The Aftermath Japan

The Causes and Consequences of World War II HIST 1301 | History The Aftermath: Japan Following the atomic bombings and the Soviet invasion of Manchukuo, Japanese Emperor Hirohito notified his Privy Council on August 10, 1945, that he accepted the Potsdam Declaration about Japan's unconditional surrender. The Allies were then promptly informed of this. On August 15, Hirohito personally responded, announcing to the Japanese people that he would accept the conditions of the Allies and suffer the consequences of defeat in the first public address any Japanese emperor had ever given. On September 2, a month later, the army's chief of staff, General Yoshijirō Umezu, signed a surrender paper as the USS Missouri was anchored in Tokyo Bay. During the Allied occupation of Japan, General Douglas MacArthur was given orders to use the Japanese political structure, including Emperor Hirohito, in his capacity as supreme commander of the Allied powers. MacArthur ordered the Japanese government to start an honest and free debate on the whole Imperial government and its institutions, as well as to promptly remove the Peace Preservation Law, which permitted the arrest of anybody thought to be a threat to or critic of the Japanese government. The Special Police were dissolved and political detainees were freed. The emperor openly denied being divine on New Year's Day 1946, saying, "Our relationships with our people have always been based on mutual trust and affection." They rely on more than just myths and tales. They are not based on the fallacious ideas that the Emperor is a god and that Japanese people are destined to govern the globe and are superior to other racial groups. The Potsdam Declaration gave rise to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo. (The Soviet Union was not a party to the pact since it had not yet declared war on Japan.) The 1946 experimental period ended in November 1948. Nine prominent politicians and eighteen members of the Japanese military were charged. With the exception of one person who was deemed mentally incapable of standing trial, all were found guilty; the other six received jail sentences. Japan was occupied by the United States for six years, from 1946 to 1952. In an effort to reform and reconstruct Japan, General MacArthur and his occupation authority collaborated actively in practically every facet of Japanese politics, economy, and society. Demilitarisation, democratisation, and the promotion of respect for basic human rights were the main objectives of the occupation. The kind of profound transformation that could not have been brought about by any one group within Japan itself was the Constitution that MacArthur and his Government Section imposed in 1947. Its nearunaltered survival indicates that the Japanese themselves accepted it and modified the system to suit their political and mentalities. "The symbol of the State and of the unity of the people," the emperor was elevated to the status of a figurehead. The Diet, a two-chamber assembly chosen by the people, had actual sovereign authority. Academic freedom, women's suffrage, the ability to choose one's place of abode, collective bargaining, and full employment were all protected by a comprehensive Bill of Rights. Demilitarisation was initiated right away, and the Japanese came to terms with the fact that using force to defend their country and gain access to economic resources was not a wise course of action given the realistic assessment of post-World War II circumstances. "We, the Japanese people, desire peace for all time," starts the preamble of the Japanese Constitution. While union participation in the industrial sector was encouraged and land reform started to make more small farmers proprietors of their fields rather than tenants, many major enterprises continued to exist and were purposefully not broken up. Japan's military was severely restricted; it was not allowed to have an army or to wage war in the future. Around the world, efforts were made to establish a fair and enduring peace. The United Nations, an international organisation that was ultimately founded in New York City in April 1945 after being agreed upon by the leaders of the Allies during wartime talks, offered some optimism. In its mission statement, the United Nations promised to "promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind." The emergence of judicial actions in Germany and Japan marked the start of attempts to define terms like crimes against humanity and genocide, in an effort to dispel the notion that the fight had truly normalised tyranny, mass bloodshed, complete war, and brutality. Additionally, the war had made the terrible effects of racism and racist ideology abundantly evident. Such mindset might contaminate even liberal democracies, as the senseless deportation of Japanese nationals and residents as well as Japanese Americans demonstrated in the United States. Another consequence of the war was that women all over the world began to experience some of the rights and obligations that came with being full citizens and contributing to the prosperity of their countries. Additionally, populations in Asia and Africa started to demand greater national legitimacy and selfdetermination since they believed they had earned their freedom from prewar colonialism. Many people believed that so many people's hardships and sacrifices could not have been in vain.