Allied Occupation of Japan, 1945

On August 15th 1945, after years of violent conflict, the Emperor Hirohito, in an official radio broadcast, announced the Japanese surrender to the allied forces. The United States – having played the major role in defeating the Axis powers – took supreme control over the occupation of the war-torn nation. Japan after the surrender was weak economically, militarily, and socially, the people were defeated. Consequently it was very susceptible to outside forces, not all of which were friendly to the Allied powers. The occupational forces had a “sense of urgency that the country should not only be ‘democratized’ to prevent the reemergence of militarism, but simultaneously immunized against a rising tide of communist influence.” The rising sun in the east would be reformed following western ideals.

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