U.S. Occupation of Japan, 1945-52

Japanese Historical Context

Reunification and Founding of Tokugawa, 1603

Reunification

Meiji Restoration, 1868

Modernization

U.S. Occupation, 1945

First occupation in recorded history

American Historical Context

Attempts to Spread Democracy

In the WW II State Department, what arguments may have been made for and against Japan being a good candidate for democratic government?

Use of Occupation of Japan as a historical analogy prior to US interventions

Iraq invasion, 2003

*Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP)

Occupation administration

*General Douglas MacArthur

Dictatorial

Believer in universality of American values

Japanese Receptivity to SCAP

John Dower’s thesis in Embracing Defeat

Shock of defeat “stimulated reevaluation of all values”

Initiatives often came from below

Traditional cultural characteristics

Hierarchical nature of society

"Proper place"

History of intercultural borrowing

America made a good impression on Japanese

American forces fairly well behaved

American prosperity

Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, pp. 250-51, 259

*“Transwar continuities” play a role

Top: “‘passage through’ of old guard” (citing Dower)

Bottom: Prewar political, social and union activism of 1920s

SCAP Policies

Demilitarization

Army and Navy disbanded

5-6 million demobilized

Mariko's father Saburo in Secrets of Mariko

Munitions factories closed

Purge of Government

220,000 persons purged

Bureaucracy intact

Political prisoners released

Communists, Socialists, etc.

War Crimes Tribunal

Not a good example of justice

“Crimes against peace” (Gordon p. 236)

New theory of international law

Capriciousness in indicting criminals

General Tōjō vs. Emperor Hirohito

Tōjō and 6 others executed

Manipulation of testimony to shield the emperor

Emperor

What was his role under Meiji Constitution?

Why was he retained?

Pacific Century: Part 5, Reinventing Japan (19:45-33:00 minutes)

How was the current Japanese constitution written?

What are its major components?

Why has it remained unamended since 1946?

Constitution, November 3, 1946

Emperor

“Declaration of Humanity,” Jan. 1, 1946

Article 1

“The Emperor shall be the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people, deriving his position from the will of the people, with whom resides sovereign power.”

Article 9

Renunciation of war and right to maintain land, sea and air forces

Cabinet responsible to the Diet

Upper and Lower Houses elected

Peerages abolished

Federal system of government

Provincial governors elected

Independent judiciary

“New Deal" Bill of Rights

Freedoms of press, assembly, academic freedom, equality of sexes, and collective bargaining

Political confusion and conflict, 1946-52

Sharp division between left and right

Left in ascendancy, 1947-48

Socialist government

Factors explaining leftist ascendancy

Disillusionment with the war

Post-war poverty

SCAP's policies

Release of political prisoners

Purge of militarists and conservatives

Pro-labor policies

Conservative resurgence

Land reform

Poor transformed into middle class

*"Reverse course" of Cold War, 1949

CCP won Chinese civil war

Soviet atom bomb test

Red Purge of unions

Public sector, 1949

Private sector, 1950

Rehabilitated of purged conservatives, 1952

Left wing parties splintered, 1951

Communists, left and right wing socialists

Conservative alliance with bureaucracy

Retired bureaucrats enter politics