To what extent did the US successfully create model states in Japan and the Philippines in 1942-52?

wife, which improved US and Japan’s relations as it showed willingness. Furthermore, in May 1947, the new American-style constitution came into place, which included the action of demoting the Japanese Emperor from his God-like status to a constitutional monarch. This was a big step forward away from the previous dictatorship that Japan had been ruled under. This led to Japan becoming more capitalist in their government, which was exactly what the Americans wanted to achieve, so that it could promote capitalism to the world. Also, the US used its organisation, SCAP, to try to introduce greater equality for women and workers. Therefore, Japan became a model of capitalism and democracy and acted as a prime example of capitalist success for America. However, in Japan there was some resentment to the introduction of US reforms. For example, gender equality. Although, many reforms, such as the constitutional monarch were accepted, the constitutions emphasis on women’s rights couldn’t be overcome due to the decades of discrimination against women. In Japan they had never had equality for women, men were superior and women their subordinates. This shows that the US weren’t completely successful in transferring all its beliefs of freedom and individualism to Japan. Also, as a result of SCAP encouraging trade unions, some became very militant and zaibatsu cartels stayed intact. These existed in Japan before the war, and previously they had had a huge influence over Japanese society. Following Washington’s instructions in 1948, new ones emerged, which could have potentially tried to gain their influence back over Japan and turn them against the new US democracy. Although both of these features didn’t cause the US any trouble during its creation of Japan into a model state, they had the potential to. To some extent, the US successfully created a model state out of the Philippines because they held a large influence over them. They achieved greater economic power than when they were a colony due to Roxas’s fear that the US would withdraw from the Philippines and his desperation for their aid. As a result, the Bell Trade Act of 1946 was produced, which greatly benefitted the US because one of the agreements was that they could only trade with the US. This meant that it promoted capitalism because it gave the US another country to trade with and forbade them turning to Communism. Therefore, the Philippines would have appeared as a success story for America, encouraging others to turn to Capitalism.  On the other hand, in 1946, the US faced a rebellion from the Huks. The trigger for their rebellion was that Roxas deprived them of six legislative seats claiming they were elected through ‘fraud and terror’ in order to secure enough votes for American equal rights. The peasant based Huk rebellion grew until they had 5000 guerrillas in Central Luzon by 1948. The size and determination of this rebellion shows that the US didn’t have the support of all the Filipinos. Additionally, Truman gave Roxas $7.2 million aid to combat the Communist Huks, but despite this they continued to grow. This shows that the Huks were a serious threat to the US and that the US recognised this. If Magsaysay hadn’t helped defeat them in 1950, they potentially could have caused the Philippines to fall to Communism. Overall, the US were very successful in its creation of Japan and the Philippines into model states. By 1950, they were pleased with developments in both states, in particular with Japan because between 1945-1950, Japan had gone from a defeated enemy to a trusted ally in the cold war, as America were successful in remaking it in their image. Although the Philippines was also on its way to democracy and capitalism I believe that Japan was the more successful model state for the US.