Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

20 • INTRODUCTION
Japanese military forces struck Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with dramatic
suddenness on 7 December 1941. The early months of the war were
wildly successful for Japan, capturing Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya,
the Dutch East Indies, Burma, Ceylon, and the Philippines from the
Americans, British, and Dutch. Then in June 1942, American forces
sank four Japanese naval carriers and destroyed some 300 planes in the
Battle of Midway. In January 1943, American forces recaptured
Guadalcanal. Thereafter, American forces gradually rolled back Japan’s
territorial gains in Southeast Asia and the Pacific—though not in
China—and in the spring of 1945 captured Okinawa. Most major
Japanese cities, including Tokyo, were razed by conventional and firebombings.
After the Japanese cabinet refused the surrender terms offered
in the Potsdam Declaration, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
were destroyed by the world’s first atomic attacks on 6 August and 9
August. Soon after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet
Union’s invasion of Manchuria, Emperor Hirohito carefully and publicly
announced Japan’s surrender on 15 August 1945. On 30 August,
the first occupation troops arrived on Japan’s shores, opening a new
chapter in U.S.–Japanese relations.
THE OCCUPATION ERA, 1945–1952
After Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II, the United States played
a leading role in implementing the Allied Occupation policies in Japan
led by General Douglas MacArthur. The United States, its wartime allies,
and Japanese supporters also put in place constitutional, political,
and educational reforms in the first two and a half years of the Occupation.
Washington then changed course and worked to establish a selfsufficient
Japanese economy. In February 1949, Joseph Dodge, an
American economic adviser, imposed a politically unpopular austerity
program called the Dodge Line in order to balance the Japanese budget.
The Dodge Line was a major turning point in the Occupation. It transformed
the state-managed economy into a market-oriented, export-led
economy. The fate of the Dodge Line depended on the revival of Japanese
foreign trade; unfortunately, this was not achieved for some time
because of a worldwide depression in 1949. Southeast Asian countries
were Japan’s natural market because of their great demand for industrial
goods and their proximity. Establishing a regional economic linkage,