Tokyo in Depth - Tokyo - page 15

WORLD WAR II &
ITS AFTERMATH
Japan's expansionist policies in Asia during
the 1930s and early 1940s spread the flag
of the rising sun over Hong Kong, China,
Singapore, Burma, Malaysia, the Philip-
pines, the Dutch East Indies, and Guam.
World War II, however, halted Japan's
advance. Shortly after the United States
dropped the world's first atomic bombs—
over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and
over Nagasaki 3 days later—surrender
came, on August 14, 1945.
The end of the war brought American
occupation forces to Japan, where they
remained until 1952. It was the first time
in Japan's history that the island nation
had suffered defeat and occupation by a
foreign power. The experience had a pro-
found effect on the Japanese people.
Emerging from their defeat, they began
the long effort to rebuild their cities and
economy. In 1946, under the guidance of
the Allied military authority, headed by
U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, they
adopted a new, democratic constitution
that renounced war and divested the
emperor of his claim to divinity. A parlia-
mentary system of government was set up
and in 1947 the first general elections were
held. The following year, the militarists
and generals who had carried out the
Pacific War were tried, and many of them
were convicted. To the younger generation
of Japanese, the occupation was less a
painful burden that had to be suffered
than an opportunity to remake their coun-
try, with American encouragement, into a
modern, peace-loving, and democratic
state.
A special relationship developed
between the Japanese and their American
occupiers. In the early 1950s, as the Cold
War between the United States and the
communist world erupted into hostilities
in Korea, that relationship grew into a
firm alliance, strengthened by a security

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Tokugawas were overthrown, and Emperor
Meiji was restored as ruler. The feudal era
drew to an end.
THE MEIJI RESTORATION
Rather than remain in Kyoto, Emperor
Meiji decided to take Edo for his own and
moved his Imperial capital to its new
home in 1868. Renaming Edo Tokyo, or
“Eastern Capital” (to distinguish it from
the “western” capital of Kyoto), the
emperor was quick to welcome ideas and
technology from the West. The ensuing
years, known as the Meiji Period (1868-
1911), were nothing short of amazing, as
Japan progressed rapidly from a feudal
agricultural society of samurai and peas-
ants to an industrial nation. The samurai
were stripped of their power and were no
longer permitted to carry swords; a prime
minister and cabinet were appointed; a
constitution was drafted; and a parlia-
ment, called the Diet, was elected. The
railway, postal system, and even specialists
and advisers were imported from the West.
Between 1881 and 1898, 6,177 British,
2,764 Americans, 913 Germans, and 619
French were retained by the Japanese gov-
ernment to help transform Japan into a
modern society.
As the nation's capital, Tokyo was hard-
est hit by this craze for modernization.
Ideas for fashion, architecture, food, and
department stores were imported from the
West—West was best, and things Japanese
were forgotten or pushed aside. It didn't
help that Tokyo was almost totally
destroyed twice in the first half of the 20th
century: In 1923, a huge earthquake, mea-
suring 7.9 on the Richter scale and known
as the Great Kanto Earthquake, struck the
city, followed by tsunami (tidal waves).
More than 100,000 people died and a
third of Tokyo was in ruins. Disaster
struck again during World War II, when
incendiary bombs laid more than half the
city to waste and killed another 100,000
people.

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