Rebuilding Japan after WW2

STANDARD

• SS7H3: The student will analyze continuity and

change in Southern and Eastern Asia leading into
the 21st century.

• Explain the role of the United States in the rebuilding

of Japan after WWII.

PRES. TRUMAN’S

ANNOUNCEMENT

Atomic Bombs

• To force Japanese Surrender, President Truman made the decision to drop two Atomic Bombs on Japan

• August 6, 1945 - Hiroshima (Little Boy)
. August 9, 1945 - Nagasaki (Fat Man)

• Over 200,000 people lost their lives and the Japanese was forced to surrender

JAPAN’S SURRENDER IN

SEPTEMBER 1945

• Country was reduced to rubble

• Industries and farms were destroyed

• Government was in shambles

• People were demoralized

PEACE TREATIES

• Japan pledged to pay war reparations (damages)to

the countries they had harmed during WWII

• American troops were allowed to remain in Japan

• Japan could not rebuild military in any major way

HOW

MACARTHUR

WANTED

JAPAN

• Democratic government

• Constitutional Monarchy

• Emperor occupied an

important role in Japanese
culture and remain as a
symbol of the country

• The MacArthur Constitution

• Diet: two house

parliament

• Bill of Rights: guaranteed

basic freedoms

• Japan could never

declare war only allowed
to fight if attacked first

• Everyone over the age of

21 was allowed to vote for
members of the Diet

GENERAL
DOUGLAS

MACARTHUR

• American commander

of the occupation
forces

• Given the job of

putting Japan back on
its feet

Rebuilding the Japanese

Economy

•The Japanese economy lay utterly devastated at the end of World War II (1945).
The immediate postwar period was one of hard struggle to achieve
reconstruction and stability.

•Under the Allied occupation forces, land and labor reforms were carried out,
and the plan for creating a self-sustaining economy was mapped out by
American banker Joseph Dodge.

•The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 created a huge demand for Japanese
goods and set off an investment drive that laid the foundations for a long period
of extraordinary economic activity. While investment in plants and equipment
was spurred by an expanding domestic market,

•Japan also began pursuing strong export policies. Growing demand overseas for
Japanese goods led to annual trade surpluses, which (with a brief interlude in
1979–80) became perennial by the late 1960s.

Rebuilding the Japanese

Economy

•By the early 1970s Japan’s rapid rate of economic growth had begun to slacken, as
the price of imported petroleum soared, labor costs increased, the value of the
national currency, the yen, rose against foreign currencies, and overall global
demand for Japanese goods weakened.

•By the mid-1980s Japan’s standard of living had increased to the point that it was
comparable to that found in other developed countries.

•In addition, in 1985 Japan agreed with its trading partners to let the yen appreciate
against the U.S. dollar, which led to a doubling of the yen’s value within two years.

• This action and other efforts at restraining exports encouraged Japanese companies
to begin moving production bases overseas.

ANY QUESTIONS