Visions of the past and the way that history is defined and taught says a lot about what a country values in its view of itself and the politics it seeks to preserve. In this first groundbreaking study of the politics of history education in East Asian societies, Vickers and Jones examine history curriculum development across the entire region, showing wide-ranging examples of the intersection between history, politics and education. They pay particular attention to changing official visions of the past in the context of political transformations, such as those associated with the rise of communism, decolonization and the Cold War divisions of China and Korea, which have regional dimensions and implications. In separate chapters devoted to mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Singapore, the authors focus on the particular content of the official syllabi and on the influences shaping government policy related to history education.