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American Occupation and Postwar Tokyo
Total defeat
• Japanese military destroyed• Domestic infrastucture destroyed• Starving civilian population
• State apparatus intact• Allied powers decided to leave Hirohito
on throne
Surrender
• Hiroshima bombed August 6• Nagasaki bombed August 9• Emperor broadcasts surrender Aug 15• MacArthur lands at Atsugi Aug. 31• Surrender documents signed on board
the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2
Planning for occupation
• Extensive training of US language officers, Civil Government Teams
• Occupation troops not generally combat veterans
• Occupation worked through existing government channels
Occupation reforms
• Renunciation of Imperial divinity• Dissestablishment of Shinto as state
religion -- freedom of religion• Woman’s suffrage & equal rights• Education reform• Language reform• Land reform
Occupation reforms
• Decolonization• Political liberalization• Attempts to dissolve zaibatsu
• Food relief
Occupation reforms
• 1947 Constitution• Written by Americans
• Establishes Emperor as “symbol of the state” not as sovereign
• Article 9 -- renounces the use of war as a perogative of sovereign nation state
Constitution
• Revision of the constitution is now the major item on the Japanese political agenda
• Multiple versions are being circulated
• Article 9 and status of Emperor are key points of debate
Occupied Tokyo
• Spatial segregation of US troops and civilians to large extent
• US took over existing military facilities in city, as well as many other
• “renamed” streets (Ave. A, Ave. B, etc.)• Many vestiges of US Occupation facilities
remained in city until 1970s• Returned facilities often recycled into major
public works -- e.g. Olympic facilties for 1964, Hikarigaoka apartment city in late 60s, early 70s
Occupied Tokyo
• Rapid “Americanization” of popular culture• (Tokyo Boogie Woogie)• Fashions, films, food styles, lifestyle changes• Social class• (recall point made earlier that previous
sources of cultural capital no longer valid points of reference)
“MacArthur’s children”
• Teens and early 20ish Japanese (during the immediate postwar period), highly influenced by American ideas
• Also extreme poverty -- extensive black markets -- Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Ueno, and elsewhere
• Widespread prostitution, state-sponsored
American geopolitics & Tokyo
• Initial intention to remake Japan as an agrarian democracy
• Chinese revolution 1949• outbreak of Korean War, 1950
• Concerns with Soviet efforts to claim parts of Northern Japan
American geopolitics & Tokyo
US Occupation underwent “reverse course”
Japan to be industrial democracy and base for US military efforts to contain communism in East Asia
American geopolitics & Tokyo
Tokyo (and Japanese economy generally) benefitted as “staging area” for Korean War
Occupation officially ended in 1952, US troops and facilities remained (and some still remain)
1950s Tokyo
• Rebuilding domestic economy and infrastucture
• Emphasis on developing export-oriented industry to new markets (Asian markets not accessible)
• P.M. Ikeda announces “National Income Doubling Plan” -- high speed economic growth from 1950s thru mid-1970s
High-speed economic growth
• Urban migration accelerates• Urban density increases• Heavy industry grows faster than other
sectors• Environmental issues given low priority• Personal income rises only gradually;
re-investment in industrial protection
High-speed economic growth
Three underlying causes
Intensive investmentExport-driven productionDomestic consumption
The “Three Treasures” of 1950s new middle class life
• Washing machine• B&W Television• Refrigerators
The “Three C’s” of 1960s new middle class life
• Color Television• Car• Cooler (air conditioner)
The growth of “danchi”
• Public housing for urban middle classes• Standardized housing• “2K” -- two tatami rooms and a kitchen• (evolves into 2DK, 3DK, 3LDK)
• (tatami as modular unit of measurement)
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