More than 70 years have passed since the World War II, and Japan is continuously making efforts to ensure that the memory of the war is passed on to subsequent generations. These efforts have assumed great importance in Japanese society. Traditional peace education has inherited war memories directly from war experiencers, but it became difficult. Therefore, we need to develop new learning methods.
With respect to the categorization of generations in terms of war experience, each generation is classified according to the year of birth. I define the generation born before the war as the first generation of World War II. The term "peace education second generation" is targeted at the second generation after World War II. "Peace education fourth generation" is targeted at the fourth generation, whose grandparents were born after the war. He or she was or will be born between 2006 and 2035. Currently it is shifting to "the next generation type of peace education" targeting the fourth generation.
Several steps are necessary to become conscious of the parties to the succession of the war experience. "Formation process model of parties to succession of war experiences" has the following seven steps. (1) creation of its emotional foundation, (2) reduction of psychological distance, (3) sharing of feelings, (4) solidarity of empathy, (5) understanding its significance, (6) becoming parties to succession, (7) becoming leaders of succession.
With the progress of information technology, numerous war testimonial videos have been uploaded on the World Wide Web. If a person can empathize and feel an emotional connection with peopleʼs war experiences, he will become a successor. He will be able to play a role as a leader who can and will, through his own initiative, pass on the knowledge gained from the war experiencer or from the testimonial videos to successive generations.