Occupation of Japan

Occupation of Japan 占領下の日本 senryō-ka no Nihon
1945–1952
Left: Civil and naval ensign Right: State flag (de facto)
De jure map of Japan under Allied occupation. The Japanese archipelago, placed under the authority of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (de facto United States), effective 1945–1952.[a] Japanese Taiwan and its Spratly Islands, placed under the authority of China. Karafuto Prefecture and the Kuril Islands, placed under the authority of the Soviet Union. Japanese Korea south of the 38th parallel north, placed under the authority of the United States Army Military Government in Korea, granted independence in 1948 as the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The Kwantung Leased Territory, a Japanese colony occupied by the Soviet Union 1945–1955, returned to China in 1955. Japanese Korea north of the 38th parallel north, placed under the authority of the Soviet Civil Administration, granted independence in 1948 as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) The South Pacific Mandate, a Japanese colony in the name of the League of Nations, occupied by the United States 1945–1947, converted into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands of the United Nations under the US administration in 1947.
De facto map of Japan (red) under Allied occupation, with modern borders.
Status	Military occupation
Official languages	Japanese English
Demonym(s)	Japanese
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers
• 1945–1951	Douglas MacArthur
• 1951–1952	Matthew Ridgway
Emperor
• 1945–1952	Shōwa
Prime Ministers
• 1945	Prince Naruhiko
• 1945–1946	Kijūrō Shidehara
• 1946–1947	Shigeru Yoshida
• 1947–1948	Tetsu Katayama
• 1948	Hitoshi Ashida
• 1948–1952	Shigeru Yoshida
History
• Emperor Hirohito announces surrender of Japan	15 August 1945
• Occupation begins	28 August 1945
• Official surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay	2 September 1945
• Transfer of the administration of Taiwan and Pescadores to China	25 October 1945
• Constitutional amendment	3 May 1947
• South Korea	15 August 1948
• North Korea	9 September 1948
• Treaty of San Francisco	28 April 1952
Preceded by Succeeded by Empire of Japan Japan

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History of Japan
General Douglas MacArthur meets with Emperor Hirohito, September 27, 1945
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Japan was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on April 28, 1952. The occupation, led by the American military with support from the British Commonwealth and under the supervision of the Far Eastern Commission, involved a total of nearly one million Allied soldiers.^[1] The occupation was overseen by the US General Douglas MacArthur, who was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers by the US President Harry S. Truman; MacArthur was succeeded as supreme commander by General Matthew Ridgway in 1951. Unlike in the occupations of Germany and Austria, the Soviet Union had little to no influence in Japan, declining to participate because it did not want to place Soviet troops under MacArthur's direct command.^[2]

This foreign presence marks the only time in the history of Japan that it has been occupied by a foreign power.^[3] However, unlike in Germany, the Allies never assumed direct control over Japan's civil administration. In the immediate aftermath of Japan's military surrender, the country's government continued to formally operate under the provisions of the Meiji Constitution. Furthermore, at General MacArthur's insistence, Emperor Hirohito remained on the imperial throne and was effectively granted full immunity from prosecution for war crimes after he agreed to replace the wartime cabinet with a ministry acceptable to the Allies and committed to implementing the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, which among other things called for the country to become a parliamentary democracy. Under MacArthur's guidance, the Japanese government introduced sweeping social reforms and implemented economic reforms that recalled American "New Deal" priorities of the 1930s under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.^[4] In 1947, a sweeping amendment to the Meiji Constitution was passed that effectively repealed it in its entirety and replaced it with a new, American-written constitution, and the Emperor's theoretically vast powers, which for many centuries had been constrained only by conventions that had evolved over time, became strictly limited by law as a constitutional monarchy.

While Article 9 of the constitution explicitly forbade Japan from maintaining a military or pursuing war as a means to settle international disputes, this policy soon became problematic especially as neighboring China fell under the control of the Chinese Communist Party and the Korean War broke out. As a result, the National Police Reserve (NPR) was founded in 1950. The NPR was reorganized into the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) in 1954, effectively completing the de facto remilitarization of Japan.

The occupation officially ended with the coming into force of the Treaty of San Francisco, signed on September 8, 1951, and effective from April 28, 1952, after which the US military ceased any direct involvement in the country's civil administration thus effectively restoring full sovereignty to Japan with the exception of the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa Prefecture). The simultaneous implementation of the US-Japan Security Treaty (replaced by the revised treaty in 1960) allowed tens of thousands of American soldiers to remain based in Japan indefinitely, albeit at the invitation of the Japanese government and not as an occupation force.^[5]

The occupation of Japan can be usefully divided into three phases: the initial effort to punish and reform Japan; the so-called "Reverse Course" in which the focus shifted to suppressing dissent and reviving the Japanese economy to support the US in the Cold War as a country of the Western Bloc; and the final establishment of a formal peace treaty with the 48 Allies of the Second World War and an enduring military alliance with the United States.^[6]

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