. It further requested the recall of all textbooks and teaching materials related to these subjects and the presentation of plans for new guidelines and new textbooks. Taken as a whole, the measure called for in the four GHQ directives represented a thoroughgoing attempt to rid the educational system of any vestiges of militaristic or ultra-nationalistic thought and went far beyond the steps outlined in the Ministry of Education's Educational Policy for the Construction of a New Japan.

An imperial order (chokurei) related to the execution of the investigation and screening of educators was promulgated on May 7, 1946, and a full-scale screening process was established shortly thereafter. Whether or not an educator was allowed to retain his position was determined in one of two ways: either he was automatically disqualified, without further examination on the basis of preestablished conditions, or his position was reviewed by the screening committee. By October, 1947, approximately 650,000 persons were examined; of these, 2,623 were disqualified by the screening committee and a further 2,717 were automatically purged without further examination. In addition, a sizable number of educators relinquished their positions voluntarily to avoid the screening process.

On September 20, 1945, prior to the issuance of the GHQ directives, the Ministry of Education issued a notice concerning a plan for the gradual revision of textbooks in which the following items were declared unsuitable for use in the classrooms: 1) emphasis on preparations for national defense; 2) encouragement of a fighting spirit; 3) anything disruptive to international conciliation; and 4) anything which failed to accept the fact that the war had ended or which was clearly irrelevant to the present circumstances of student life. However, the GHQ directives were more encompassing, and required the Ministry to take immediate action.

Despite the logistical difficulty involved in withdrawing textbooks from use at a time when the transportation system was badly damaged, the Ministry attempted to comply with the GHQ directives and on January 11, 1946, issued a notice that the teaching of morals (shushin), Japanese national history (kokushi), and geography should be suspended immediately and further, on February 12 of that year issued another notice that textbooks for these subjects should be returned to the Ministry. Simultaneously, the Ministry began the editorial work and planning necessary to secure permission from GHQ to resume teaching of these subjects. Permission was granted in June, 1946 to reintroduce geography into the curriculum followed by that for Japanese national history in October, both on the condition that only textbooks edited by the Ministry of Education and approved by GHQ be used.

The reintroduction of subjects related to morals presented more difficulty. Rather than try to purge the old morals subject of their ultra-nationalistic content, the Ministry of Education decided at the outset to place emphasis instead on a civil education which would prepare the citizenry for their role in a democratic society In November, 1945, the Committee on the Reform of Civil Education was established, and this Committee recommended that moral and civil education should be combined in a new subject called civics (komin). Subsequently, in May, 1946, the Ministry issued a notice concerning this plan and added that while this would not be a special subject for morals the new educational system did not intend to abandon the substance of moral education. With the establishment of the new curriculum in 1947 civics was integrated into a general "social studies" subject which included morals, geography, history, and civil education.

The Ministry responded quickly to the GHQ directive of December 15, 1945, concerning state support of Shinto by issuing on December 22, 1945, the following notice: 1) the proclamation in any form of Shinto dogma in the schools is prohibited; 2) shrine worship and performance of Shinto-related ceremonies or rituals is forbidden at the schools; 3) shrines, altars, toriis, sacred ropes and all other paraphernalia related to Shintoism, including those attached to places to worship the Emperor and places to reverence the spirits of deceased soldiers, are to be removed from the schools.

Several items included in the GHQ directives coincided with measures already taken at the Ministry of Education's initiative. On August 24, 1945, soon after the war's end, instructions, notices, etc. concerning military education for students, physical training related to wartime activities, and civil defense related to the schools had been abolished; bayonet drill and military drill were prohibited on October 3 and the martial arts followed suit on November 6. A notice regarding the graduation and reenrollment of demobilized normal school students were issued on August 28; on September 5, based on the Cabinet decision of August 28, another notice was issued that graduates and students of army and naval schools would be permitted to enter schools administered by the Ministry of Education. Similar provisions were made for repatriated students on November 19 and December 1 in respective notices.

Similarly, the Ministry of Education proceeded with its own plans in the area of social education. At the time of the second postwar organizational reform of the Ministry on October 15, 1945, the Social Education Bureau was recreated. The Ministry attached special importance to civil education as it knew well enough the need to educate the citizenry in the ways of democracy. This task seemed particularly urgent in light of the general election which was to be held in the near future.

The connection between education and political change was especially clear in the case of reforms relating to the status of women. On October 11, 1945, immediately after the formation of the new Cabinet, SCAP made pointed reference to the need for women's suffrage and the attainment of equality between the sexes. This was told to Prime Minister Shidehara Kijuro(1872 -1951) out of Douglas MacArthur's own mouth. A Cabinet decision of that same month paved the way for the extension of universal suffrage to all citizens from twenty years of age, and this change was incorporated in the December, 1945 revision of the election law. The educational counterpart of this move was the Outline for the Renovation of Women's Education (Joshi Kyoiku Sasshin Yoko), agreed upon by the Cabinet on December 4, which stated that there should be equal opportunity in education for both sexes. It called for equality in the content of education given to men and women and for mutual respect between the two sexes. In concrete terms, the content of girls' high school (koto jogakko) education was to be brought up to the same level as that offered to boys in the middle schools; higher educational institutions, including universities, were to be coeducational; and for the time being priority was to be given to the establishment of women's universities.