The occupation of Japan was, from start to finish, an American operation. General Douglans MacArthur, sole supreme
                    commander of the Allied Power was in charge. The Americans had insufficient men to make a military government of
                    Japan possible; so t hey decided to act through the existing Japanese gobernment. General Mac Arthur became, except in
                    name, dictator of Japan. He imposed his will on Japan. Demilitarization was speedily carried out, demobilization of the
                    former imperial forces was complet ed by early 1946. 

                    Japan was extensively fire bomded during the second world war. The stench of sewer gas, rotting garbage, and the acrid
                    smell of ashes and scorched debris pervaded the air. The Japanese people had to live in the damp, and col d of the
                    concrete buildings, because they were the only ones left. Little remained of the vulnerable wooden frame, tile roof
                    dwelling lived in by most Japanese. When the first signs of winter set in, the occupation forces immediately took over all
                    the s team-heated buildings. The Japanese were out in the cold in the first post war winter fuel was very hard to find, a
                    family was considered lucky if they had a small barely glowing charcoal brazier to huddle around. That next summer in
                    random spots new ho uses were built, each house was standardized at 216 square feet, and required 2400 board feet of
                    material in order to be built. A master plan for a modernistic city had been drafted, but it was cast aside because of the
                    lack of time before the next winte r. The thousands of people who lived in railroad stations and public parks needed
                    housing.

                    All the Japanese heard was democracy from the Americans. All they cared about was food. General MacAruther asked
                    the government to send food, when they refus ed he sent another telegram that said, "Send me food, or send me bullets."

                    American troops were forbidden to eat local food, as to keep from cutting into the sparse local supply. No food was was
                    brought in expressly for the Japanese durning the first six months after the American presence there. Herbert Hoover,
                    serving as chairman of a special presidential advisory committee, recommended minimum imports to Japan of 870,000
                    tons of food to be distributed in different urban areas. Fi sh, the source of so much of the protein in the Japanese diet,
                    were no longer available in adequate quantities because the fishing fleet, particularly the large vessels, had been badly
                    decimated by the war and because the U.S.S.R. closed off the fishing g rounds in the north.

                    The most important aspect of the democratization policy was the adoption of a new constitution and its supporting
                    legislation. When the Japanese government proved too confused or too reluctant to come up with a constitutional reform
                    that satisfied MacArthur, he had his own staff draft a new constitution in February 1946. This, with only minor changes,
                    was then adopted by the Japanese government in the form of an imperial amendment to the 1889 constitution and went
                    into effect on May 3, 1947. The new Constitution was a perfection of the British parliamentary form of government that
                    the Japanese had been moving toward in the 1920s. Supreme political power was assigned to the Diet. Cabinets were
                    made responsible to the Diet by having the prime minister elected by the lower house. The House of Peers was replaced
                    by an elected House of Councillors. The judicial system was made as independent of executive interference as possible,
                    and a newly created supreme court was given the power to review the constitutionality of laws. Local governments were
                    given greatly increased powers.

                    The Emperor was reduced to being a symbol of the unity of the nation. Japanese began to see him in person. He went to
                    hospitals, schools, mines, industrial plants; he broke ground for public buildings and snipped tape at the opening of gates
                    and highways. He was steered here and there, shown things, and kept muttering, "Ah so, ah so." People started to call
                    him "Ah-so-san." Suddenly the puybli c began to take this shy, ill-at-ease man to their hearts. They saw in him something
                    of their own conqured selves, force to do what was alien to them. In 1948, in a newspaper poll, Emperior Hirohito was
                    voted the most popular man in Japan.

                    Civil liberties were emphasized, women were given full equality with men. Article 13 and 19 in the new Constitution,
                    prohibits discrimination in political, economic, and social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status, or family
                    origen. This is one of the most explicitly progressive statements on human rights anywhere in law. Gerneral Douglas
                    MacArthur emerged as a radical feminist because he was "convinced that the place of women in Japan must be brought
                    to a level consistent with that of women in the western democracies." So the Japanese women got their equal rights
                    amendment long before a concerted effort was made to obtain one in America. 

                    Compulsory education was extened to nine years, efforts were made to make education more a traning in thinking than in
                    rote memory, and the school system above the six elementary grades was revised to conform to the American pattern.
                    This last mechanical change produced great confusion and dissatisfaction but became so entrenched that it could not be re
                    vised even after the Americans departed.

                    Japan's agriculture was the quickest of national activities to recover because of land reform. The Australians came up with
                    the best plan. It was basis was this: There were to be no absentee landlards. A person who actually worked the land
                    could own up to 7.5 arcers. Anyone living in a village near by could keep 2.5 acres. Larger plots of land, exceeding these
                    limits, were bought up by the government and sold on easy terms to former tenants. Within two years 2 million tenants
                    became landowners. The American occupation immediately gained not only a large constituency, for the new owners had
                    a vested interest in preserving the change, but also a psychological momentum for other changes they wanted to ini tiate.

                    The American labor policy in Japan had a double goal: to encourage the growth of democratic unions while keeping them
                    free of communists. Union organization was used as a balance to the power of management. To the surprise of the
                    American authorties, this movement took a decidedly more radical turn. In the desperate economic conditions of early
                    postwar Japan, there was little room for successful bargaining over wages, and many labor unions instead made a bid to
                    take over industry and o perate it in their own behalf. Moreover large numbers of workers in Japan were government
                    employees, such as railroad workers and teachers, whose wages were set not by management but by the government.
                    Direct political action therefore seemed more meani ngful to these people than wage bargaining. The Japanese unions
                    called for a general strike on February 1, 1947. MacArthur warned the union leadership that he would not countenace a
                    nationwide strike. The strike leaders yieled to MacArthur's will. The re after the political appeal of radical labor action
                    appeared to wane.

                    The Americans wanted to disband the great Zaibatsu trust as a means of reducing Japan's war-making potential. There
                    were about 15 Zaibatsu families such as - Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Yasuda, and Sumitomo. The Zaibatsu controled the industry
                    of Japan. MacArthur's liaison men pressured the Diet into passing the Deconcentration Law in December 1947. In the
                    eyes of most Japanese this law was designed to cripple Japanese business and i ndustry forever. The first step in breaking
                    up the Zaibatsu was to spread their ownership out among the people and to prevent the old owners from ever again
                    exercising control. The stocks of all the key holding companies were to be sold to the public. Friends of the old Zaibatsu
                    bought the stock. In the long run the Zaibatsu were not exactly destroyed, but a few were weakened and others
                    underwent a considerable shuffle. 

                    The initial period of the occupation from 1945 to 1948 was marked by reform, the second phase was one of stabilization.
                    Greater attention was given to improvement of the economy. Japan was a heavy expense to the United States. The
                    ordered breakup of the Zaibatsu was slowed down. The union movement continued to grow, to the ult imate benefit of
                    the worker. Unremitting pressure on employers brought swelling wages, which meant the steady expansion of Japan
                    domestic consumer market. This market was a major reason for Japan's subsequent economic boom. Another boom to
                    the economy was the Korean War which proved to be a blessing in disguise. Japan became the main staging area for
                    military action in Korea and went on a war boom economy with out having to fight in or pay for a war.

                    The treaty of peace with Japan was signed at San Francisco in September 1951 by Japan, the United States, and
                    forty-seven other nations. The Soviet Union refused to sign it. The treaty went into effect in April 1952, officially
                    terminating the United States military occupation and restoring full independence. 

                    What is extraordinary in the Occupation and its aftermath was the insignificance of the unpleasant. For the Japanese, the
                    nobility of American ideals and the essential benignity of the American presence assuaged much of the bitterness and
                    anguish of defeat. For the Americans, the joys of promoting peace and democracy triumphed over the attendant
                    fustrations and grievances. Consequently, the Occupation served to lay down a substantial capital of good will on which
                    both America and Jap an would draw in the years ahead.

                                                     BIBLIOGRAPHY
                     
                       Christopher, Robert C.  /The Japanese Mind/.  New York:  Fawcett
                       Columbine, 1983
                     
                       La Cerda, John.  /The Conqueror Comes to Tea/.  New Brunswick:  R utgers
                       University Press, 1946
                     
                       Manchester, William.  /American Caesar/.  New York:  Dell Publishing
                       Company, Inc., 1978
                     
                       Perry, John Curtis.  /Beneath the Eagle's Wings/.  New York:  Dodd, Mead
                       And Company, 1980
                     
                       Reischauer, Edwin O.  / The Japanese/.  London:  Belknap Press, 1977
                     
                       Seth, Ronald.  /Milestones in Japanese History/.  Philadelphia:  Chilton
                       Book Company, 1969
                     
                       Sheldon, Walt.  /The Honorable Conquerors/.  New York:  The Macmillan
                       Company., 1965
                     . 