Educators from China, Japan, and Korea unite for peace education
Promoting peace education and sharing positive teaching and learning examples to build a brighter future for East Asia. That was the key aim of the 12th Peace Education Assembly gathering education unions from China, Japan, and Korea.
Hosted every two years, the initiative began in 2006 as the Japan Teachers’ Union (JTU) response to the rise of historical revisionism in Japan. Over the years, it has fostered strong cross-border solidarity among educators committed to teaching the truth and cultivating a culture of peace.
The 12th Assembly, jointly organized by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU), the National Committee of the Educational, Scientific, Cultural, Health and Sports Workers’ Union of China, and the JTU, was held in Tokyo on August 6th-7th, 2025.
Korean peace initiatives
During the Assembly, KTU representatives reported on their union’s efforts to reinstate the Jeju April 3 Incident in textbooks, as it was removed from them in 2022. This insurrection on the Jeju Island, South Korea, from April 1948 to May 1949, and its repression were notable for extreme violence; between 14,000 and 30,000 people (10 percent of Jeju's population) were killed, and 40,000 fled to Japan.
KTU representatives went on sharing experiences from the classrooms during the 2024 state of emergency. They emphasized Hangul – the Korean alphabet and modern writing system for the Korean language – as a symbol of Korean identity and reflected on children’s perspectives regarding division, colonial rule, and discrimination.
A teaching case featuring Kkot Songi, an anthology written by Korean students in Japan, was also presented as a peace-oriented resource focusing on identity, reunification, and peace in Northeast Asia.
Japanese students learn about historical injustices
A JTU representative introduced a lesson given at a junior high school in Tateyama City, Chiba Prefecture, addressing the massacre of Koreans, often simply categorized as “others” in textbooks. By connecting local history with broader issues of solidarity, the lesson deepened students’ understanding of historical injustices, as well as the importance of carrying those lessons into the future.
China: everyone is a victim of war
The Chinese representative outlined how peace education is systematically integrated into junior high school curricula, covering Japan’s invasion of China and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The approach, he explained, is to teach that “everyone is a victim of war.” He emphasized that “the deep scars of history must serve as lessons, underscoring why war should never be repeated.”
Unions like JTU were formed with a firm commitment to “never again send our children to the battlefield.” Today, as life-threatening conflicts continue around the world, educators across East Asia remain dedicated to promoting peace education and teaching that war is the greatest violation of human rights.
