Pestalozzi's educational thought, which emphasized ‘learning by doing', was introduced in Japan from the UnitedStates in the late 1870s, during the Meiji period. His concept was initially very popular in geography education, butits popularity declined in the late 1890s.After 1941, Pestalozzi's educational thought was revived by Japan's Ministry of Education (MOE) and theChosenGovernor Seat (CGS) of colonized Korea. Between 1941and 1945, students at national schools in Japanand Korea had to study “The Observation of Local Community" and “The Observation of Environment" respective-ly at the fourth grade before they could pursue the study of country and world geography in the fifth and sixthgrades. This was because the teaching of the local community by the MOE and the CGS served to instil in the stu-dents love for their community, and nationalistic and patriotic values that were the foundation for the mission of the“Consciousness of the Empire" in East Asia and the world.However, in the national school geography education of the MOE and the CGS, the concept of local communitygeography education differed because the CGS took the original situation of colonized Korea into consideration.