Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [21]
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Books and films such as Letters from Iwo Jima and Memoirs of a Geisha help provide realistic historical context and an increased understanding of other eras and cultures.
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The tide started to turn against Japan from the Battle of Midway in June 1942, which saw the destruction of much of Japan’s carrier fleet. Basically, Japan had overextended itself, and over the next three years was subjected to an island-hopping counter-attack under General Douglas MacArthur. By mid-1945 the Japanese, ignoring the Potsdam Declaration calling for unconditional surrender, were preparing for a final Allied assault on their homelands. On 6 August the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, with 90,000 civilian deaths. On the 8th, Russia, which Japan had hoped might mediate, declared war. On the 9th another atomic bomb was dropped, on Nagasaki, with another 75,000 deaths. The situation prompted the emperor to formally announce surrender on 15 August. Hirohito probably knew what the bombs were, for Japanese scientists were working on their own atomic bomb, and seem to have had both sufficient expertise and resources, though their state of progress is unclear.
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RECOVERY & BEYOND
Following Japan’s defeat, a largely US occupation began under General MacArthur. It was benign and constructive, with the twin aims of demilitarisation and democratisation, and with a broader view of making Japan an Americanised bastion against communism in the region. To the puzzlement of many Japanese, Hirohito was not tried as a war criminal but was retained as emperor. This was largely for reasons of expediency, to facilitate and legitimise reconstruction – and with it US policy. It was Americans who drafted Japan’s new constitution, with its famous ‘no war’ clause. US aid was very helpful to the rebuilding of the economy, and so too were procurements from the Korean War of 1950–53. The occupation ended in 1952, though Okinawa was not returned until 1972 and is still home to US military bases. Japan still supports US policy in many regards, such as in amending the law to allow (noncombatant) troops to be sent to Iraq.
The Japanese responded extremely positively in rebuilding their nation, urged on by a comment from the postwar prime minister Yoshida Shigeru that Japan had lost the war but would win the peace. Certainly, in economic terms, through close cooperation between a stable government and well-organised industry, and a sincere nationwide determination to become ‘Number One’, by the 1970s Japan had effectively achieved this and become an economic superpower, with its ‘economic miracle’ the subject of admiration and study around the world. Even the Oil Shocks of 1973 and 1979 did not cause serious setback.
By the late 1980s Japan was by some criteria the richest nation on the planet, of which it occupied a mere 0.3% in terms of area but 16% in terms of economic might and an incredible 60% in terms of real-estate value. Some major Japanese companies had more wealth than many nations’ entire GNP.
Hirohito died in January 1989, succeeded by his son Akihito and the new Heisei (Full Peace) period, and he must have ended his extraordinarily eventful life happy at his nation’s economic supremacy.
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The Yamato dynasty is the longest unbroken monarchy in the world, and Hirohito’s reign from 1926 to 1989 the longest of any monarch in Japan.
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The so-called