During the Allied occupation (1945-52), Japan's position in U. S. policy was transformed from that of enemy to key ally. Only a few years after the war, the primary objective of U. S. policy in Japan was economic recovery, and the U. S. began rebuilding Japan as the “workshop” of Asia. The purpose of this paper is to examine how American public opinion responded to this policy of reviving Japan's economy soon after the war and how American perceptions of Japan shifted. By utilizing the extensive opinion survey by the U. S. State Department that covered various newspapers, magazines, radio comments, leadership opinions, and public opinion polls, this study focuses on an aspect of the occupation history which has not received full attention from the conventional scholarship. It should also give an insight into the patterns of American people's attitudes toward foreign nations and U. S. political culture.
The occupation period can be divided into three phases, according to U. S. policy toward Japan's economy. Even during the first phase (1945-46), when the U. S. officially declared not to undertake responsibility for Japan's recovery, a desire to make Japan a peaceful and democratic nation prompted Americans to allow her peacetime industries. During the second phase (1947-48), the Occupation began focusing on economic rehabilitation, and Washington officials started to cultivate actively the measures for Japan's speedy recovery. In 1947 a series of factors led public opinion to support making Japan self-supporting. These factors include MacArthur's proposal for early peace, the Cold War in Europe, the consequent increase in U. S. aid, the need for reducing the American taxpayer's burden, and concern with the communist threat in Japan. By 1948, with the “deterioration” of the Asian (especially Chinese) situation and with official efforts to shift occupation policy, American opinion tended to approve of making Japan not merely self-supporting but the “workshop” of Asia. During the third phase (1949-52), Washington took the initiative in executing economic recovery programs, largely neglecting democratic reform. By then, the Cold War had spread into Asia, and the public favored rebuilding Japan as an anti-Red bulwark.
Thus American public opinion generally followed the official policy, notwithstanding some dissenting views. Public comment on Japan, reflecting America's “mission” to “democratize” Japan or to fight against the communist threat, testifies to the strain of idealism of the American way of life and its promotion abroad, while self-interest often accompanied it.
American attitudes toward Japan during the occupation softened considerably. However, the softening process did not involve the fundamental improvement in perceptions of the Japanese themselves. While drastic changes of the international environment could quickly transform our perceptions of other nations in a political and strategic sense, the negative images deriving from war experiences and racial and cultural biases were hard to change.
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