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Hate to cut interesting tidbits from research, but it's too long! I'm going to share the bits I'm sad to cut below. 
Re: the Taisho period "In Japan, toys had been manufactured primarily for export, and the mass-manufactured toy HAS ALWAYS been just as much (if not more) a collector’s item for adult hobbyists as a consumer good for children."
Re: early modern period "letters from a grandmother to her grandchildren demonstrate a preoccupation with the risk of drowning - she admonishes them multiple times to be careful around water and to be especially mindful of younger siblings near ponds and streams."
Re: colonial-era propaganda - "In the 1930s Japan is depicted as “older brother” to conquered territories (including explicitly in art, where each territory is depicted as a child in traditional dress, the oldest being the Japanese boy in militaristic school uniform)"
Early Showa: "despite paper shortages, children's books and magazines were produced throughout the war, signaling their importance as propaganda tools"
"One boy described the war effort as the 'murder of 14 and 15 year old boys' and said that if the country were a factory, the people would go on strike."
"Part of the transition from childhood into adulthood was learning that there are systems outside even your parents control, that you have to learn to manage these powerful, complex, and often arbitrary systems, and that adults are frequently untrustworthy, and even dangerous."
Prior to the Meiji period, caring for young children was not a gendered activity, and came down to birth order (which siblings were old enough to carry around babies, but young enough not to be busy with more "adult" tasks?).
The Hagakure, a collection of commentaries on samurai life and philosophy, were written during a period of peace, then largely forgotten about until the colonial period, when it was used as a nationalist propaganda tool.
Regarding the appropriate expression of emotion by men of the samurai class: "When you cry, cry fully! Men don't sniffle."
In the Heian era, childhood and masculinity were incompatible concepts - children were in many ways "genderless;" anyone expressing "manliness" through their appearance, social role, or behavior was by definition no longer a child.
Teens haven't changed in 100 years.
Re: Japanese teens during WWII:
"teens were particularly alert to hypocrisy and the seeming arbitrariness of adults in their lives, and had a sense of not being understood by the adults who exercised control over them."
Re: Japanese teens during WWII:
"teens were particularly alert to hypocrisy and the seeming arbitrariness of adults in their lives, and had a sense of not being understood by the adults who exercised control over them."
Curricula were centrally controlled from Meiji on, but teachers had more freedom in the written composition unit. Some, rather than having children write letters or reports, encouraged students to write and share the personal and subjective, in the form of free-verse poetry.
Any framework that centers adult goals/the overarching family’s economic + social interests, renders children non-participants - acted upon and defined by others. Their perspective is lost. Yet children are independent actors with thoughts, feelings, and decisions of their own!
Girls who were able to pursue education past primary school began to wear a different style of clothing, which better suited classrooms w/ western-style desks and chairs: men’s hakama trousers, western shoes, and short hair cuts. 1/3
This caused a moral panic - it was briefly illegal for women to cut their hair or wear mens clothing. Taisho-era schoolgirl image (long-sleeved kimono w/ hakama, western shoes, long hair hanging loosely) came from efforts to reform/ feminize "scandalous" Meiji girl students. 2/3
Neutering a rebellious and countercultural fashion trend by making it palatable to a mass audience; reconciling it with prevailing attitudes toward femininity and women’s roles in society. Reassuring the powers that be that women's education would not upset social order. 3/3
