Return to:  Outline Chronology of Japanese Cultural History
This page:  Rebuilding the Japanese Nation after the War
  ===1945-52 US-led Occupation under Douglas MacArthur (SCAP)=========
     = Massive malnourishment; crop failures; inflation; black market;
     = SCAP Dismantles: Censorship; Tokyo War Crimes Trials; Zaibatsu purge; Emperor made human
     = SCAP Democratizes: Human rights; religious freedoms; suffrage;
     = SCAP New-Dealism: widened distributions of income, land, capital; labor unions enabled;
     = ACJ, FEC, FEAC, CLO, IMTFE
1945.08ﾅ Govt disburses military leftovers: causes black market windfalls, rampant inflation
1945 Ruth Benedict, Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Japanese culture lacks internalized guilt.
1945.09.06 Truman signs occupation policy order
1945.10.04 Political prisoners (439) released; Thought Police (4,800) disbanded;
1945.10.05 E.H.Norman, J.K.Emmerson greet released communist prisoners Tokuda, Shiga
1945.10.20 Communists start Akahata newspaper.
1945.11-1945.12 Political Parties coalesce (all support surrender terms, reform, individual rights):
     = Liberal Party (pro-Emperor, anti-communist): Hatoyama Ichir�
     = Progressive Party (pro-Emp): (T冕� Diet leftovers?)
    1945.11.02 Japan Socialist Party: Katayama Tetsu, Nishio Suehiro
    1946.01? Communist Party (anti-Emp): Nosaka Sanz�, Tokuda Ky枴chi, Shiga Yoshio
1945.12 Labor Union Law permits strikes
1945.12.15 Diet grants right to vote to all citizens over 20.
1945.12.18 Pauley Mission recﾕs J industry be dismantled, J take last priority in Asian econ. dev.
1945-1947 SCAP organizes inoculations to prevent epidemics in malnourished population
1946.01.01 Emperor declares himself human (ningen-sengen). Japanese less shocked than US expected.
1946.01.25 MacArthur recommends (against Australia) that Emperor not be tried for war crimes.
     = fosters interpretation that Emperor was a pawn of wartime govt
1946 SCAP Land Reform: redistribution, nullification of tenant system
1946.03.31 US education mission to J recommends more democratic, US-style schooling
1946.05.01 Seventeenth May Day (first since '35) Demonstration
1946.11.03 Constitution: no miltary; no nukes; women's rights acknowledged
1946.12 Already 17,266 company-affiliated unions had formed, with over 5 million members
1947.04 US-styled education system (6-3) starts
1947.05 Postwar Constitution takes effect
     = individual replaces family as locus of autonomy
1951.07 Government announces that dismantling of zaibatsu is complete
---1945-1949 War Crimes Trials (IMFTE, GS)-------------------------------
1945.11-1946.10? Nuremburg War Crimes Trials:
1945.09.11 Arrest of 39 war-crimes suspects. Toojoo attempts suicide.
1945.12.15 Konoe suicide.
1946.01.04 SCAP orders wartime leaders purged: ~200,000 purged from ﾒpositions of influenceﾓ
     = Also orders purge of anti-occupation societies, later construed to also include leftists groups.
1946.02.23 Yamashita Tomoyuki ('Tiger of Malaya') hanged after trial in Philippines.
1946.04.03 Honma Masaru (Bataan Death March, Corregidor) executed (shot) after trial in Philippines.
1949 Tokyo War Crimes Trials: 25 Japanese declare Class A War Criminals.
1950.10 Trials dropped against (~10,000) wartime leaders
1951.06 Purge rescinded against wartime cultural leaders (bunkajin)
---U.S. Occupation backtracks on reform, begins Red Purge-------------
1947.01 GHQ calls off general strike planned for 1947.02.01
1950 MacArthur fails to ban JCP, but govt succeeds in purging leftists (Red Purge)
1951.05.01 Left Branch of unions use Shiba Park after Gov't bans Imperial Park for May Day Demo.
1950.07 Red Purge begins against news media affiliates
     ??? Cultural (left) leaders (hitherto heroes for having opposed the war) purged from public office.
---San Francisco Treaty (etc.) incurs student opposition movement-------
1951.01 MacArthur advocates Japanese rearmament
1951.04 MacArthur dismissed, replaced by Ridgeway
1951.09.08 San Francisco Treaty: subordinates Japan under U.S. defense umbrella
    - recognizes Taipei as capital of 'China'
1951 JSP splits (until 1955) over Security Treaty
1952 Uchinada Incident: Protest against using Uchinada for U.S. military shooting grounds.
     1953 Uchinada plan is forced through
1952.01 PM Yoshida Shigeru advocates establishment of Self Defense Force
1952.02 Poporo Incident? at Tokyo University
1952.04 ?? demonstrations against laws preventing demos to stop security treaty???
1952 US Occupation ends, Japan returns to self-governance: US-Japan pact
1952.05.01 May Day incident: 2 killed after demonstrators enter Imperial Park, clash w/ armed police.
     = Several hundred arrested; trial of 16 drags on until 1972
---U.S. Occupation of Okinawa / Ryukyu Islands----------------------
    = Okinawan population was stateless: denied U.S. and Japanese passports
    = Crimes by U.S. military personnel went unprosecuted
    = Occupation headed by USCAR: U.S. Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands
1951.06 Okinawa Reversion to Japan Association: gets 200,000 signatures to support reversion
?? (in response?) USCAR bans use of Hinomaru, importation of Japanese soil
?? USCAR James Hull advocates nurturing of Okinawan ethnic nationalism to combat reversionism
        = popularization of King Sho Hashi; sets up Culture Centers in Ryukyus
 
  1945-1950 Literature of life in wartime Japan
1947 (written 1943) Tanizaki Junichiroo, Makioka Sisters: Declining Osaka family tries to marry daughter
1946 Miyamoto Yuriko, Bansh� heiya:
1946 Noma Hiroshi, A Dark Picture: Would-be radical student life under wartime repression
1946.01-1948.09 Haniya Yutaka, Shirei (Dead Souls):
1947 Dazai Osamu, Setting Sun:
1948 Dazai Osamu commits suicide (third attempt)
1949 Kinoshita Junji, Evening Crane:
1950 Ooka Sh冑ei, Musashino fujin:
1951 Hotta Yoshiei, Hiroba no kodoku: Wartime activist suffers intimidation
1958 Oe Kenzaburoo, The Catch: black US pilot captured by villagers, revered by children, then killed

Literature of the Battlefields
1947.03 Takeyama Michiyo, Biruma no tategoto (Hibbett, Harp of Burma)
1947.08 Takeda Taijun, Mamushi no sue
1951.01 Ooka Sh冑ei, Nobi (Fires on the Plain): At war's end, a starving soldier must eat human flesh
1952 Occupation Censorship lifted on war journals
1952 Noma Hiroshi, Shink� chitai (Zone of Emptiness):
1954 Takeda Taijun, Hikarigoke (Luminous Moss): Stranded troop resorts to cannibalism; put on trial
1967.01-1969.07 Ooka Sh冑ei, Records of the Battle at Leite:
1969.08 Ooka Shoohei, Mindoro-too futatabi (in Umi): poetic elegy to members of his troop.

Literature of the Atomic Bombs
...Ibuse Masuji, Kuroi ame (Black Rain):
...Oe Kenzaburoo, Hiroshima Notes:

Literature of Ashes and Reconstruction
     = note split between Kindaibungaku / Shin-nihonbungaku groups: debate on "subjectivity"
     = Kindaibungaku: Honda Shuugo,
         = literature should be expression of individual consciousness, not a political tool
     = Shin-nihonbungaku:
1946.09 Umezaki Haruo, Sakurajima:
1947.03 Tamura Taijiroo, Nikutai no mon: Literature of the sexualized body, the only source of truth
1948 Osaragi Jiroo, Homecoming:
1954.09 Kojima Nobuo, American School:
1957.01 Abe Kooboo, Kemonotachi wa furusato wo mezasu: returnee from Manchuria finds no 'home' country

Outcaste / Korean Communities Seek Social Justice
1946~ Buraku Liberation League (Buraku Kaihoo Domei): postwar continuation of Suiheisha
     = intimidation policy to prevent media from reporting buraku issues
?? Japan Communist Party opposes suppression of buraku news reportage.
1946.01 Shichijoo Riot (Yanagihara, Kyoto): yakuza attack Koreans for hoarding rice
1947-1971 Noma Hiroshi, Circle of Youth: 6-vol epic of Osaka buraku
1951.10 Sugiyama Seiichi, Tokushu buraku: pulp novel of lowlife in buraku area
      = BLL protests, but no mention is made of Koreans {Fowler}
1951 Kim Tal-su, Fuji no mieru mura de: K-buraku relations given international context {Fowler}
1956 Osaka Asahi series on buraku mvmt; adopts stance that reportage perpetuates discrimination
1960-1961 Sakaichi Iwao, Sodachiyuku zassoo (Weeds growing): scenes of buraku-Korean gang fights
1960-1980 Oonishi Kyojin, Shinsei kigeki: 8-vol epic of buraku
1961-1992 Sumii Sue, River without a Bridge: 7-vol epic of buraku
?? Shiomi Sen'ichiro, Asakusa Danzaemon:
1963 Hijikata Tetsu, Chikakei (Rhizome): burakumin attempt to speak out against discrimination
1969 Oda Makoto, Hiemono: woman goes to Korea, is outcaste, retreats into self, a 'cold lump'
1974.11.21 Y冖a High School Incident: 46 tchrs beaten severely by Domei members; Asahi suppresses news.
1980s Nakagami Kenji novels: non-Japanese (burakumin, Koreans, Philippinos) survive within J society.
1988? Karel v. Wolferen resists Domei pressure; publishes account of liberation movement.

New Boom in Anthologies
1949.4 Gendai nihon shoosetsu taikei (Kawade shoboo, 65 vols)
1949.8 Sekai bungaku zenshuu: 19-seiki hen (Kawade shoboo, 40v)
1952 Shoowa bungaku zenshuu (Kadokawa shoten, 25v in first distribution)
1953 Gendai choohen meisaku zenshuu (Koodansha)
1953 Gendai nihon bungaku zenshuu (Chikuma shoboo, 99v)

The Golden Age of Films Begins
1946 oosoneke no asa
1947 anjouke no butoukai
1948 oushou
1949 ojousan kanpai
??? godzilla
1950 akatsuki no dassou
1950 kike wadatumi no koe
1951 ituwareru saisou

Intellectual Debates
1947-1954 Debates in Japan over modernization
 

===Beginnings of the Cold War====================
...People's Republic of China government established under Mao
     1948.12 People's Army enters Peking
...Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
...Southeast Asian countries, liberated from colonialism, turn to leftist government
...U.S. growing worries about communist domination, beginnings of cold war
---North and South Korea split to become pawns in US fight against Communism ----
1948.8 Establishment of Dai Kan Min Koku (Nation of the People of Korea)
1948.9 Establishment of Korean People's Democratic Republic (North Korea)
1950.6 Korean War begins
1953.7 Ceasefire signed
1961 Korea: Park Chung Hee takes power in military coup
---1953-1975 Age of Rapid Economic Growth-------------------------------------
     = Japan enjoys profits from peripheral involvement in Korea, Vietnam Wars.
     = Japanese education policy stresses nation/group goals over concerns of the ﾒselfﾓ; intellectuals uneasy
1953ﾅ Mercury poisoning outbreak caused by Chisso Corporation in Minamata (Kumamoto Prefecture)
1954ﾅ Japan Self-Defense Forces established, debate over constitutionality
1956ﾅ Government encourages emigration to S.America, Dominican Republic, despite hardships
     2000 Govt sued for misrepresenting advantages of life in Dominican Republic.
1960.01 Democratic Socialist Party formed by Nishio Suehiro as breakoff from JSP
1960 Student demos against renewal of J-US treaty; Eisenhower visit turned back at Okinawa
1960 Assassination of Socialist Party leader Asanuma
1960ﾅ debates over National Language ???:
1965ﾅ Ienaga Saburo's Japanese history text is censored; long legal battle starts
???? Sanrizuka and Narita confrontations
1968ﾅ Student demonstrations against US treaty renewal
1968.12? Theft of 300 million yen (?) new year's bonuses: salaries thereafter on auto-deposit.
---North and South Vietnam split to become pawns in US fight against Communism--
1961ﾅ1975 US in Vietnam War: Japan profits as depot for US military
1963.11.23 John F. Kennedy asassinated in Texas
1966 (China) Cultural Revolution
1967 (US) Assassinations of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King,
1968ﾅ Writers and students join Vietnam Peace Coalition (Beheiren) to oppose Vietnam War.
1972.12.25ﾅ Nixon orders bombings of Hanoi, Haiphong.
1972.05 Okinawa 'returned' by US to Japanese domain.
1973 US troops withdraw from Vietnam, but US continues aid to South Vietnam.
1975.04 North Vietnamese troops enter Saigon.
---U.S. Maintains Military Presence in Japan----------------------------
Bases at Sasebo, Atsugi, Okinawa, etc.
Okinawa:
     1970.12.20 Koza Incident (Okinawa): US soldier's car hits man; citizens riot, burn 30 cars.
          = Rioters had been angered by earlier accident, in which another soldier had been pardoned
          = MPs ordered to shoot if citizens entered compound (there was no shooting, but order was illegal)
 
  ---1953-1960 The Golden Age of Postwar Japanese Cinema---------------------
Kurosawa Akira, Kobayashi Masaki, Ichikawa Kon, Kaneto Shindo, Imamura Sh冑ei, Imai Tadashi, Mizoguchi Kenji, Toyoda Shir�, Godzilla,
1952 Kurosawa, Ikiru (To Live): Petty bureaucrat, facing cancer, decides to do good and build a public park.
1952 ashi ni sawatta onna
1952 inazuma
1952 ochazuke no aji
1953 kumonagaruru hate ni
1953 ugetsu monogatari
1954 shichinin no samurai
1955 ukigumo
1956 kurutta kajitu
1957 ibo kyoudai
1957 adauchi souzenjibaba
1957 entotsu no mieru basho
1957 kuchizuke
1957 kutukake tokijirou
1958 enjou
1959 ohayou
---1953-1960 New Directions in Literature------------------------------------
1950.04-1950.05 Itoo Sei, translation of D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterly's Lover
    1950.06 Gov't prosecutes Itoo Sei, Koyama Kyuujiroo for translating pornography
    1950.12 Literary critics offer 'paper trial' of Chatterly translation
    1951.05 Chatterly trial begins
    1952.01 First verdict in Chatterly trial: translator innocent, publisher guilty
    1952.12 Second verdict in Chatterly trial: ??
    1957.03 Supreme Court verdict in Chatterly trial: translator and publisher guilty
    1957.04 Japan Artists Federation (Nihon Geijutsuka Kyookai) declares Supreme Court verdict bogus.
1953 Ito Sei, Firebird:
1954 Kawabata Yasunari, Sound of the Mountain: Aging businessman confronted by impending death
1954.12 Shoono Junzoo, Poolside Vignette: Businessman spends time with family after being fired.
1954 Sumii Suye, Yoake asaake: Peasant children struggle against economic forces after mother dies
1956 Mishima Yukio, Ginkakuji (Temple of the Golden Pavillion) acolyte obsessed by perfect temple, burns it
1957 Kaiko Takeshi, The Naked King: