From: zahin@eniac.cs.oberlin.edu (Kazi Zahin S. Hasan)
Subject: development, etc.
Organization: Oberlin College Computer Science
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 01:47:42 GMT
X-Posted-From: eniac.cs.oberlin.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <69903@cup.portal.com> hassan@cup.portal.com (hassan monu
alam) writes:

>  What did happen (if you open your history book), Japan's got released
>  from an occupied status when the N. Korean's and Chinese invaded S.
>  Korea, and their industry was aided. Pakistan also went through a
>  similar growth spurt during the Korean war, have the only years
>  of export surplus (based on Jute bags to the war). Pakistan 
>  did not use the money wisely, whereas the Japanese did. 
>
>  After the war, the Koreans came to examine the Pakistani "Economic
>  Miracle", and copied the methods and succeeded wildly at it. The
>  "Economic Miracle" was run out of Harvard's institute for Intl 
>  Development. The institute subsequently shifted its focus to
>  S. Korea.

I don't think that postwar Japan or South Korea were really comparable
to any of today's less-industrialized countries, because:

1)	In the 1870's, in the course of the Meiji reforms, Japan
established an educational system which was as good as any in Western
Europe at the time. (I believe it was specifically modelled after the
French system.)  Before the war, the Japanese had already acheived
almost 100% literacy. This gave them what no LIC has today: a
workforce as well-trained as any in Europe.

2)	Another of the Meiji reforms involved the creation of heavy
industries with government money. Once these became profitable, they
were sold off at bargain basement prices to the noble families who
came to be known as Zaibatsu. Trade unionism was suppressed, and these
industries became very profitable.
	
Hence, Japan became an industrial power in just a few decades. It is
noteworthy that this industrialization was financed by extremely
regressive land taxes - peasants were made to pay an annual tax which
amounted to about 4% of the value of the land they cultivated.

3)	Soon after the Japanese occupied Korea (in the '30's, I
believe) they became enmeshed in an extremely costly war with china.
To equip for this war it became necessary to develop several heavy
industries in Korea, most notably steel. So in the postwar period
Korea, too, found itself relatively much more industrialized than most
of the European colonies.

4)	After the war, both Japan and Korea instituted massive land
reforms. They "purchased" large amounts of land from the rich at terms
that often amounted to outright confiscation, and redistributed them.
They did this because eliminating rural poverty was their no.1
priority; they feared that poverty would breed communism. But the land
reform had enormous effects; it meant that every peasant had
the collarteral to obtain agricultural credit from government
institutions at low interest rates.

In Bangladesh, where there has never been any meaningful land reform,
most of the rural poor still cannot get credit, except at exorbitant
interest rates from the local money-lenders. And unfortunately,
Grameen Bank is not expanding as fast as we might wish.
--
Zahin Hasan
zahin@occs.cs.oberlin.edu
(216) 774 2466
OCMR box 1551
Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio 44074
				

	When a stupid man is doing something he's ashamed of, he always 
declares that it is his duty.

                                  George Bernard Shaw