0;winner takes all” mentality that occurred during the Tokyo trial was the obvious double standard of justice that the Allies exuded. Nothing ever became of the hundreds of thousand Japanese soldiers who remained under Soviet control, as well as the questionable use of force the Americans displayed during the last months of the war. Were the Tokyo fire bombings, as well as the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not “crimes against humanity?” If “namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed before or during war” is the definition, as stated by Article 5 of the Tokyo charter, than surely the U.S. involvement in the deaths of half a million civilians would fit under this bill. War, though, is never fair, and “to the victors go the spoils” was never so true with regards to the Tokyo war crime trial. In the end, the American occupation provided much insight into how Japan would be run in the future. Having learned from their counterpart the importance of science and technology, it was obvious where Japan had to go to be competitive in the future. While one of the initial goals of SCAP was to dissolve many of the large zaibatsu conglomerates that dominated the Japanese economy prior to and during war, most were left standing. This allowed for a more rapid reconstruction process after occupation had ended. One ironic twist to all this is that Japan embraced the ideas of management as espoused by an American, Edward Deming, or order to help rebuild the economy. Consequently, the occupation, officially terminated in April of 1952, served to firmly plant a substantial capital of good will that was previously unknown, on which both the United States and Japan would draw from in the years to come.John Dower’s “Embracing Defeat” truly conveys the Japanese experience of American occupation from within by focusing on ...
