I'm not surprised that the Japanese school system avoids the topic of war, most notably, World War Two.
It did mention in the article that people are loosing sight of why it's best not to go to war. I'm afraid that even learning about it in school might not be enough. Though from what I understand, counties tend not to teach about wars that they lost. In my school we spent a week going over WWII, same with WWI and the revolution. For Vietnam, we read a paragraph in our text books and never covered the topic again. When I asked why, the excuse I was given was that "we were never technically at war."
Honestly the only thing that can really convey what war is like is to actually be there fighting in it. Nothing else can put you in a position where you experience what it's like to take the life of someone else or watch your best friend get blown up right next to you. The next closest thing is movies, and while these aren't on the same level, there have been some made that were stunningly well portrayed. Unfortunately, Japan has some very heavy censorship laws and I'm not sure that something that realistic would ever be shown in Japan.
