Educational reform in occupied Japan

During the world war II, many Japanese schools saw the help of their students being enlisted to actively help in the war effort, effectively turning them into factories. Bombing also destroyed many schools. After the war, this left a lot for the occupation forces to help rebuild.

The occupation team also addressed the educational system. The Japanese methods were nearly opposite to that of the United States: control of schools was highly centralized, rote memorization of verbatim book knowledge without much interaction described the standard student-teacher relationship and the study texts were boring. Over the next ten years of occupation, these and many other trends were reversed. A less centralized hierarchy of school administrators was introduced; totally unprecedented, parents were allowed to vote. A new textbook industry was created.

However, after the occupation faded out, Japan's educational system reverted to many of its old ways.