Historical background

Summary

The saturation bombing of Japanese cities, which started in February 1945, and the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August that year, brought Japan to her knees. Upon the Emperor's insistence, Japan unconditionally accepted the Potsdam Declaration on 15 August 1945 and the Japanese people found themselves in an extraordinary situation. The Americans occupied Japan and there followed an avalanche of major decisions. Supreme war leaders were put on trial, and many officials were purged from their appointments. The Emperor himself renounced his divinity. Women's suffrage was introduced and trade union activities became legal. In November 1946, under American guidance, the new constitution was promulgated, becoming effective in May 1947. ‘Democratisation’, which the Americans used to redirect the Japanese, became a slogan lingering on far beyond the following decade. By 1950 American foreign policy had changed rapidly due to the cold war against the rising tide of communism. Japan was rapidly transformed from enemy to ally. The American concentration on Japanese ‘democratisation’ had passed, a relief for the Japanese. The cold war erupted with the Korean War in 1950, which created a tremendous amount of demands for Japanese products. As a result of the Korean War, Japan recovered her sovereignty in 1952 and the Japanese economy resumed its growth. The Japanese banks, never penetrated by American ‘democratisation’, had by 1950 recovered from the disaster of war and were ready for take-off.