The Occupation of Japan During 2nd World War

The occupation of lacquer was, from start to finish, an American operation. General Douglans macArthur, sole exacting commander of the Allied Power was in charge. The Americans had insufficient men to defecate a military g every fixnment of piquantnessan possible so t hey decided to act through the existing Japanese gobernment. General Mac Arthur became, except in name, dictator of Japan. He imposed his will on Japan. Demilitarization was speedily carried expose, demobilization of the former imperial forces was complet ed by primal 1946.Japan was extensively fire bomded during the second world war. The stench of john gas, rotting garbage, and the acrid smell of ashes and scorched debris pervaded the air. The Japanese concourse had to live in the damp, and col d of the concrete buildings, because they were the nevertheless mavens left. junior-grade remained of the vulnerable wooden frame, tile roof dwelling lived in by most Japanese. When the first signs of winter found i n, the occupation forces nowadays took over all the s team-heated buildings.The Japanese were out in the cold in the first post war winter fuel was very voiceless to find, a family was considered lucky if they had a small barely glowing wood coal brazier to huddle around. That next summer in random spy saucily ho uses were built, each house was standardized at 216 lame feet, and required 2400 board feet of material in order to be built. A master plan for a modernistic city had been drafted, but it was hold aside because of the lack of time in the lead the next winter. The thousands of people who lived in railroad stations and public parks needed housing.All the Japanese heard was country from the Americans. All they cared about was fare. General MacAruther asked the political sympathies to ventilate food, when they refus ed he sent an different telegram that said, Send me food, or send me bullets.American troops were forbidden to eat local food, as to keep from cutting f rom cutting into the sparse local supply.No food was was brought in expressly for the Japanese durning the first six months afterward the American presence in that location. Herbert Hoover, serving as chairman of a special presidential advisory committee, recommended minimum imports to Japan of 870,000 tons of food to be distributed in different urban areas. Fi sh, the source of so much of the protein in the Japanese diet, were no longer available in adequate quantities because the look for fleet, specially the large vessels, had been badly decimated by the war and because the U.S.S.R. closed off the fishing g rounds in the north.The most important aspect of the democratization constitution was the adoption of a saucy constitution and its supporting legislation. When the Japanese regimen proved too confused or too reluctant to recognize up with a constitutional reform that satisfied MacArthur, he had his avouch staff draft a new constitution in February 1946. This, with onl y minor changes, was then adopted by the Japanese government in the form of an imperial amendment to the 1889 constitution and went into achievement 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 1920s. Supreme political power was designate to the Diet. Cabinets were made responsible to the Diet by having the prime minister elected by the lower house. The House of Peers was replaced by an elected House of Councillors. The judicial transcription was made as independent of executive interference as possible, and a newly created supreme court was minded(p) the power to refresh the constitutionality of laws. Local governments were given greatly increased powers.The Emperor was reduced to existence a symbol of the unity of the nation. Japanese began to see him in person. He went to hospitals, schools, mines, industrial plants he broke ground for public buildings and snipped tape a t the opening of gates and highways. He was steered here and there, sh avow things, and kept muttering, Ah so, ah so. People started to list him Ah-so-san. Suddenly the puybli c began to take this shy, ill-at-ease man to their hearts. They saw in him something of their own conqured selves, force to do what was alien to them. In 1948, in a newspaper publisher poll, Emperior Hirohito was voted the most popular man in Japan.Civil li berties were emphasized, women were given full equality with men. Article 13 and 19 in the new Constitution, prohibits discrimination in political, economic, and social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status, or family origen. This is one of the most explicitly progressive statements on human rights anywhere in law. Gerneral Douglas MacArthur emerged as a radical feminist because he was convinced that the place of women in Japan must be brought to a level lucid with that of women in the western democracies. So the Japanese women got their e qual rights amendment long before a concerted effort was made to obtain one in America.Compulsory education was extened to nine years, efforts were made to make education much a traning in thinking than in rote memory, and the school system above the six elementary grades was revised to conform to the American pattern. This brook mechanical change produced great confusion and dissatisf satisfy but became so fasten that it could non be re vised even after the Americans departed.Japans agriculture was the quickest of national activities to recover because of land reform. The Australians came up with the scoop out plan. It was basis was this There were to be no absentee landlards. A person who truly worked the land could own up to 7.5 arcers. Anyone living in a liquidation near by could keep 2.5 acres. Larger plots of land, exceeding these limits, were bought up by the government and sold on easy terms to former tenants. inwardly two years 2 million tenants became landowners. T he American occupation immediately gained non only a large constituency, for the new owners had a vested stakes in preserving the change, but also a psychological momentum for other changes they wanted to ini tiate.The American push policy in Japan had a double goal to encourage the growth of democratic unions while belongings them free of communists. Union organization was used as a balance to the power of management. To the surprise of the American authorties, this crusade took a decidedly more radical turn. In the desperate economic conditions of early postwar Japan, there was little room for successful bargaining over wages, and many labor unions instead made a bid to take over pains and o perate it in their own behalf.Moreover large numbers of workers in Japan were government employees, such as railroad workers and teachers, whose wages were set not by management but by the government. Direct political action therefore seemed more meani ngful to these people than wage b argaining. The Japanese unions called for a general strike on February 1, 1947. MacArthur warned the union leadership that he would not countenace a nationwide strike. The strike leaders yieled to MacArthurs will. The re after the political appeal of radical labor action appeared to wane.The Americans wanted to dismiss the great Zaibatsu trust as a means of reducing Japans war-making potential. There were about 15 Zaibatsu families such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Yasuda, and Sumitomo. The Zaibatsu controled the diligence of Japan. MacArthurs liaison men pressured the Diet into passing the Deconcentration Law in December 1947.In the eyes of most Japanese this law was designed to cripple Japanese business and i ndustry forever. The first step in breaking up the Zaibatsu was to spread their ownership out among the people and to restrain the old owners from ever again exercising control. The stocks of all the key keeping companies were to be sold to the public. Friends of the old Zaiba tsu bought the stock. In the long run the Zaibatsu were not exactly destroyed, but a few were weakened and others underwent a genuine shuffle.The initial period of the occupation from 1945 to 1948 was marked by reform, the second flesh was one of stabilization. Greater attention was given to improvement of the economy. Japan was a heavy expense to the join States. The ordered breakup of the Zaibatsu was slowed down. The union movement continued to grow, to the ult imate benefit of the worker. Unremitting pressure on employers brought ostentatiousness wages, which meant the steady expansion of Japan domestic consumer market. This market was a major reason for Japans subsequent economic dash. Another boom to the economy was the Korean War which proved to be a bring up in disguise. Japan became the main staging area for military action in Korea and went on a war boom economy with out having to fight in or pay for a war.The treaty of repose with Japan was signed at San Francisc o 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 military occupation and restoring full independence.What is extraordinary(p) in the Occupation and its aftermath was the insignificance of the unpleasant. For the Japanese, the nobility of American ideals and the essential beneficence of the American presence assuaged much of the bitterness and anguish of defeat. For the Americans, the joys of promoting peace and democracy triumphed over the attendant fustrations and grievances. Consequently, the Occupation served to lay down a substantial capital of good will on which both America and Jap an would draw in the years ahead.