A Comparative Analysis of High School East Asian History Textbooks in Korea and Taiwan

In this paper, I analyzed the high school East Asian History Textbooks in Korea and Taiwan. The textbooks used for comparison are East Asian History(2019) published by Chunjae Education Inc., History2(2020) published by Nani Book Enterprise co.(Nani ver.) and the Sanmin Book Co.(Sanmin ver.)BR In terms of narrative, East Asian History focused on the history of Korea, China, and Japan, while History2 arranged not only China, Korea, and Japan but also Vietnam and Southeast Asia. In terms of content, both East Asian History and History2 emphasized the common elements of East Asian Cultural Area. East Asian History and History2(Nani ver.) critically accepted Nishijima’s ‘East Asian World Theory’, but History2(Sanmin ver.) did not. In the description of the modern era, East Asian History emphasized on the Japanese imperialist invasion and the anti-Japanese national movement. History2(Nani ver.) emphasized Vietnam’s anti-imperialist national movement and the development of the East Asian socialist regimes. But History2(Sanmin ver.) emphasized the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism rather than the anti-imperialist national movement.