Why and with what consequences did SCAP decide to retain the Emperor as a 'symbol' of Japan?

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Why and with what consequences did SCAP decide to retain the Emperor as a ‘symbol’ of Japan?

Power vacuum in Japan – collapse of the empire so power vacuum in the region and also within Japan itself. Japan was purged by SCAP. It affected over 200,000 people making heavy inroads into the Japanese leadership.  Japan had no choice but to surrender. Their surrender was virtually unconditional.

The ultimate aims of SCAP for post-war Japan was to democratise and demilitarize the country. Led by General Macarthur, who became synonomous with SCAP itself,  the US and, to a lesser extent the Allies, wanted to completely remove Japan as a threat in the Southeast Asian region. Furthermore SCAP intended to remove the fundamental military tendencies and apparatus within Japan that could allow the country to pose aggressive again. This was to be accomplished by disarming the country and through the elimination of Japan’s feudal and authoritarian tendencies.  The political agenda was to establish a establish a pluralist/liberal democracy based largely on that of the United States, in the place of Japan’s previous constitution which had modelled that of Germany hence allowing for the rise of rightwing forces and authoritarian military in the inter-war period.

1. Unite Japan

Japan’s careening drive for military conquest was believed not to have been the fault of the civilian Japanese leaders but ultimately the responsibility of the Japanese Army, ‘the insular and arrogant military officers, particularly the young fanatics lately off the farms and their even more fanatical extreme nationalist supporters such as the blood brotherhoods, assassination societies and the rest’. The Japanese military, therefore, was given the bulk of the blame for Japan’s expansionist policies during the 1930s that had led the nation into war. However, Japan had a traditional tendency dating as far back as the Samari era to be united as a nation under a centralised military power. For SCAP to disgrace and ultimately remove the last thread holding the nation together at such a delicate and crucial time in Japan, could potentially result in complete social upheaval and disarray. For this reason, SCAP decided to resurrect the Emperor. The Emperor was restored to act as a figurehead representing a national, traditional and historical symbol behind which the Japanese population could stand united.

2. Collaboration/support

SCAP’s chief incentive for choosing to restore the Emperor in Japan was driven by the desire to encourage collaboration and popular support from the Japanese people in working with SCAP. SCAP had realised early on that a degree of cooperation from the Japanese towards the US reform programme would make the occupation easier, cheaper and much more successful in the long term. Collaboration from the Japanese would also help ensure that any reforms implemented by SCAP in Japan had more potential to become permanent changes once SCAP’s presence had left Japan. SCAP was under the impression that reforms which the Japanese had supported and worked on with SCAP would be far more likely to be long-standing than if changes had been forced apon the Japanese.  

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Although a hostile and aggressive Japan in south-east Asia was an important priority to the United States in 1945, the troublesome post-war setting meant that any cooperation from the Japanese towards SCAP which would make the occupation run more easily or more smoothly was overtly welcomed and encouraged. The costs of the Japanese occupation were extremely high and this was another reason for the United States wanted it to end as soon as possible and with as little opposition from within Japan. Cohen highlights the importance of a peaceful cooperation claiming ‘it was far more important for the Americans ...

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