Hi,
I was wondering – I always loved textbooks growing up as a kid because they were just so immersive, even if the text itself was complicated. I was looking to get folks' opinions on whether it is a good idea to use a middle school history textbook for reading, interest, and practice as a rising N1 learner.
I've gotten a copy of a textbook (images below). The book is so beautiful, the illustrations are detailed and superb, really nothing comes close to the quality of the diagramming, mapping, and organization that this textbook has achieved. Tons of reflection essays, charts, graphs, primary sources, evocative historical artwork, I am lucky to find a book with pictures with my Kindle unlimited subscription.
However, it seems to be one of the books that are related to the textbook controversies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies
Because of this and the fact that I don't want to be led astray, I am a little weary of reading the book. I do see some passages in the World War 2 section on how Indonesians saw the Japanese army as liberators against the West.
I'm not trying to say that I shouldn't be open to others' opinions or that everyone has their own perspective. Maybe this is not a big deal and I should not care about the potential political bias, since I do have an interest in Japanese language and the history of the language. But I'm also still learning the language and don't want to constantly thinking, is what I'm learning true or blatantly false? It would be very distracting.
What would your opinion be on using the resource?
Original book: https://amzn.asia/d/awlskB3
by BlueLensFlares