Post WW II and Japan

World War II took place beginning at 1939 and ending in 1945. Japan was the last opposing country to surrender to the US Allies on September 2nd, 1945. Ending the long, horrific seven-year war.
Upon Japan’s admitted defeat, the U.S. invaded and took occupation of the country for seven years. Though assumed to be a distressing circumstance and expected total domination, it was a benefit to Japan, for the United States to take control of them, rather than being a disadvantage. The occupation helped the recovery and development of Japan’s economy and also clarified understanding between the two countries.
When the United States took control of Japan during late summer of 1945, it proved to be a milestone for the entire world. Never before had one advanced nation attempted to reform the supposed faults of another advanced nation from within (Reischauer 221).
Both countries were uneasy, complaining the regarded issue at first. For the Americans, the very notion of democratizing Japan represented a stunning revision of the propaganda they had imbibed during the war. When the media had routinely depicted all Japanese as children, savages, sadists, madmen, or robots. In the most pervasive metaphor of dehumanization, they were portrayed in word and picture as apes, or “monkey-men” (Dower 213). There was much hatred for the Japanese by the American people, because of the negative depiction of them by the media and the remembrance of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese that drove the U.S. to declare war on Japan in the first place. Many Americans displayed extreme prejudice for the Japanese people calling them “jaundiced baboons” or the more unsophisticated racial term, “Jap.” The United States viewed Japan as a collapsing nation that needed strict guidance from them in order to change into the correct form of government.
For the first time in history, Japan was a conquered nation. The slogan, which Japan used to cope during the occupation, was “enduring the unendurable.” For some Japanese people, the U.S. occupation seemed like more of the same totalitarian leadership as of the emperor, therefore was indifferent to the new order. The rest feared that the Americans would be vengeful, cruel conquerors. The wil...

... middle of paper ...

...tates and Japan is certainly an impressive achievement. Due to the aid and influences contributed by the United States, Japan is now a peaceful, fully restored nation that has improved beyond expectations. The economy is one of the best in the world, and there is no longer any hostility between the two nations. America helped Japan restore its economy and society to build it into a better nation that it is today.
Bibliography

Perez, Louis G. The History of Japan.
London: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Reischauer, Edwin O. JAPAN, The Story of a Nation.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970.

Morton, W.Scott. JAPAN, Its History and Culture.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.

Area Handbook Series. Japan, a country study.
Washington D.C.: Library of Congress, 1992.

Beasley, W.G. The Modern History of JAPAN.
New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1963.

Koshiro, Yukiko. Trans-Pacific Racisms and the US Occupation of Japan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Beasley, W.G. The Rise of Modern Japan.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.

Thomas, J.E. Modern Japan.
London: Longman Singapore Publishers Pte., 1996.

Dower, John W. Embracing Defeat, Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: Norton, 1999.