Global InformationOccupation of Japan information
Occupation of Japan 連合国軍占領下の日本 Rengōkoku-gun senryō-ka no Nihon | |||||||||
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| 1945–1952 | |||||||||
  Left: Civil and naval ensign Right: State flag (de facto) | |||||||||
![De jure map of Japan under Allied occupation (1 to 6[a]). # The Japanese archipelago, placed under the authority of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (de facto United States), effective 1945–1952 (note: A portion of Japanese territory was put under United States administration after 1952 in accordance with Article 3 of San Francisco Peace Treaty: Iwo Jima (until 1968) and Okinawa (until 1972); such arrangement was treaty based, and not part of the Allied occupation). # Japanese Taiwan and its Spratly Islands, placed under the authority of China. # Karafuto Prefecture and the Kuril Islands, placed under the authority of the Soviet Union. # Japanese Korea south of the 38th parallel north, placed under the authority of the United States Army Military Government in Korea, granted independence in 1948 as the Republic of Korea (South Korea). # The Kwantung Leased Territory, occupied by the Soviet Union 1945–1955, returned to China in 1955. # Japanese Korea north of the 38th parallel north, placed under the authority of the Soviet Civil Administration, granted independence in 1948 as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) # The South Pacific Mandate, single Japanese colony in the name of the League of Nations, occupied by the United States 1945–1947, converted into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands of the United Nations under the US administration in 1947.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Occupied_Japan.png/250px-Occupied_Japan.png) De jure map of Japan under Allied occupation (1 to 6[a]).
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 De facto map of Japan (red) under Allied occupation, with modern borders. | |||||||||
| Status | Military occupation | ||||||||
| Official languages | Japanese English | ||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Japanese | ||||||||
| Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers | |||||||||
• 1945–1951 | Douglas MacArthur | ||||||||
• 1951–1952 | Matthew Ridgway | ||||||||
| Emperor | |||||||||
• 1945–1952 | Hirohito | ||||||||
| Prime Ministers | |||||||||
• 1945 | Prince Naruhiko | ||||||||
• 1945–1946 | Kijūrō Shidehara | ||||||||
• 1946–1947 | Shigeru Yoshida | ||||||||
• 1947–1948 | Tetsu Katayama | ||||||||
• 1948 | Hitoshi Ashida | ||||||||
• 1948–1952 | Shigeru Yoshida | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Emperor Hirohito announces surrender of Japan | 15 August 1945 | ||||||||
• Occupation begins | 28 August 1945 | ||||||||
• Official surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay | 2 September 1945 | ||||||||
• Transfer of the administration of Taiwan and Pescadores to China | 25 October 1945 | ||||||||
• Constitutional amendment | 3 May 1947 | ||||||||
• South Korea | 15 August 1948 | ||||||||
• North Korea | 9 September 1948 | ||||||||
• Treaty of San Francisco | 28 April 1952 | ||||||||
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| History of Japan |
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Japan was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on April 28, 1952. The occupation, led by the American military with support from the British Commonwealth and under the supervision of the Far Eastern Commission, involved a total of nearly one million Allied soldiers.[1] The occupation was overseen by the US General Douglas MacArthur, who was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers by the US President Harry S. Truman; MacArthur was succeeded as supreme commander by General Matthew Ridgway in 1951. Unlike in the occupations of Germany and Austria, the Soviet Union had little to no influence in Japan, declining to participate because it did not want to place Soviet troops under MacArthur's direct command.[2]
This foreign presence marks the only time in the history of Japan that it has been occupied by a foreign power.[3] However, unlike in Germany the Allies never assumed direct control over Japan's civil administration. In the immediate aftermath of Japan's military surrender, the country's government continued to formally operate under the provisions of the Meiji Constitution. Furthermore, at General MacArthur's insistence, Emperor Hirohito remained on the imperial throne and was effectively granted full immunity from prosecution for war crimes after he agreed to replace the wartime cabinet with a ministry acceptable to the Allies and committed to implementing the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, which among other things called for the country to become a parliamentary democracy. Under MacArthur's guidance, the Japanese government introduced sweeping social reforms and implemented economic reforms that recalled American "New Deal" priorities of the 1930s under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[4] In 1947, a sweeping amendment to the Meiji Constitution was passed that effectively repealed it in its entirety and replaced it with a new, American-written constitution, and the Emperor's theoretically vast powers, which for many centuries had been constrained only by conventions that had evolved over time, became strictly limited by law as a constitutional monarchy.
While Article 9 of the constitution explicitly forbade Japan from maintaining a military or pursuing war as a means to settle international disputes, this policy soon became problematic especially as neighboring China fell under the control of the Chinese Communist Party and the Korean War broke out. As a result, the National Police Reserve (NPR) was founded in 1950. The NPR was reorganized into the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) in 1954, effectively completing the de facto remilitarization of Japan.
The occupation officially ended with the coming into force of the Treaty of San Francisco, signed on September 8, 1951, and effective from April 28, 1952, after which the US military ceased any direct involvement in the country's civil administration thus effectively restoring full sovereignty to Japan with the exception of the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa Prefecture). The simultaneous implementation of the US-Japan Security Treaty (replaced by the revised treaty in 1960) allowed tens of thousands of American soldiers to remain based in Japan indefinitely, albeit at the invitation of the Japanese government and not as an occupation force.[5]
The occupation of Japan can be usefully divided into three phases: the initial effort to punish and reform Japan; the so-called "Reverse Course" in which the focus shifted to suppressing dissent and reviving the Japanese economy to support the US in the Cold War as a country of the Western Bloc; and the final establishment of a formal peace treaty with the 48 Allies of the Second World War and an enduring military alliance with the United States.[6]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Dower 1999, p. 206.
- ^ Takemae 2002, p. 94.
- ^ "Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Japan, 1900 a.d.–present". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on June 18, 2009. Retrieved February 1, 2009.
- ^ Theodore Cohen, and Herbert Passin, Remaking Japan: The American Occupation as New Deal (Free Press, 1987).
- ^ Kapur 2018, p. 11.
- ^ "Milestones: 1945–1952 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov.