Japan’s Journey through World War II Defeat
Review of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, by John W. Dower
Embracing Defeat is the Pulitzer and National Book Award winning historical opus of immediate post World War II period in Japan by MIT professor John W. Dower. It is a thematically written account covering the period after Japanese surrender in 1945 to 1952, when the war ravaged country was subjected to American rule with the idealistic aim of “democratising and demilitarising” it.
Japan was a closed economy ruled by feudal Shoguns who were forced open to trade by the US naval commodore Mathew Perry in 1852. It began to industrialise from the 1870s during the Meiji era when the rulers decided it was time to catch up to the west and Japan adeptly learnt to survive in an imperialist world. Capturing the mood of the times, is a line in a popular Japanese song of 1880s, “There is a Law of Nations, it is true, / but when the moment comes, remember, / the Strong eat up the Weak.”[1]
From late 1920’s, the country moved towards militarisation over a 20 year period and started to dominate its neighbours. Japanese emperor, Hirohito, was the monarch revered by the Japanese under whose name the war was fought. Government propaganda established the emperor as a direct descendent of the sun goddess Amaterasu and it characterised the national polity as a “theocracy” in which “the way of the subject is to be loyal to the emperor in disregard of self, thereby supporting the Imperial Throne coextensive with the Heavens and the Earth”. Moreover, every soldier who went into battle carried a pocket-size Senjinkun or Field Service Code establishing allegiance to his majesty.[2]
Pre-war Japanese government was brought to its knees by the devastation caused by heavy aerial bombing of major Japanese cities by US air force and the atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which lead to the unconditional surrender of Japan to the allied forces in August 1945. The victorious US army marched into Tokyo and set up camp to rule the country for the next seven years. As the country was reeling in shock from the devastation that had happened to it, US forces under General Douglas MacArthur were welcomed by an exhausted population as a liberation army.
Total devastation caused by the war is still hard to accurately quantify, but Dower notes that at least 2.7 million Japanese servicemen and civilians died as result of the war, which was almost 4 percent of the total population of 74 million in 1941.[3] This is apart from the devastation caused to the cities which were heavily destroyed and lead to almost 9 million people being rendered homeless.[4] Additionally, around 6.5 million Japanese were stranded in other countries who were now left without any resources and had the task of returning home. MacArthur observed that Japan had fallen to the status of a fourth rate country after the war.[5]
Full extent of the damage doesn’t even begin to be accounted for, which would include what the Japanese had done to other countries against whom it fought its war under the pretext of creating a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” after liberating them from colonial powers. The most severe damage was to China where almost 15 million people died, with brutal rapes of Nanking and Manila (Philippines) that have scarred history. Japanese soldiers were involved in mass brutalities including murder, torture, vivisections, rapes and even cannibalism — all in name of the superiority of the “Yamato race.”
The post-war American rule was characterized by its own absurdities, though it was considerably better than the pre-war government. It was an authoritarian rule of the victors who wanted to instill democracy from the top. Americans released political prisoners who were languishing in jail and initiated reforms to give freedom of speech to the locals to voice their opinions. At the same time, characteristic of their rule filled with double standards, they created a huge censor board and the Japanese were not allowed to write or say anything critical about the victors or threatening stability — which ended up with censoring anything that the Americans deemed inconvenient for them even whimsically.
General MacArther came to be known as the Supreme Commander and his office as “SCAP” bureaucracy (an acronym for Supreme Command for the Allied Powers). MacArther was highly revered during his stay in Japan, almost, in a messianic way. He receive a massive send-off when he left in 1951 after he was fired by US President Truman on grounds of insubordination for being overly aggressive regarding the Korean war. The Japanese also considered creating his statue in Tokyo bay and giving him an honorary citizenship, but he fell out of favour when he characterized the Japanese as being close to “a twelve year old boy” in development compared to Anglo-saxons including Germans in address to the Congress upon his return to the United States.[6] Given the role he played, he was rather quickly forgotten.
The book highlights in considerable detail the implications of imposing a “Victor’s justice” on a losing country. Japanese government was made to bear cost of the stay of the almost 350,000 American victors who came to Japan by end of 1945, while their population was forced to eat sawdust, grasshoppers, and rats among other options to avoid starvation.[7] The Japanese government also concerned itself with creating red-light districts to provide local women for the sexual gratification of the occupying Americans. The home ministry sent a secret message to their police officials asking them to prepare special “comfort facilities” for the occupation army in discretion and also financed their creation[8]. This was done almost in fear that the Americans don’t indulge in mass rapes done by their own soldiers during the war with the aim of “enlisting a small number of women to serve as a buffer protecting the chastity of the “good” women of Japan in dealing with the Western barbarians”.[9] American soldiers did oblige themselves by frequently visiting these brothels from the moment they arrived. So much that the American authorities had to themselves order the abolition of public prostitution, calling it a violation of women’s human rights. Their actual concern was the alarming rise in venereal disease among the American troops.[10]
In what now reads almost comically, is the absolute American support for retaining the emperor and suggesting he bore no responsibility for only being wrongly misled by his advisors. This was one of the biggest American hypocrisy in bringing the Japanese war leaders to justice. They decided to completely exonerate the emperor, Hirohito, of any wrong doing for taking the country to war in spite of enough damning evidence that he was directly involved in the war and also signed the war declaration. The Americans feared, albeit incorrectly, that removal of the Emperor would destabilize the country whose population devoutly revered him and might lead to a communist uprising or anarchy. Whereas in actuality the population was heavily disgusted by the betrayal from its leaders and many called for entirely abolishing the emperor system.
They only asked for a change of his role from somewhat of a deity to a symbol of unity in the new constitution allowing for the emperor system continue as is. This almost turned the entire issue of war responsibility into a joke. Dower succinctly writes, if the man in whose name imperial Japan had conducted foreign and military policy for twenty years was not held accountable for the initiation or conduct of the war, why should anyone expect ordinary people to dwell on such matters, or to think seriously about their own personal responsibilities.[11]
Another example of inconsistent American behaviour in judging war criminals was the secret blanket immunity given to a group of Japanese scientific researchers who had conducted lethal experiments on thousands of prisoners in Manchuria in exchange for sharing the results of their research with the Americans.[12] In his last letters, war crimes convicted General Homma Masaharu ruefully wrote, “To say that the United States is a fair country is a bald lie.”[13]
Dower also brilliantly details the struggles of ordinary Japanese to make their ends meet and the psyche of exhaustion and despair that took place among the masses — known as the “kyodatsu condition”.[14] For example, in 1947, the country was rattled by an incident involving the death by starvation of a thirty-three year old judge named Yamaguchi Yoshitada. Yoshitada presided over a small court devoted to petty economic crimes, where the most of the cases involved black market transactions. Although serious profiteers almost never appeared before him, the people who did appear before him were desperate men and women struggling to make ends meet. His wife recalled he had to judge absurd cases like one involving a seventy-two year old woman who had been attempting to feed her two grandchildren, whose parents had died, by selling her possessions in the black market which was illegal. Since the lady was a repeat offender he had to sentence her to jail. The young judge’s response to the moral dilemma was to abide by the law and live by it so he could perform his duties with a clear conscience. He decided to eat only according to what was rationed to him by the government, though he agreed to buy black market food for his children. Because of the inefficiencies of the rationed food distribution, his wife recalled after a while the Judge and she were consuming nothing more than salted water. The judge died on October 11, 1947 causing shock, praise and also criticism. He was compared to Socrates by many, but a Supreme Court judge while praising him reiterated that staying alive was more important than not violating food laws.[15] The judge’s heroic death did not change much as food shortages persisted and black market continued to thrive.
More than 1.2 million ordinary people (which increased to 1.36 and then 1.5 million in subsequent years) were arrested for illegal black market transactions every year from 1946 to 1949, whereas the industrialists, politicians, former military officials who made a killing went scot-free.
As a result of the mass misery caused by the war and worsening economic conditions, a victim consciousness took root among the Japanese who started to perceive themselves as the greatest sufferers from the war. Focusing on the misery at home was easier, which was more immediate compared to the devastation done by the Imperial forces to strangers in distant lands.[16] Dower notes that, in the long view of history, Japan rebounded quickly from defeat. For ordinary people, however, postwar recovery seemed agonizingly slow.[17]
However, at the same time, there were people who saw new opportunities also. Black markets were quickly created to deal with the corrupted government rationing system and people started innovating to make ends meet. Former military equipment was modified to everyday consumption items for use and regular use items came to the market, though at much higher prices. A bold, erotic counter culture, known as the “Kasutori Culture” (named on the local drink “kasutori shochu”), with sexually oriented entertainment and art flourished in the 1950s along with the new found freedom of expression.[18] Several writers critiqued the moralising wartime and post-war mind set and gave expression to what they felt was a more authentic human nature in defeat. Sakaguchi Ango’s 1946 essay “On Decadence” is often referred to as the best critique of traditional values that the popular writers and intellectuals promoted in the wake of defeat. “He wrote that to be decadent and immoral was truthful, realistic — and supremely human. Only by starting with a humble attitude toward decadence could people begin to imagine a new, more genuine morality.” He concluded, “We must discover ourselves, and save ourselves, by falling to the best of our ability.”[19]
A lot of famous postwar Japanese companies also took their root during the occupation period. Famous camera manufacturers Cannon and Nikon had been producers of optics for the Japanese war effort. Honda was created by Honda Soichiro, who was a small wartime subcontractor supplying piston rings to Toyota, and began motorizing bicycles with tiny engines used by the military. Similarly, Sony Corporation was created by Ibuka Masaru, who collaborated with a few colleagues of a small company to produce a popular device that converted shortwave transmissions to normal broadcasting frequencies.[20]
To their credit, Americans made several institutional reforms in Japan in terms of land reforms, dissolution of family-controlled wealthy zaibatsu companies, and promotion of legislation that gave unprecedented rights to organized labour, which lasted even after their rule. Their initial modus-operandi was to use the Japanese bureaucracy for policy, which got further strengthened over the years.[21]
Americans also made several lasting impact in post-war Japanese politics by overseeing the re-writing of the Japanese constitution. The main draft was in fact written by the Americans themselves to which subsequent changes were made by the Japanese keeping the overarching principles of the victors in mind. As a part of this exercise, another of American myopic absurdity that came out was regarding their initial insistence that the constitution put limits on Japanese remilitarisation. However, as soon as the Korean War broke out in 1950, the Americans changed face and wanted to make constitutional revisions to allow for remilitarization. This alarmed the Japanese leaders who refrained from doing so, as it would have led to direct involvement in another war to support America which would have been very unpopular with the public. Instead of direct involvement, Japanese economy got a much needed boost from war purchases by the US military for the Korean War.
Although Article 9 of the constitution concerning remilitarization has been bent since to expansive interpretation of what is permitted in the name of “self-defence” capacity it has survived so far. Dower highlights that in some ways, the ideals of demilitarization and democratization have remained a part of the popular Japanese consciousness for over a half-century.[22]
Fast-forward to present, Japan has flourished and emerged as a major economic force after the war as a result of both American support and its economic ingeniousness of combining market capitalism with protectionist defences — thanks to the focus on economics as the only post war nationalism avenue left to its leaders. Standards of living have risen rather impressively and at every level of society without dependence on the military-industrial complex. Furthermore, income distribution is more equitable than many advanced economies. Along with the times, a lot of bankrupt legacies of the defeat are being discarded as the country moves ahead and finds itself leading in the 21st century.
Regarding the war legacy, Dowers ends his meticulously researched book in a sober note. He points out that the double-standards of victors in terms of the use of allied atrocities, atomic bombs, European imperialistic violence and the biased application of war justice via the haphazard Tokyo trials has intensified the sense of victimization among many Japanese in recent years. It has left them with a belief that Japan was judged by standards that other nations do not apply to themselves — a belief which doesn’t sound too unreasonable.[23] Echoing this sentiment, General Masaharu grimly observed in the last letters to his family, “There is no such thing as justice in international relations in the universe.”[24]
Note — All facts in the review are taken from the book itself. I have selectively reported some of the references where a more direct use has been made [1] Page 21, [2] Page 278, [3] Page 45, [4] Page 47, [5] Page 44, [6] Page 550, [7] Page 91, [8] Pages 124–126, [9] Page 126, [10] Page 130, [11] Page 28, [12] Page 465, [13] Page 516, [14] Page 88, [15] Page 100, [16] Page119, [17] Page 105, [18] Page 148, [19] Page 157, [20] Pages 533–534,[21] Page 560, [22] Page 561–562, [23] Page 562, [24] Page 516
