Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-2mk96 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-08T23:45:42.249Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Allied Occupation of Japan - an Australian View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Christine de Matos
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Japanese Occupation is generally remembered as primarily an American affair and as a dichotomous relationship between Japan and the United States. However, it was an Allied Occupation, and, despite the persistence of selective historical memories, there was a distinct and at times contentious Allied presence, contribution, and experience. The Occupation provided a terrain on which the victor nations, believing their social, economic and political values vindicated by victory, competed to reshape the character of Japan's modernity. One Ally that participated in this process, and often acted as a dissenting voice, was Australia. Examining the involvement of additional participants in the Occupation does not challenge the notion of US dominance, but does demonstrate that others periodically played significant roles in both administering the Occupation and in challenging US policies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 7 , July 2005 , e12
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

[1] British Commonwealth Forces National Council, ‘Brief History of Australia's Participation in the Occupation of Japan 1945-1952’, 5 July 2000, available online: http://www.bradprint.com.au/bcof/history.html

[2] National Archives of Australia (NAA): A3300/7 290, Cablegram Department of External Affairs to Australian Legation Washington, 10 August 1945.

[3] NAA: A5475/1 13, ‘Information on Japan’, c. November 1945.

[4] MMA: RG-5, Box 73, Fol: ‘FEC Radio File’, MacArthur to Washington, 19 August 1946; MMA: RG-5, Box 73, Fold: ‘FEC Radio File’, MacArthur to Washington, 25 September 1946. The US government overrode MacArthur on this issue in order to placate the FEC.

[5] MMA: RG-5, Box 73, Fol: ‘FEC Radio File’, MacArthur to Washington, 19 August 1946.

[6] W.D. Forsyth to W. Macmahon Ball, 21 June 1946, in Wayne Hudson and Wendy Way, Documents on Australian Foreign Policy1937-1949, Vol. IX, Document 323, pp. 542-543.

[7] James Plimsoll, in MacArthur Memorial Archives (MMA): GR-6, Box 73, Fol: 3 F.E.C. Minutes October-November 1946, ‘Transcript of Thirty-Third meeting of the Far Eastern Commission’, 1 November 1946, p. 5.

[8] MMA: RG-9 Radiograms, Box 82, Fol: ‘State Department May 1949’, Department of Army to SCAP, 7 May 1949.

[9] NAA: A1838/278 483/1 Part 3, ‘Japanese Peace Settlement. Far Eastern Commission Agenda December 1949’, p. 34.

[10] MMA: RG-9, Radiograms, Fol: ‘Labor, 2 April 1946-31 October 1948’, SCAP to Dept of Army, 21 October 1948.

[11] NAA: A1838/278 483/2 Part 5, Cablegram Australian Embassy Washington to External Affairs, 26 April 1949.

[12] Alan Rix, Intermittent Diplomat: The Japan and Batavia Diaries of W. Macmahon Ball, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1988, p. 75. A cho is 2.45 acres.

[13] NAA: A1067 ER46/13/27, Cablegram Macmahon Ball to External Affairs, 9 July 1946.

[14] Eric E. Ward, Land Reform in Japan 1946-1950, the Allied Role, Tokyo: Nobunkyo, 1990, pp. 74-75.