The History Textbook Project
The worldwide importance of this `problem is not sufficiently appreciated. The Library of
Congress discarded its collection of Nazi textbooks to save space. Commissions to study this
problem have collapsed precisely because of national rivalries.A professional problem is that
the project requires an excellent knowledge of history and of many languages. It requires a
team effort in an academic atmosphere, free from government pressures. It also requires the
expertise of education specialists and child psychologists. As the UNESCO Charter says:
"Since war begins in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that we must begin to erect
the ramparts of peace." Unfortunately, UNESCO headquarters in Paris seem to have done
little or nothing along the lines suggested, presumably because of pressures from the various
governments or possibly just plain incompetence. Many of the employees there are
government nominees or trained in another field, such as science or art. The Secretary
general of UNESCO, Koishiro Matsuura is Japanese. I wonder what he thinks about all this?
Here is a rare opportunity for Stanford to undertake this important project. The Hoover
Institution is in a state of flux. As its book collection is transferred to Green Library, much
Hoover shelf space will be made free. It is the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and
Peace, and its original purpose, as defined by Herbert Hoover, was the documentary search
for peace. The history textbook project dovetails perfectly with this purpose. I collaborated
with Professor of Education Paul Hanna, who was very much interested in this subject and left
Hoover a legacy. The collaboration of many departments would be required, and this would
be healthy for Stanford, a very departmentalized institution in which cooperative ventures
must be encouraged by the administration. I am sure that as usual there will be nay sayers,
but we shall simply have to wear them down. That is my special skill.
The world hovers on the brink of war. Let there be peace.
Ronald Hilton - 7/12/01
The lead editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle (7/11/01), entitled "When History
Haunts" opens thus. "Like many nations, Japan chooses what it wants to remember about its
past. Now, a newly revised history textbook has ignited a firestorm of protest from other
Asian countries because it glosses over the military occupations and atrocities that occurred
before and during World War II". This pattern exists all around the world, filling young
minds with distorted versions of history. Naturally, each nation assumes that its version is
the correct one.
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