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Special attention was paid to the areas of military, economy, and government. The effects of the United States’ occupation of Japan were profound almost beyond reckoning, and have had enormous impacts on modern Japanese society as well as on almost every other society in the modern world and throughout the course of history. The original occupation plan, conceived by President Roosevelt, was to split Japan into four quadrants. The United States, Great Britain, the USSR, and China would have each controlled a section. Upon his death, however, President Roosevelt’s plan also died. In its stead was placed a new plan, which called for a one hundred percent American operation. America had insufficient manpower to make a military government of Japan possible; so, it was decided that they would act through the existing Japanese government. America’s top priority following the initial occupation in 1945 was the complete demilitarization of the Japanese imperial forces. This was actually the quickest phase of the occupation. Beginning immediately after the occupation, complete demilitarization was reported as being complete by October 15, 1945. In his report dated the same day, General MacArthur said the following: “Today the Japanese armed forces throughout Japan completed their demobilization and ceased to exist as such. These forces are now completely abolished. I know of no demobilization in history, either in war or peace, by our own or any other country, that has been accomplished so rapidly or so frictionlessly. Everything military, naval or air is forbidden to Japan” (Headquarters 1) The United States disarmed Japan to guarantee its war objective: That Japan never again become a threat to the United States. As one considers how this affected the state of affairs in postwar Asia, however, it could be viewed as a significant mistake. Due to the American fear of the spread of communism, Japan was allowed a limited standing force, beginning in 1953, for defending their homeland. In a speech in Tokyo on November 19, 1953, Vice-President Richard Nixon said: “Rearmament of Japan. Now if disarmament was right in 1946, why is it wrong in 1953? And if it was right in 1946 and wrong in 1953, why doesn’t the United States admit for once that it made a mistake? And I’m going to say something that I think perhaps ought to be done more by people in public life. I’m going to admit right here that the United States did make a mistake in 1946. We made a mistake because we misjudged the intention of the Soviet leaders.” (Walt 168) Although the United States did well in eliminating any future threats from Japan, it was realized later on that Japan was left in the midst of a violent wave of communism with no means of defense but for the United States which did not wish for a direct war on the Soviets, who backed all communist countries. After disarmament was complete, MacArthur’s next task was to see that Japan adopted a new, and democratic, constitution. When the Japanese government proved too confused or too reluctant to write a constitutional reform that satisfied MacArthur, he had his own staff draft a new constitution in February of 1946. This, with only minor changes made to please the conservative groups in Japan, was then adopted by the Japanese government in the form of an imperial amendment to the 1889 constitution. Japan’s new democracy went into effect on May 3, 1947. The new constitution was a perfection of the British parliamentary form of government that the Japanese had been moving toward in the 1920’s. Supreme political power was assigned to the Diet. Cabinets were made responsible to the Diet by having the Prime Minister elected by the Lower House. An elected house of counselors replaced the House of Peers. The judicial system was made as independent of executive interference as possible, and a newly created Supreme Court was given the power to review the constitutionality of laws. Local governments were given greatly increased powers, and compulsory education was increased to nine years from six. The new Japanese constitution also emphasized civil liberties. Women were given full equality with men. Articles thirteen and nineteen in the constitution, prohibit discrimination in political, economic, and social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status, or family origin. This is one of the most explicitly progressive statements on human rights anywhere in law. This statement of equal rights came to the Japanese long before there was a concerted effort to obtain one in America. The Japanese people were vigorous in their support of the new constitution. Perhaps the most popular catch phrase in postwar Japan was Heiwa Kokka Kensetu, which translates to, “Construct a nation of peace.” This phrase was so popular that Schoolchildren, and even the twelve-year-old crown prince, Akihito practiced it as a matter of course in their calligraphy lessons. Among the first changes to be noted in the new Japanese constitution was the reduction of the power of the Emperor. The United States did not force Japan to abandon the imperial system, although the Emperor was reduced to being a symbol of unity of the nation. The most significant power taken from the Emperor was his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese armed forces. Although much of the Emperors power was taken away, Hirohito’s popularity flourished. In a 1948 newspaper poll, Emperor Hirohito was voted the most popular man in Japan. Economic stability came through a concerted American effort to break up Japanese trusts and reform labor and land management. Japan’s agriculture was the quickest of the national activities to recover from the war due to the land reforms. The new plan came from the Australians. Under the new plan, there were to be no absentee landlords. A person who worked the land could own up to seven and a half acres, while anyone living in a nearby village could keep two and a half acres. Larger plots of land, exceeding these limits, were bought by the government and sold on easy terms to former tenants. Within two years, two million tenants had become landowners. The American labor policy in Japan was created with two goals in mind: to encourage the growth of democratic unions, and to discourage communism. The intent of General MacArthur was to use the labor unions to balance the power of the business leaders. To the surprise of the American authorities, however, this movement took a radical turn. On February 1, 1947, the Japanese labor unions called for a general strike. The union leaders heeded a warning from MacArthur, however, which served to curb the appeal of radical labor actions. Thereafter, the labor unions were able to play a more traditional and useful role in stabilizing labor. Constant pressure on employers brought swelling wages, which caused a steady expansion of Japan’s domestic consumer market. The Americans then wanted to disband the Zaibatsu trust, the largest trust in Japan. The purpose of this was to reduce Japan’s war-making potential and to encourage economic growth. To accomplish this, MacArthur pressured the Diet into passing the Deconcentration Law in December of 1947. From the breakup of this trust, companies such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Yasuda were formed and sold on the open stock market. This law later served to encourage consumer technological growth, which is vital to Japan’s economy today. Presently, Japan is the world’s biggest exporter of consumer electronics. The treaty of peace with Japan was signed at San Francisco in September 1951 by Japan, the United States, and forty-seven other nations. The Soviet Union refused to sign it. The treaty went into effect in April 1952, officially terminating the United States occupation and restoring full independence, plus government and economic stability, to Japan. What is extraordinary in the occupation and its aftermath was the insignificance of the unpleasant compared to the huge social, economic, and political gains for Japan. The nobility of the American ideals and their non-violent presence assuaged much of the bitterness of the Japanese defeat, which gave the Americans room to promote peace and democracy. Consequently, the occupation served to firmly plant a substantial capital of good will, on which both America and Japan would both draw in years to come. Bibliography: Works Cited Dower, John. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999 Schaller, Michael. The American Occupation of Japan. Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1985 General Headquarters. Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers and U.S. Army Forces. Pacific. Summary of the Month of October 1945. War Department Record Branch, A.G.O., The Adjutant general’s Office, 15 October 1945. Sheldon, Walt. The Honorable Conquerors. New York: The Macmillan Company., 1965 Word Count: 1408
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