[yobi0h]

> Japan's WWII history is uniquely bad but they don't learn about it.

I see this claim form time to time, but the unsavory side of WW2 is thought in classes, although not without controversy [1]:

Despite the efforts of the nationalist textbook reformers, by the late 1990s the most common Japanese schoolbooks contained references to, for instance, the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, and the comfort women of World War II, all historical issues which have faced challenges from ultranationalists in the past. The most recent of the controversial textbooks, the New History Textbook, published in 2000, which significantly downplays Japanese aggression, was shunned by nearly all of Japan's school districts.

On the other hand, after the occupation, GHQ had imposed a press code [2], i.e. censorship of mass media, that undoubtedly had an impact on postwar Japan, so you could say that the point still stands.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_cont...

[2] https://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?p=139387

[MostlyBad]

Having lived in Japan for 2 year and working in what one would hope being a very educated environment (Todai and Rikadai PhD candidates), I can personally account that the number of Japanese who actually know about that bit of their history is few. Culturally, they don't speak about this topic - and there if something is not spoken about then it does not exist. I would not be surprised if some teachers could simply not cover that bit of the programme without any consequences; Japan is specifically good at not following its own laws, when such laws have been written mostly to appease international observers - same with women equality and discrimination of minorities laws.