The History of~Japan (Part 9: Post-War Japan)

Japan; the mystical land of "The Rising Sun". Behind the facade of the Megalopolis that is Tokyo, lies a land stained in blood of some of the world's mightiest warriors; the Samurai. A land that has a history of military rulers that at times ruled with an iron hand.

This is the last part of this 9-part wiki page series. In this part, we'll cover how Japan recovers from the devastation of World War 2, its post-war boom and bust, and its disasters it faced.

## Post-War Japan

In the years following the Allied victory in World War 2, Japan was left humiliated as it is now under US Military occupation. Japan under US Military occupation was also under heavy restrictions such as no strong patriotism, no raising the Japanese flag, and no weapons. Shigeru Yoshida would serve as the nation's first Prime Minister, and under him Japan would form a mutual relationship with the USA and it focused on improving on japan's already crippled economy rather than foreign policy.

Now, contrary to popular belief, the United States did \*not\* order Japan to dismantle its military, in fact the US wanted to rebuild Japan's military from the ground up s it can have another strong ally in the Cold War and can help fight against the communists such as the USSR and (eventually) China. Eventually, Japan would form what is known as the "Japan Self-Defense Force" in 1954.

Yoshida did a pretty good job in rebuilding Japan's economy, and by the time of the Korean War, Japan saw a huge boom in its economy as it played a sizable role in the Democratic coalition (The USA and the newly created UN) against the Communists, after the war Japan became an official member of the United Nations.

Even after the Korean War, Japan's economy continued to go up with its products being made at a substantial rate. In fact by 1968, it's economy was only behind the United States in being one of the world's largest economies. Another first for Japan is that in 1964 it has held the Olympic events in Tokyo.

But, Japan's new found peace and relations with the rest of the world wasn't without its critics. In 1960, the Anpo Protests rose up in protest against the USA keeping their military bases in Japan, it would happen again a decade later in 1970. It was also around that time when disgruntled author and playwright "Yukio Mishima" and his group called the "Tatenokai" (Shield Society) who wanted to bring Japan back to its glory days of World War 2 and to bring back the old code of the Samurai, unfortunately for Mishima, his plot at a coup fails, and committed Seppuku.

The 1980s was.......what can be best described as the decade for Japan as electronic companies were sprouting up like weeds, devices like the VCR, video game consoles such as Nintendo's "Famicom" (short for Family Computer) were introduced in the 1980s, and became a hit around the world. Japan's economic balloon was continuing to swell. Its art such as "Anime" and "Manga" also claimed international fame as well

### Busted Balloon

But, all good things must come to an end, after the death of Hirohito in 1989, and his son Akihito became Emperor (although they're not responsible for this) Japan's economic balloon, popped, making the decade of the 1990s the "Lost Decade" for Japan, birth rates declined as well as jobs.

To make matters worse, on March 20, 1995. A radical Japanese cult went into the Tokyo Subway system and used toxic sarin gas on the morning commuters, killing 14 People and injuring 6,000 others.

Japan's economy continued to fail by the beginning of the 21st Century, by the late 2000s, Japan's economy fell to the rising economy of........it's old rival, China.

### Disasters

On March 11, 2011. Japan has witnessed one of its first huge natural disasters as the converging faults off the coast of eastern Honshu slammed into each other, causing a 9.1 Earthquake which laid waste to coastal towns such as Sendai and did substantial damage in Tokyo. But perhaps the biggest disaster to come out of the Earthquake was the giant Tsunami which destroyed some coastal towns already devastated by the Earthquake, the combination of the Earthquake and Tsunami severely damaged a nuclear power plant not far from Tokyo; the Fusushima-Daichi power plant as both the Earthquake and the Tsunami damaged the cooling system which kept the hot power rods cool, it also caused the plant to leak deadly radiation into the Pacific Ocean, it was considered one of the worst nuclear disasters since the Atomic Raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

### A New Emperor

In 2019, Akihito (one of Japan's modern emperors) had did what no modern Japanese emperor did, voluntarily abdicated, and giving the reigns (somewhat) to his son; Naruhito.

That'll do it for this 9-part wiki page series. Don't forget to check out my Games and Movies wikis too. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.