A Way of Seeing History Without Being Caught Up in Fact and Fiction (Part 1)
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★Historical fact and fiction
Today, let us share our view on history, which everyone who has been through their school years has studied.
First, one thing we can say clearly: “The history in the textbooks you’ve seen is not historical fact itself; much of it is fiction.”
Why can we say that? First, as for modern times, in every country, textbooks tend to reflect the thinking of the government of the day.
Second, even for recorded history before modern times, only the interpretations convenient for those in power at the time have been passed down to the present.
And finally, as for history that wasn’t recorded, people estimate the age from surviving physical evidence, guess “how long ago is this from?”, work out a rough date, and then write it up as if it were fact.
No one on the Earth knows the whole picture of real history.
Historians themselves are well aware of that.
They’re aware of it, but since there’s still no way to prove historical fact, they have no choice but to publish their findings mixed with guesswork.
To give one example, even the way of life in Japan’s Jōmon period: archaeologists estimate it from ruins, imagine, “They probably lived like this,” and those imagined dwellings are simply built in three dimensions, right?
You could say that’s less a restoration than a reconstruction based on guesswork.
So even though the actual way of life hasn’t been preserved in photos or video, seeing or hearing the imaginings of a few experts and thinking, “Ah, so the people of the Jōmon period lived in houses like these,” is really just taking someone else’s imagination at face value.
From our point of view, much of what is considered historical fact up to today includes the guesses of past experts, so it’s enough to understand that, take it with a grain of salt, and grasp only the big flow.
Things like “how exactly Oda Nobunaga came to be killed,” “whether it’s true that Jesus Christ didn’t die by crucifixion but reached Japan and ended his life there,” or “where Takamagahara, the High Plain of Heaven, actually was” are really not that important. (To be continued)
