We are now on a high tide of interest in the occupation studies. The postwar society of Japan, no doubt, is a product of occupation policy as well as that of her own historical heritage. The decisive importance of the occupation reforms for the reconstruction of postwar society has compelled Japanese scholars to engage in research on that period since early 1970, when U. S. governmental documents relating to occupation policy were widely declassified and made available for researchers.
This volume is an attempt to add the newest analyses to the increasing amount of preceding studies on the occupation. It consists of the following three parts: first, the international environment with regard to occupied Japan; second, the political process in the early stage of the occupation; and third, U. S. policies toward Japan at the termination of the occupation.
When it comes to international contexts of the occupation, it is only natural that we pay much attention to U. S. policy first, and British policy second. But it is not proper that we pay little attention to the positions of Soviet Russia and China with respect to the occupation of Japan. Here in this volume, Hirai's article analyzes the Russian interest in early postwar Japan based on Russian documents, and A. Ishii's article, based on Chinese documents, deals with the difficulties of the Republic of China in having an influence on occupation policy for Japan. Also included is Manabe's article which examines U. S. economic policy for occupied Germany, which is an important precedent to the policy for Japan.
Needless to say, Japanese scholars are particularly interested in the various reforms under the occupation and formation of postwar society. This volume has two papers on this aspect; Shindo's article stresses an importance of Hitoshi Ashida's liberal position within the conservative camp in postwar Japan based on newly published sources of the Ashida diary under his own editorship, and Masuda's article gives a detailed account of the formulation process of GHQ's purge policy based on a vast amount of new materials.
U. S. documents concerning the completion period of the occupation were only recently made available to scholars, which makes it possible for this volume to have three detailed analyses on this phase; Kajiura's article examines how J. F. Dulles treated the territorial problem of the Northern Islands; O. Ishii's paper analyzes how U. S. economic policy towards Japan was formed, trying to make her economy self-supporting in the cold war context of international relations; and Miyazato's paper traces how the Administrative Agreement on security problems between the U. S. and Japan was formulated immediately after the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and how the status of U. S. forces in Japan was defined.
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