Japan 1945 to 1990

1. Surrender of Japan
2. US Occupation
   • What did SCAP do?
3. The Economic Miracles
   • 1950s/60s
   • 1970s/80s
4. Social and Cultural Impact
5. Political Impact
6. Historiography
   • Tetsuji Okazaki 
   • Edward C. Prescott and Fumio Hayashi

Surrender of Japan

“To Bear the Unbearable”: Japan’s Surrender, Part II

• The Big Six (the Japanese Supreme War Council) was divided in the decision to end the war and accept the Potsdam Declaration or continue with it, possibly to be able to negotiate on better terms.

• Potsdam Declaration – unconditional surrender of Japanese forces. It also promised that Japan would not “be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation.” The declaration ended by warning of “prompt and utter destruction” if Japan failed to unconditionally surrender.

• Three of the Big Six wanted the following instead:

1. Japan would disarm her own forces; 
2. Japan would conduct any “so-called” war crimes trials of her own nationals
3. there would be no occupation of Japan.

• Emperor Hirohito decided to accept the first term (accept Potsdam) because of the following reasons:
  • He had lost faith in the military government
  • Nuclear bombing, he was very concerned that the US would continue with their nuclear bombing campaign.
  • Domestic situation, see below…

• As the title of the article states, Japan would now ‘Bear the Unbearable‘.

US Occupation

• In 1945, the US ordered Japan to disarm and soldiers disperse back to their homes. US forces were now occupying the country, the first time in Japan’s history. As a result of this and the wartime propaganda against the foreigners, people tended to stay indoors. However, there was also relief that the war was over, although also a sense of disillusion – what would happen next?
• The defeat in the war can be seen as the start of something rather than the end of a story. “It also opened the way for radical changes in social and political institutions imposed by the victors.” (Beasley, p. 214)
• The purpose of the US occupation (there was a small British and Australian presence too) was to prevent Japan from future aggression and to readmit it to peaceful global trade and diplomacy in the future. To do this, Japan had to:
  • Abolish militarism and ultra-nationalism.
  • Disarm the country.
  • Strengthen democracy.
  • Support liberal values.
  • Strengthen the economic institutions.

1. What happened to Japan after she surrendered in August 1945? 3.30
2. How was Japan destroyed during the Second World War? What were the consequences? 3.58 – 5.50
3. How many Japanese soldiers returned to the country after the war ended? 6.08 – 6.24 Discussion – what would you do with them?
4. Who was Douglas MacArthur? 6.39
5. What were the challenges he faced? 7.08 – 7.50

What did SCAP do?

• General MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) in Japan and took his orders from the US government. He had a staff almost as big as that of Japan to help him carry out any instructions. However, fee had experience or knowledge of the country they were ‘ruling’. As a consequence, they tended to implement ideas and policies that knew, i.e. those from the US.
• The first objective for SCAP was to disarm the Japanese war machine, this involved demobilising two million men and repatriating three million people from abroad – ending the empire as a result. War criminals were put on trial, (up to 5600) and this included the former prime minister, General Tojo. He was sentenced to death by hanging with a further 700 receiving the same sentence.
• Secondly, the ‘old order’ was purged, these were the officials and civil servants who had worked under the previous government and some of those who had helped contribute to the war effort. Over 200 000 people were affected in this purge. However, those who had opposed the government and its militarism (socialists, liberals and communists), and were jailed as a result, were released.
• Thirdly, the zaibatsu, the huge financial institutions, were dissolved. They had profited from the war as well as limiting free trade.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/zaibatsu

• Fourthly, decisions had to be made on the role of the emperor. The argument was put forward that he only made a decision if there was a deadlock in the cabinet, such as the surrender in 1945; this absolved him from much of the responsibility of the war. The US could easily argue that this was an exaggeration, designed to keep him in his post. But to make the emperor responsible for the war, and possibly charge him as a war criminal, could make him a martyr and destabilise the US occupation. Consequently, they opted to work with him.

The first governments

• There were several governments during the first few years of the US occupation. New political parties were encouraged, there were 300 by 1946!
• Liberals, conservatives, socialists and communists all vied for power. By 1949, “Japanese politics began to take on its characteristic postwar pattern, that is, a conservative majority, facing a fragmented left-wing opposition.” (Beasley, p. 218)

1951 Treaty of San Francisco

The Economic Miracles

Source: The Japanese Economic Miracle

• Japan was catching up to, for example, Britain and the US, before the Second World War. The table below shows the percentage of the Japanese economy compare to the US and Britain. For example, in 1870 Japan’s GDP per capita was on 30% of the US economy but grew to 85% by 1991.

	USA	Britain
1870	30%	23%
1941	41%	42%
1973	69%	95%
1991	85%	120%

Source: https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a04003/

1950s/60s

1970s/80s

• The two ‘oil shocks’.
• Relationship with the US and Europe. There were problems because of the amount of help the government gave to Japanese industry. The US and Europe felt that this was not ‘free trade’.

Social and Cultural Impact

This is the Shinto ‘Torii Gate’ from outside a temple in Nagasaki, 1945. What does it show about Japan’s culture?

There are many other photographs from the war too, use the US Atomic Archives to see some from Nagasaki.

Bittersweet memories for Japanese war orphans after ‘last Chinese foster mother’ dies

Political Impact

• According to John Dower, Emperor Hirohito shared some of the blame for the Second World War in Asia. However, the US decided, even before ended, to keep him in power. He was seen as too important.

Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur meeting for the first time, 1945

• How do you think the conservatives in Japan will view this photograph of the two rulers of the country?
  • Think about how Japanese people should act when meeting the emperor?
  • Is the different dress relevant?
  • Who looks the more powerful?

• John Dower explains how the Japanese people saw the influx of US servicemen in 1945 (400 000) and realised how strong and healthy they were in comparison to themselves. Importantly, despite the sheer terror of these soldiers (the Japanese government had used intense propaganda to label them as racist murderers who would rape women and kill children) there were very few crimes committed by them.

• One of the reforms the US made was to allow women to vote.

Historiography

The Economic Miracle

a. Use of foreign technology. As Japan was so far behind the leading industrial powers after the Second World War, any new technology (this includes economic and social systems) would lead to this gap being narrowed significantly.

b. The reallocation of labour. The Labour Mobilisation Plan (1938) allowed the government to allocate workers to specific war industries. This included placing graduates in specialised jobs and allowing rural workers to travel to the city en masse. The importance of this was that it laid the foundation for the post-war economy of Japan.

c. Reallocation of capital. Okazaki argues that the government opted more for indirect rather than direct capital. This meant that the government takes less money from the people to finance its spending and allows them to invest more of their own resources. There is also less government spending, allowing the private sector (which is arguably more efficient and more prone to risk-taking) to grow the economy. Crowding out is another way of describing this situation.