This article examined the folktale “The Three Years Hill” which has been handed down to us from a distant past in Korea and appeared in Korean textbook and Japanese one until today. The first time to appear in textbook is 1934 in Korea under Japanese occupation. But Japanese and Korean education researchers do not recognize its historical background. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct its historical background and to compare its educational effects on between Japanese and Korean textbooks. The results of my investigation are as follows: 1) Historical background as an educational material: in Korea (1945̃1965), the same version of it was selected from the textbook in occupied Korea. After 1987, its text in Korean textbook was revised five times, and each version has different formats and learning goals. In Japan, a single version of it has been selected and stays in the textbook until now with shifting its learning goals and contents. 2) Features of textbooks and curriculum in Korea: the various materials are arranged for aid to develop children’s language abilities. 3) Historical background as a folktale: the reason why it continues to appear in textbooks across time and space as seen above is not only its attractive contents but also its historical background, that is, the effect of the colonial policy on Korea from Governor-General of Korea.