Occupied Japan

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The Emperor’s Surrender RadioBroadcast• Hardly any of the millions of people who listened
to the surrender announcement had ever heard
their sovereign’s voice.
• For 8 years the people continued to sacrifice inthe name of the emperor for the sake of a victory
over the “British and American Devils.”• In the ambiguous language, the emperor wastelling that the war was over and Japan wasdefeated.
• He ended the announcement by urging his
subjects to “endure the unendurable, bear theunbearable.”2

Demilitarization and Democratization• These are the two agenda for the Supreme Commander
for the Allied Powers (SCAP)• SCAP dissolved the army and the navy.
• More than 10% of Japanese citizens were overseas, anddemobilization and repatriation were completed in 1948.
• The Special Higher Police (“thought police”) wasdisbanded.
• The SCAP purged over 200,000 men from governmentand business world, since they were judged responsible
for leading the war effort.

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International Military Tribunal for
the Far East (Tokyo Trial)• 28 men were charged not only withconventional war crimes but also with thenewly minted crime of engaging inconspiracy to wage war.
• All were found guilty, and Tojo and six
others were executed.

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Tojo Hideki• He was an army generaland the prime ministerwhen Japan declared war
against US.
• (Tokyo Trial Controversy)
Today some Japanese
authors claimed that Tojo
and others should nothave been charged withsuch a new crime asconspiracy to wage war.
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The Postwar Constitution• The new constitution was drafted by acommittee of occupation officials, ratified
in the Diet, promulgated in November
1946, and took effect in May 1947.
• It downgraded the emperor from absolutemonarch to a “symbol of the state and of
the unity of the people.”• It granted to the people an array of“fundamental human rights.”
6Article 9• It committed Japanese people to “forever
renounce war as a sovereign right of thenation, and the threat or use of force asmeans of settling international disputes.”7

Other Reforms• SCAP took away corporate ownership andcontrol held by zaibatsu families, encouragedlabor unions, and expropriated the holdings oflandlords, gave them to former tenants.
• SCAP forced Ministry of Education to replace
military lessons and royalty to state withteachings of peace and democracy.
• SCAP sought to implement an American-style oflocal school boards and local control.
8General Douglas MacArthur••

The picture taken in
MacArthur’s headquarter, notin the palace, is one of themost political photographs inJapanese or world history,
conveying the subordinate
position of the Japanese stateand people.
He became a decisive
supporter of the emperor, andprotected him againstinternational pressure to let
him stand trial for war crimes.

9Zaibatsu Dissolution• The Americans convinced that zaibatsu
bore major responsibility for war
expansionism.
• But at the same time, they saw
collaboration between state bureaucrats
and big business as the best strategy foreconomic recovery.
• Therefore the zaibatsu dissolution process
was very slow.
10Diet Politics• The major prewar political parties regrouped
under new names: Liberal Party and DemocraticParty.
• The former socialists, supporting the war timegovernment with great enthusiasm, formed theJapan Socialist Party.
• The communists had a consistent record
opposing the imperialism and expansionism,and gained much moral support when theyfunctioned legally for the first time after the war.
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Yoshida Shigeru• The first post-war
election in 1946 gave
the LP thegovernment, led bythe Yoshida Shigeru.
• He was a former
diplomat and kept
some distance fromthe military during thewar, which gave him
postwar legitimacy.
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The Reverse Course• Winston Churchill gave his famous speech
about the Iron Curtain in 1946.
• US State Secretary George Marshal
announced his famous economic plan topromote European Recovery in 1947.
• The Nationalists in China were losing
ground to the Communists by 1947.
• In Japan the Socialist Party was gainingground.
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Too Much Reform• Some Japan experts in US were shifting the emphasis
from democratization to economic recovery.
• They argued that too much reform would move Japan toa dangerous socially based democracy of the masses.
• They advocated handing power back to the “responsibleelements” of the prewar elite.
• SCAP encouraged the government to revise labor laws
to outlaw strikes by public employees and weaken
protective labor standards.
• Japanese government launched the so-called Red Purgewith SCAP encouragement.

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Inflation and Recovery• From 1945 to 1949, inflation was out of control, due todestruction of production capacity and strong
reconstruction demand.
• In 1949 US sent a special financial adviser Joseph
Dodge. His proposal, the Dodge line, adopted by SCAP,
imposed a harsh medicine in three doses:– A balanced budget– Suspension of state loans to industry– Abolition of state subsidies• It indeed halted inflation.
• The Korean War (1950) brought great fortune to Japan,
through a surge of American military demand toJapanese industries.
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San Francisco Peace Treaty• Some of America’s wartime allies were reluctant
to sign a treaty to finish occupation.
• They wanted a harsh peace with reparations.
• But US State Secretary Dulles negotiatedvigorously to hasten a settlement.
• In 1951, 48 nations signed a treaty to formallyannounce the end of the state of war with Japan.
• US troops remained in Okinawa, which madethe Soviet Union angry and walk out of theconference.
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US-Japan Security Treaty• It granted US the right to keep bases andtroops in Japan.
• In reality, the function of American troops
was to contain Japan as much as toprotect it.
• The security treaty faced much oppositionin Japan.
• Conservatives scorned Yoshida for
accepting a “subordinate independence.”
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