Lesson 134

Occupation of Japan (1945-1952)

General MacArthur, who, as the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, had the primary responsibility for carrying out the terms of surrender, adopted a more moderate and less primitive policy than some of the Allies, especially the Soviet Union, favored.

In the administration of the country he preferred to act through the Japanese civil authorities, and he introduced reforms gradually.

In the exercise of his authority, General MacArthur was advised by the Allied Council for Japan in Tokyo composed of the United States, Great Britain, Nationalist China, and the Soviet Union, and he acted under nominal supervision of Eleven-nation Far Eastern Commission in Washington, D.C.

The demobilization of the Imperial Army, Navy, and Air Force under the supervision of the Allied troops was completed by early 1946.

Political reform began in late 1945.

In October SCAP issued the directive on civil liberties which came to be known as the ”Bill of Rights.”

It abolished the central police system, released political prisoners, and removed restrictions on civil liberties.

The directive was followed by a revival of political parties, among them the Communist Party, now legal for the first time.

The new constitution became effective on May 3, 1947.

The 1947 Constitution established a parliamentary system of government, the highest organ of which was a popularly elected bicameral Diet.

The Emperor was retained as titular head of the State, but sovereignty was transferred from him to the people.

Two land reform bills were passed by the Diet in October 1946.

They required large landowners to sell land to the government, which redistributed it to tenants at moderate prices.

More than three million farmers obtained some five million acres of land.

Police and educational reforms were introduced in 1947.

The punishment of those responsible for leading the country into war was called for by the Potsdam Declaration, and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, composed of representatives of the Eleven Allied States, was established in Tokyo in Jan. 1946.

It tried and sentenced to death or imprisonment 28 high Japanese officials--among them, General Tojo--for having plotted the war.

The Communist takeover in China in 1949 impressed the United States with the need to hasten Japan’s economic recovery and to encourage the consolidation of a stable political order.

The Communist invasion of the Republic of Korea in 1950 heightened the sense of urgency, and the United States increased its economic assistance and formally included Japan in its northwestern Pacific defense perimeter.

Japan was helped in 1950 to organize a police reserve of 75,000, as an auxiliary to the regular police, which became the nucleus of the National Self-Defense Force with sea and air as well as land units.

The peace treaty was signed at San Francisco on September 8, 1951 by 48 allied nations and Japan over the objections of the Soviet bloc nations, which refused to sign it.

Under the Treaty, which came into effect on April 28, 1952, Japan was restored to the exercise of its sovereignty; it renounced claims to its overseas possessions inclusive of the Kurile Islands and southern Sakhalin (occupied by the Soviet Union since 1945), and it agreed to the United States trusteeship over the Ryuukyuu and Bonin islands.

The Treaty was followed by Japan’s signing the Security Treaty with the United States on September 8, 1951, which authorized American bases in Japan and the stationing of American troops there.

After 1952

In the nine years since the signing of the Peace Treaty, Japan has resumed its place as one of the great industrial nations of the world.

Its people enjoy a higher income than they have ever known and for the first time are themselves buying in significant quantity the consumers’ goods their factories once made almost solely for export.

The country remains closely allied to the United States and committed to the free world.

At every point, however, there are qualifying factors.

Japan’s burgeoning industry must depend for its raw materials on foreign sources, and it must export to survive.

This dependence is perilous in a world in which market fluctuations are unpredictable and trade barriers are used as political weapons.

The rise in income has not brought any general sense of economic security, and relatively few people seem to feel that they can rely on today’s prosperity.

The dominant conservative party must contend with a hypercritical and often hostile press and a determined Leftist opposition which has shown its ability to organize massive and violent public protest against fundamental conservative policies.

One such policy has been the military arrangements with the United States.

There is, moreover, widespread neutralist sentiment and an increasing desire to establish closer economic and political relations with Communist China and the Soviet Union.

Whatever the future may bring, Japan may be expected to assert itself more and more actively in the international area.

Guide for Free Conversation and Exercise

1 Topics:

a Converse with your classmates on the following suggested topics in Japanese.

(1) The Potsdam Declaration.

(2) Social change as declared by the Supreme Commander.

(3) New Constitution.

(4) Post-war Economic Conditions.

2 Exercise:

(a) Match the words in Column (A) with those of Column (B) and insert the letters of Column (B) in the proper spaces provided in Column (A).

1 軍国主義

2 戦争 犯罪人

3 民主主義

4 財閥

5 農地改革

6 基本的人権

7 華族制度

a agrarian reform

b democracy

c independent nation

d peerage system

e peace treaty

f militarism

g sovereignty

8 平和条約

9 主権

10 独立国

h financial combines

i basic human rights

j war criminal

Homework

1 Study the Narration thoroughly and memorize the vocabulary.

2 Read the Guide for Free Conversation and do the exercises given.

3 Learn to read and write the new Kanji.

4 Read the Cultural Notes.