The occupation of Japan was, from start to finish, an
American operation. General Douglans MacArthur, sole
supreme commander of the Allied Power was in charge. The
Americans had insufficient men to make a military
government of Japan 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 out, demobilization of the former imperial forces
was completed by early 1946.
 
Japan was extensively fire bombed during the second world
war. The stench of sewer gas, rotting garbage and the acrid
smell of ashes and scorched debris pervaded the air. The
Japanese people had to live in the damp, and cold of the
concrete buildings, because they were the only ones left.
Little remained of the vulnerable wooden frame, tile roof
dwelling lived in by most Japanese. When the first signs of
winter set in, the occupation forces immediately took over
all the s team-heated buildings. The Japanese were out in
the cold in the first post war winter fuel was very hard to
find, a family was considered lucky if they had a small
barely glowing charcoal brazier to huddle around. That next
summer in random spots new ho uses were built, each house
was standardized at 216 square 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 cast
aside because of the lack of time before the next winter.
The thousands of people who lived in railroad stations and
public parks needed housing.
 
All the Japanese heard was democracy from the Americans.
All they cared about was food. General MacAruther asked the
government to send food, when they refused he sent another
telegram that said, "Send me food, or send me bullets."
 
American troops were forbidden to eat local food, as to
keep from cutting from cutting into the sparse local supply.
 
No food was brought in expressly for the Japanese during
the first six months after the American presence there.
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 fishing fleet,
particularly 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 policy was
the adoption of a new constitution and its supporting
legislation. When the Japanese government proved too
confused or too reluctant to come up with a constitutional
reform that satisfied MacArthur, he had his own staff draft
a new constitution in February 1946. This, with only minor
changes, was then adopted by the Japanese government in the
form of an imperial amendment to the 1889 constitution and
went into effect 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 assigned 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
system was made as independent of executive interference as
possible, and a newly created supreme court was given the
power to review the constitutionality of laws. Local
governments were given greatly increased powers.
 
The Emperor was reduced to being 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 at the opening
of gates and highways. He was steered here and there, shown
things, and kept muttering, "Ah so, ah so." People started
to call 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 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 consistent with that of
women in the western democracies." So the Japanese women
got their equal 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 more 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 last mechanical change produced great
confusion and dissatisfaction but became so entrenched that
it could not be re vised even after the Americans departed.
 
Japan's agriculture was the quickest of national activities
to recover because of land reform. The Australians came up
with the best plan. It was basis was this: There were to be
no absentee landlards. A p erson who actually worked the
land could own up to 7.5 arcers. Anyone living in a village
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. Within two years
2 million tenants became landowners. The American
occupation immediately gained not only a large
constituency, for the new owners had a vested interest in
preserving the change, but also a psychological momentum
for other changes they wanted to ini tiate.
 
The American labor policy in Japan had a double goal: to
encourage the growth of democratic unions while keeping
them free of communists. Union organization was used as a
balance to the power of management. To the surprise of the
America n authorties, this movement 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 industry 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 bargaining. 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 MacArthur's will. The re after the political
appeal of radical labor action appeared to wane.
 
The Americans wanted to disband the great Zaibatsu trust as
a means of reducing Japan's war-making potential. There
were about 15 Zaibatsu families such as - Mitsui,
Mitsubishi, Yasuda, and Sumitomo. The Zaibatsu controled
the industry of Japan. MacArthur's 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 prevent the old
owners from ever again exercising control. The stocks of
all the key holding companies were to be sold to the
public. Friends of the old Zaibatsu bought the stock. In
the long run the Zaibatsu were not exactly destroyed, but a
few were weakened and others underwent a considerable
shuffle.
 
The initial period of the occupation from 1945 to 1948 was
marked by reform, the second phase was one of
stabilization. Greater attention was given to improvement
of the economy. Japan was a heavy expense to the United
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 swelling wages, which meant the steady
expansion of Japan domestic consumer market. This market
was a major reason for Japan's subsequent economic boom.
Another boom to the economy was the Korean War which proved
to be a blessing 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 peace with Japan was signed at San Francisco
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 in the Occupation and its aftermath
was the insignificance of the unpleasant. For the Japanese,
the nobility of American ideals and the essential benignity
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. 

 Bibliography
 
Christopher, Robert C. /The Japanese Mind/. New York:
Fawcett
 
Columbine, 1983
 
La Cerda, John. /The Conqueror Comes to Tea/. New
Brunswick: R utgers
 
University Press, 1946
 
Manchester, William. /American Caesar/. New York: Dell
Publishing
 
Company, Inc., 1978
 
Perry, John Curtis. /Beneath the Eagle's Wings/. New York:
Dodd, Mead
 
and Company, 1980
 
Reischauer, Edwin O. / The Japanese/. London: Belknap
Press, 1977
 
Seth, Ronald. /Milestones in Japanese History/.
Philadelphia: Chilton
 
Book Company, 1969
 
Sheldon, Walt. /The Honorable Conquerors/. New York: The
Macmillan
 
Company., 1965