Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 45

MILITARY OCCUPATION

responsiveness to
hierarchical
authority—
prerequisites
for success(Photo courtesy of National Diet Library, Japan)
ful modern
industrializaA crowd assembles before the House of
Representatives Gate, 5 February 1913. The
tion. Some
Taisho Democracy existed 1912–1926 during
key policies,
the reign of Emperor Taisho in Japan.
like land redistribution to former tenant farmers, which produced a
larger, more stable middle-class agricultural sector, were
effected by occupation fiat. However, in the end, the
economic miracle can be traced mainly on a consistent
arc back through Japanese history to deeply embedded

region during the time period in general, to include
such factors as the breakout of the Korean war and
Western stand-off with Communist China.
Japan remains a key ally as evidenced, for instance,
by it continuing to host a large contingent of the U.S.
military on its soil. But, this did not come about because
of any farsighted, consciously developed occupation
policy. Rather, it resulted from a Japanese policy put
in place to accelerate the end of the occupation. Prime
Minister Shigeru Yoshida agreed to allow American
troops to remain stationed in Japan as a carrot to the
U.S. government to receive a peace treaty that restored
Japan’s sovereignty. Further, another key reason Japan
is one of America’s most important allies in the region
is Japan’s development of its modern, professional, and
capable Self-Defense Force. Not only was the development of such a force not foreseen
by occupation planners, but was
actually opposed by many since it
was contrary to initial occupation
policy that sought to demilitarize
Japan permanently. Indeed, many
who created the policy for occupied
Japan considered the demilitarization of the erstwhile empire the most
important goal of occupation. Thus,
this development, often cited as a
key success of the occupation—Japan
as a strong ally—was the result of
spontaneous reactions to events and
not the result of long-term planning
by the occupation force. Indeed, it
represents a 180-degree turn from
(Photo by Arthur Curlis, U.S. Army)
initial, strongly held positions among
Industrial training experts watch as a light bulb machine drop bulbs down to other workthose who formulated and executed
ers who sort them according to defects 25 January 1951 at Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co. in
the original occupation plans.
Tokyo, Japan.

cultural factors already inclined to foster the kind of
cooperative social organization conducive to organizing
heavy industrialization, of which the occupation was a
part but not the main factor.
Were the policies of the occupation consciously
formulated to mold Japan into the staunch U.S. ally it
is today? Japan did become an ally, and it remains one.
However, this particular development was arguably inevitable despite the occupation, owing to the expedient
circumstances that developed in the East Asia/Pacific
MILITARY REVIEW  May-June 2016

Reasons for Success
Again, after the close-to-the-bone histories written
by those who had worked in the American occupation,
more recent histories have stressed the continuities
between wartime, occupation, and post-occupation
Japan.4 Such studies tend to conclude that the successes
of Japan during and after the American occupation
have more to do with Japan and the Japanese people
than with the policies or actions of the American occupation. But, even so, the American occupation of Japan
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