Wikibooks: A History of Japan: From Mythology to Nationhood/Post-War Japan

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Pacific; Sakhalin
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A_History_of_Japan:_From_Mythology_to_Nationhood/Post-War_Japan

This chapter outlines the period of history which started at the end of the Allied occupation in 1952. During this period Japan re established itself as a global economic and political power and as a democratic pacifist nation. =Post occupation politics= The Allied occupation ended on April 28 1952 when the terms of the Treaty of San Francisco went into effect. By the terms of the treaty Japan regained its sovereignty but lost many of its possessions from before World War II including Korea Taiwan and Sakhalin. It also lost control over a number of small islands in the Pacific which it administered as League of Nations Mandates such as the Marianas and the Marshalls. The new treaty also gave Japan the freedom to engage in international defense blocs. Japan did this on the same day it signed the San Francisco Treaty Shigeru Yoshida and Harry Truman penned a document that allowed the United States Armed Forces to continue their use of bases in Japan. Even before Japan regained full sovereignty the government had rehabilitated nearly 80 000 people who had been purged many of whom returned to their former political and government positions. A debate over limitations on military spending and the sovereignty of the emperor ensued contributing to the great reduction in the Liberal Party s majority in the first postoccupation elections (October 1952). After several reorganizations of the armed forces in 1954 the Self Defense Forces were established under a civilian director. Cold War realities and the hot war in nearby Korea also contributed significantly to the United States influenced economic redevelopment the suppression of communism and the discouragement of organized labor in Japan during this period. Continual fragmentation of parties and a succession of minority governments led conservative forces to merge the Liberal Party (Jiyuto) with the Japan Democratic Party (Nihon Minshuto) an offshoot of the earlier Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democratic Party (Jiyu Minshuto LDP) in November 1955. This party ...