JAPAN IN EUROPE RUINS CHAPTER 16 SECTION

JAPAN IN EUROPE & RUINS CHAPTER 16: SECTION 5

DEVASTATION IN EUROPE • EUROPE LAY IN RUINS • CLOSE TO 40 MILLION DEAD (2/3 OF THOSE CIVILIANS) • MANY CITIES REDUCED TO RUBBLE • • LONDON, WARSAW & BERLIN WERE DESTROYED ROME, PARIS AND BRUSSELS SURVIVED AFTER THE BOMBINGS MANY CIVILIANS STAYED BUT THEY HAD NO WATER, NO ELECTRICITY AND VERY LITTLE FOOD

50 MILLION DISPLACED PERSONS (DPS) • INCLUDED SURVIVORS OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS, PRISONERS OF WAR AND REFUGEES WHO FOUND THEMSELVES IN THE WRONG COUNTRIES WHEN POSTWAR TREATIES CHANGED NATIONAL BORDERS. • THEY WANDERED ACROSS EUROPE HOPING TO FIND THEIR FAMILIES OR FIND A SAFE PLACE TO LIVE • SIMON WIESENTHAL, SURVIVOR OF AUSCHWITZ STATED THAT “DESIRE TO FIND ONE’S PEOPLE WAS STRONGER THAN HUNGER, THIRST, FATIGUE. ”

MISERY AFTER THE WAR • AGRICULTURE HAD BEEN COMPLETELY DISRUPTED • FEW REMAINED TO WORK THE FIELDS DURING THE WAR • TRANSPORTATION SYS WAS DESTROYED & MEAGER HARVESTS OFTEN DID NOT REACH THE CITIES • THOUSANDS DIED AS FAMINE AND DISEASE SPREAD THRU-OUT BOMBED OUT CITIES • THE 1 ST POSTWAR WINTER BROUGHT MUCH HARDSHIP & SUFFERING

POSTWAR GOVERNMENTS • ONCE GERMANY SURRENDERED, MANY PREWAR GOVS QUICKLY RETURNED ▫ BELGIUM, HOLLAND, DENMARK & NORWAY • IN COUNTRIES SUCH AS GERMANY, FRANCE & ITALY NEW GOVERNMENTS WERE REQ’D • COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBERSHIP SKYROCKETED IN FRANCE AND ITALY • ANXIOUS TO SPEED UP A POLITICAL TAKEOVER THE COMMUNISTS STAGED A SERIES OF VIOLENT STRIKES. • THIS PRODUCED A BACKLASH OF VOTING AGAINST COMMUNIST PARTY. • COMMUNIST INFLUENCE DECLINED AS FRENCH & ITALIAN ECONOMIES BEGAN TO RECOVER

THE NUREMBERG TRIALS • WHILE NATIONS WERE STRUGGLING TO RECOVER POL & ECON THEY ALSO DEALT WITH WAR CRIMES. • DURING 1945 -46 AN INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL REPRESENTING 23 NATIONS PUT NAZI WAR CRIMINALS ON TRIAL IN NUREMBERG. • THEY WERE ACCUSED OF “WAGING A WAR OF AGGRESSION” AND “CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY” • SOME WERE EXECUTED BY HANGING AND THEIR BODIES BURNED IN THE OVENS AT DACHAU

POSTWAR JAPAN • TWO MILLION JAPANESE DEAD • MAJOR CITIES INCLUDING TOKYO, HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI WERE DESTROYED • ALLIES STRIPPED JAPAN OF ITS COLONIAL EMPIRE

OCCUPIED JAPAN • GEN. DOUGLAS MACARTHUR WHO ACCEPTED JAPANESE SURRENDER TOOK CHARGE OF THE US OCCUPATION • • • HE WAS DETERMINED TO BE FAIR AND NOT TO PLANT THE SEEDS OF A FUTURE WAR. BEGAN PROCESS OF DEMILITARIZATION, DISBANDING THE JAPANESE ARMED FORCES. LEFT JAPAN WITH ONLY A SMALL POLICE FORCE ALSO BEGAN BRINGING WAR CRIMINALS TO TRIAL. OUT OF 25 DEFENDANTS, 7 CONDEMNED TO DIE

DEMOCRATIZATION • MACARTHUR TURNED TO THE PROCESS OF CREATING A GOV ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE. • IN FEB 1946 HE AND HIS ADVISERS DREW UP A NEW CONSTITUTION. • IT CHANGED THE EMPIRE INTO A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY LIKE BRITAIN • THE NEW CONSTITUTION WAS MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENT OF THE OCCUPATION

THE NEW CONSTITUTION • NO LONGER RECOGNIZED THE EMPEROR AS DIVINE WHOSE WILL USED TO BE LAW • POWER OF THE EMPEROR WAS DRAMATICALLY REDUCED • BECAME A FIGUREHEAD OF JAPAN LIKE THE MONARCH OF GT BRITAIN • NEW CONSTITUTION GUARANTEED THAT REAL POWER LIED WITH THE 2 -HOUSE PARLIAMENT KNOWN AS THE “DIET” • GOV WOULD NOT BE LED BY PRIME MINISTER WHO WOULD BE CHOSED BY MAJORITY OF THE DIET • ALL CITIZENS OVER 20 WOULD HAVE RIGHT TO VOTE • ARTICLE 9 – STATED THAT JAPAN COULD NO LONGER WAGE WAR

LAND OWNERSHIP • MACARTHUR WAS NOT TOLD TO REVIVE THE ECONOMY BUT WAS INSTRUCTED TO BROADEN LAND OWNERSHIP & INCREASE THE PARTICIPATION OF WORKERS AND FARMERS IN THE NEW DEMOCRACY. • MACARTHUR PUT FORWARD NEW PLAN THAT REQ’D ABSENTEE LANDOWNERS WITH HUGE LAND ESTATES TO SELL THEIR LAND TO THE GOV. • THE GOV WOULD THEN SELL LAND TO TENANT FARMERS AT REASONABLE PRICES • WORKERS WERE ALSO GIVEN RIGHT TO CREATE INDEPENDENT LABOR UNIONS

FORMAL TREATY • ENDING THE WAR WAS SIGNED BY JAPAN AND 47 OTHER COUNTRIES IN SEPT 1951. • US AGREED TO MAINTAIN MILITARY PRESENCE IN JAPAN SINCE JAPAN HAD NO MILITARY FORCE • BITTER ENEMIES WERE NOW ALLIES • ALLIES SUCH AS THE US AND USSR WERE NOW BECOMING BITTER ADVERSARIES