Occupation Japan The Reign of Douglas MacArthur. Post-Surrender Japan Video.
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Transcript of Occupation Japan The Reign of Douglas MacArthur. Post-Surrender Japan Video.
Occupation Japan
The Reign of Douglas MacArthur
Post-Surrender Japan
• Video
Repatriation
• Estimated 6.5 million Japanese outside of Japan at end of war, half military, half civilian– Taiwan– Korea– Manchuria ( 満州 )
• Civilian returnees hikiagesha 引揚者– Potent political force
Returnees
Repatriation
• Those who did not return– War casualties– POWs in Soviet camps estimated at 300,000
• Regular subject on television
– War “orphans” zanryu koji 残留孤児• Started returning in 80s• Not necessarily welcome• Chinese in speech and mannerisms• Disturbed previously settled inheritance issues• Reminder of militarism and colonialism
War Orphans
Koreans
• Substantial Korean population in Japan– Economic migrants– Forced labor
• Often stated in English that Koreans in Japan came as forced labor
• Surveys of Koreans show about 10% claim forced labor ancestors
• Repatriation to Korea– 1.3 million– Seen as “trouble makers” by SCAP and Japanese– Large number returned– Lost citizenship in Japanese empire– Status as “special permanent residents” 特別永住者
Koreans in Japan
Impact of Repatriation
• Increased pressure on food and housing supply
• Conditions in Japan worse after surrender than during war– Food shortages– Black market– Large number of people “sleeping rough”– Return to countryside
Food Shortages
• Caloric intake declined during war– 2160 average daily before– 1200 in years immediately after surrender
• Not result of direct military action– Labor shortages due to conscription– Fuel, fertilizer shortages due to military
requisitioning– Rural areas untouched by bombing, other
military action
Food Shortages
• Takenoko seikatsu 竹の子生活– Peel off clothes, trade for food– Trains to countryside to trade clothing, family heirloom
s to farmers for food– Resentment against farmers
• Black market 闇市場• Some starvation, widespread malnutrition• Food aid from US
– Limited because of antipathy in US congress– Whaling pushed by US – animal protein that did not re
quire foreign exchange
“Wartime” suffering
• Japanese sense of victimhood– See in television treatment of “war years” and
Hiroshima, Nagasaki– War is only US-Japan– Little mention of war in China, no treatment of
“human dimension” in China– Japanese “wartime life” ignores Japanese in
Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria• No “wartime suffering” for those in Taiwan, Korea• For those in Manchuria only after Soviet invasion
Wartime Suffering
• Time sequence muddled– Which war?– US-Japan from 1941-1945– Sino-Japanese from 1937-1945?
• Recollections of “wartime suffering” often include early years of Occupation period
• Wartime impact on home islands– Serious direct attack only from March 1945– Serious shortages only from 1943
Occupation
• Allied Occupation in name only– American occupation– Constant complaints from British and
Australians
• Military occupation– Irony of “democratizing” Japan with US Army– Reforms always backed by threat of military
force
Occupation
• Generally benevolent– Some crime by GIs, especially rape in Okinawa– Japanese provided “comfort stations” initially used
and accepted by Occupation
• Initially encouraged trade unions, tolerated left-wing activity– Shift to restrictions with “reverse course”– Fall of China to communists in 1949– Outbreak of Korean war– Unions and opposition political movements more
radical than expected
MacArthur
• Personified Occupation– Imperious– Aloof– Relatively uninterested in Japan– Personal interpretation of Japan heavily
influenced by New Deal progressives, some quite left
– Influenced by E. H. Norman, Canadian who had been CP member as Cambridge student
Emperor MacArthur
MacArthur and the Emperor
• Emperor not to be tried as war criminal– Decision still being questioned– Herbert Bix– Regular issue in writing about Japan
• Emperor to renounce divinity– 1 January 1946– American misinterpretation of Emperor as “living God”– Japan pantheistic society
• Many deities• “Living god” no big deal
• MacArthur promoted Christianity, allowed missionaries to use US government facilities
Occupation Reforms
• Legalization of trade unions– Right to collective bargaining written into Japanese co
nstitution– Clamp down with “Reverse Course” when unions prov
ed more radical and militant than expected• Numerous violent labor disputes in Japan through 1960s• Nissan-Prince merger• Omuta Coal Mine • “Incidents” involving JNR 日本国有鉄道
Occupation Reforms
• Land and agricultural reform– Forced sale of land held by landlords to
cultivators (tenants) at below market prices– Limit on size of land that could be held by any
one owner cultivator
• Marxist interpretation of history– “Semi-feudal” conditions in agriculture had
facilitated the rise of militarism– Ignored high levels of tenancy in US south
and UK agriculture
Occupation Reforms
• Agricultural land holding– Sale of all land held by absentee landlords – Strict limits on owner operated farm size
• Resulted in average farm size of less than 2 hectares (less than 5 acres)
• Hokkaido allowed 4 times other parts of Japan
– Prohibited payment in kind
• Forrest land exempt
Occupation Reforms
• Land and agricultural reform– Progressive goal, reactionary result– Made previously radical tenant farmers into
conservative small businessmen heavily dependent on government subsidy
– Voted for conservative politicians (LDP formed in 1955)
– No provision in American-written constitution for electoral redistricting with population shifts
• Farmers punch above weight in elections• On-going issue
– TPP negotiations– One man (person), one vote court suits
Occupation Reforms
• Land and agricultural reform– Double irony
• Marxist concepts• Implemented wartime (military) encouraged policies
– Tenant disputes• From 1930s Marxist-influenced bureaucrats and the military
had favored tenants in disputes with landlords
– Wartime procurement system• Fixed rents without inflation adjustment• Paid producers (tenants) at market prices with bonuses
Occupation Reforms
• Land and agricultural reform– Tenant position strengthened by wartime
procurement policies, increased demand for food to supply urban markets
– Many farmers with military experience– SCAP policy actually counter revolutionary
Occupation Reforms
• American written Japanese constitution– More liberal and progressive than US constitution
• Franchise for women• Right to collective bargaining• Right to livelihood• Right to education
– Committee written• Inconsistent language especially in terms of citizens versus
residents of Japan• No mandatory redistricting with population shifts• Assumption that translations of American concepts would
result in same results as in US case
Writing the Japanese Constituion
Occupation Reforms
• Zaibatsu dissolution– What were zaibatsu?
• Family owned conglomerates– Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Mitsui, Yasuda
• Engineer founded high tech industrial concerns
– Marxist ideas of “monopoly capitalism” coupled to American populist ideas of “trust busting”
– Zaibatsu evil promoters of militarism
Occupation Reforms
• Zaibatsu dissolution– Family owned stock sold off at confiscatory pri
ces– Leads to salaryman mangement
• Few large family controlled companies in Japan• Companies management by internally promoted e
mployees
– Factor in relatively equalitarian society• Few long standing family fortunes in Japan
Zaibatsu Dissolution
• T.A. Bisson, Zaibatsu dissolution in Japan (University of California Press 1954)– Forced from UC-Berkeley in Mc
Carthy era– Presented as victim of McCarthy
ism (American coldwar paranoia about communist subversion)
– Now known that he was a Soviet agent from 1943 onward
Eleanor Hadley - Trustbuster
Occupation Reforms
• “Demilitarized” education– Militaristic, ultra-nationalistic purged from textbooks– American-style elected local school boards introduced
• Quickly reversed by Japanese• On going controversy over role and structure
– Single-line education• Elementary -> middle -> high school• No vocational or terminal vs advanced as in some European
countries– Retained national funding and overall control of educa
tion• US control is local• Funding is local
Occupation and Ideology
• Zaibatsu policy ideological, not historical– OLD zaibatsu had not supported militarism– NEW zaibatsu had supported militarims
• Ideology– American progressive ideology – oligopolistic busines
ses (aka trusts) need to be broken up (trustbusting)– 1930s Marxist ideology – monopoly capital ( 独占資本
主義) is bad• Marxists use “monopoly” even when what they are talking ab
out is oligopoly
Occupation Reforms
• Militarism and education– Assumed that militaristic and nationalistic content of textbooks
and education had facilitated rise of militarism and fascism
• Absurd, wooly thinking– Militaristic content introduced gradually from 1930, small percent
of those who had received this education in total population– Those who had received education were not in decision making
positions when war started (1937, 1945)– Those who made decisions for war or promoted militarism had
been educated during “Taisho Democracy” or earlier– Many of those who promoted militarism or fascism were heavily
influenced by Marxism
Occupation Reforms
• “American 6-3-3” educational system– Commonly believed by Japanese, even experts on
education, that this is “the American educational system”
– Introduced during American Occupation– Japanese suggestion– America has no national education system
• State responsibility
– Structuring education (学級編成 ) not a theme in American administrative or educational debate
Main Changes
• Purged textbooks of “militaristic” and “ultra-nationalistic” content
• Single track system– Prewar, multi-track as in most European countries– Elementary → Middle → High School → University
• “Dumbed down” universities– Prewar universities were graduate level institutions– College function performed by higher schools 旧制高等学校 (no
t to be translated as “high schools”)– Universities → colleges, higher schools → colleges– Middle schools 旧制中学校 → high schools
• Local school boards– Soon abanonded
Americans Educate Japan
Key Points
• Occupation of Japan was an AMERICAN show
• American decision makers had little real knowledge of Japanese history, espcially of the 1930s and 1940s
• Policies driven by American ideology with some Marxism in the background
• Empowered idealistic young men and women
That’s All Folks
• Slides for lectures, readings– www2.gol.com/users/ehk/saitama/postwar– ehk.servebeer.com/saitama/postwar
• Consultation– During break, after lectures
• Email– [email protected] [email protected]– Always put “saitama postwar”, your name, and studen
t number in the subject line of your email– Email can be in Japanese 日本語も使用可能