2017 Post-War and Modern Japan Supplemental Reading

2017 Post-War and Modern Japan Supplemental Reading

• Modified Reading from: “Japan and the Pacific” from Glencoe World History pages 1024-1027

The Transformation of Japan:

Japan made a dramatic recovery, transforming itself from the ruins of war to an industrial power. The “Asian Tigers” imitated Japan’s success and became industrial powerhouses. How did this happen?

In August 1945, Japan was in ruins, and the American army occupied its land. A mere 50 years later, Japan had emerged as the second greatest industrial power in the world.

The Allied Occupation of Japan:

From 1945 to 1952, Japan was an occupied country, with its lands being held and controlled by the Allied military forces. An Allied administration under the command of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur governed Japan. As commander of the occupation administration, MacArthur was responsible for destroying the Japanese war machine, hold war crime tribunals for Japanese civilian and military officers, and laying the foundations for a new Japanese society.

Under MacArthur’s firm direction, the Japanese society was remodeled along Western lines. A new constitution was created that forced the Japanese government to renounce war as a national policy. This was Article 9, often known as the “Peace Clause.” Japan agreed to maintain armed forces at levels that were sufficient only for self-defense. In 2016, Prime Minister Abe and the Japanese parliament began to take steps to revoke or modify this clause due to ongoing conflicts with China and North Korea’s attempts to develop nuclear weapons. When Prime Minister Abe visited Washington, DC in May 2016, this was one of the issues that was brought up with the Obama administration.

The constitution established a parliamentary system, and it reduced the power of the emperor. The emperor was no longer seen as a god; ending the Shinto belief. The constitution guaranteed basic civil and political rights, and it also gave women the right to vote.

On September 8, 1951, the United States and other former WWII allies signed a peace treaty with Japan that restored its independence. On the same day, Japan and the United States signed a defensive alliance in which the Japanese agreed that the United States could maintain military bases: army and navy in Japan. This was to be additional protection for Japan against possible invasions, and it allowed the United States to have military bases to stem the spread of Communism in East Asia.

Since regaining its independence, Japan has emerged as an economic giant. The country’s dramatic recovery from the war has been described as the “Japanese Miracle.” How did the miracle occur? The causes were not only economic, but also political and social.

Politics and Government:

Modeled on the U.S. Constitution, Japan’s new constitution called for universal suffrage (meaning all adults had the right to vote) and a balance of power between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Today, Japan has a very stable, democratic society. At the same time, Japan’s political system still retains some of the Meiji political reforms of the 19th century. An example of this is how political power is distributed. Japan has a multi-party system with two main political parties, the Liberal Democrats and the Socialists. In practice, the Liberal Democrats have dominated the government. At one point, the Liberal Democrats remained in office for 30 years. A few party leaders would decide on the key issues such as who should be prime minister.

Today, the central government plays an active role in the economy. It establishes price and wage policies and subsidizes important industries and agriculture. This government involvement in the economy has been widely accepted as the key reason Japan’s industry is so efficient and experienced such fast industrial growth from the 1950s to the 1980s. It is why Japan emerged as an industrial giant. Due to this, Japan’s economic system is described as state capitalism.

In recent years, Japan has experienced problems with political leadership. Two prime ministers were forced to resign over improper business dealings. But economic factors have been at work as well. After three decades of astounding economic growth, Japan’s economy went into a slump in the 1990s. This is when China began to surpass Japan as one of the world’s industrial powers.

Since 2001, different prime ministers from the Liberal Democrats have worked to reduce government debt and to privatize some government programs. But with an aging population, limited natural resources, and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, despite some progress being made, Japan’s economy is not as strong as hoped by this time.

The Economy:

During their occupation of Japan, Allied officials began to dismantle the business conglomerations or cartels known as zaibatsu. (Think OPEC!) But as the Cold War began and became the dominant issues of the second half of the twentieth century, the policy of ending all Japanese zaibatsu was scaled back. Only 19 of the largest zaibatsu were affected. The new policy also did not keep companies from forming ties with each other, which basically gave rise to another zaibatsu system.

The occupation administration had more success with its land-reform program. Half of the Japanese population lived on farms, and half of those farmers were tenants of large land-owners. (Think share-croppers!) Under the reform program, lands were sold on easy credit terms to the tenant farmers. The reform program created a strong class of independent farmers.

At the end of the Allied occupation in 1952, the Japanese GNP (gross national product) was one-third that of Great Britain or France. Today, it is larger than both combined. Japan is one of the world’s leading export nations. After several decades of impressive growth, Japan was considered a model of economic success.

What explains Japan’s success? Some point to cultural factors. The Japanese are group-oriented and find it easy to cooperate with one another. The labor force is highly skilled and educated. Japanese people share common values and respond in similar ways. There is little ethnic diversity within the county. So it is easy for the population to respond to challenges of the modern world in a unified manner.

Other have cited more practical reasons for the Japanese economic success. For example, because its industries were destroyed during WWII by American bombings, Japan was forced to build entirely new, modern factories that made it easier to embrace robotics and other computer technology. Japanese workers also spend a substantially longer period of time at their jobs than other workers in Europe or the United States. Corporations reward innovation and maintain good management-labor relations. Finally, some experts contend that Japan uses unfair trade practices, such as dumping goods at prices below cost to break into a foreign market and restricting imports from other countries. Although Japan suffered an economic recession in the 1990s, its exports rose again by 2005.

Social Changes and Culture:

Despite the occupation, the Allied planners tried to eliminate the aggressiveness that had been part of Japanese militarism. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the only structure in the area to withstand the nuclear blast, was preserved as a symbol of peace. Former Secretary State Kerry was the first American Secretary of State to visit the memorial in 2015. And in 2016, former President Obama was the first American president to visit. Another change involved education. A new educational system was introduced and stressed individualism and removed references to extreme nationalism and absolute loyalty to the emperor.

Efforts to remake Japanese behavior through laws were only partially successful. Many characteristics of traditional Japanese society still exist. There is the emphasis on work ethic that remains strong. And this tradition of hard work is stressed in the education system.

Women’s roles are another example of the difficulty of social change. After WWII, women gained the right to vote and were encouraged to enter politics. However, the idea that women should be subordinate to men had not been eliminated. While women are legally protected against discrimination in employment, very few have reached senior positions in the fields of business, education, or politics. There is this glass ceiling that limits their advancement due to their gender. While women make up more than 42% of the workforce, most are employed in retail or the service industry. Their average salary is only about 60% of that of Japanese males.

Japanese writers also began to reflect the changes made. Many writers who had been active before WWII resurfaced, but their writing now has a more somber tone. These writers were referred to as the “Lost Generation”, because their writing described the piercing despair as they lost their culture to Americanization of post-war Japan. This made Japan’s defeat in WWII even harder to bear.

Increasing wealth and a high literacy rate of over 99% led to a massive outpouring of books. Current Japanese authors were raised in the crowded cities of post-war Japan. There they were exposed to movies, television, and rock music. These writers speak the universal language of popular culture.

Haruki Murakami has been one of Japan’s most popular authors for over thirty years. He was one of the first to discard the somber style of the early post-war period and to use contemporary language. A Wild Sheep Chase is an example of Murakami’s gripping, yet humorous writing. His work has even gained popularity outside of Japan.