Japan's Geography
Japan is divided into four islands, nine regions, and forty-seven prefectures.
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| Map of the four islands that make up Japan |
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| Map of regions, prefectures, and major cities. Okinawa is an island chain south of Kyushu. |
Japan After Losing the Second World War
The Allies, mainly the United States, occupied Japan. The occupiers first conducted war crime trials, resulting in seven deaths, eighteen imprisonments, and about 220,000 others unable to run for political offices. While running the trials, the Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP), headed by American General Douglas MacArthur, dismantled the formerly great Japanese army, and closed ammunition and firearm factories.
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| Allied occupation of Japan |
In order to keep the general population of Japan generally placid and not rioting, the SCAP took the land and power of rich landowners, who mainly supported Imperial Japan and expansionism, and broke groups that wanted the old Japan back. In addition, the SCAP disallowed the Japanese to:
- Say anything bad about anything related to or the SCAP
- Say anything bad about Allied policy
- Say anything good about the old Japan
- Say anything good about other forms of government (mainly Communism or the old Japanese government)
- Say anything about the
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| (atomic bomb) |
Changes to the Japanese government
The SCAP changed the Japanese government into a democracy, with a prime minister in control and the emperor being a position with little power, essentially drafting another constitution, with numerous other changes, and made efforts to turn Japan's economy into a free market, like how the SCAP tried to break apart zaibatsu (large business groups).
The spread of Communism and the economic decline in Japan
In the late months of 1947, Japan entered an economic decline, and the US was afraid that the weak economy in Japan would give rise to more communist movements. Through the next three years, most of the SCAP's actions were aimed at helping the economy, like changes to tax and trying to control inflation. But, the main problem wasn't what SCAP tried to change. Japanese factories didn't have enough raw materials to keep their factories in full production, and the factories didn't have enough of a market to sell their finished goods. Then, in 1950, the Korean War broke out. This solved two problems. Japan became the main place that the US sent its troops to. The influx of Americans, and the things that they carried with them, gave the Japanese the raw materials that they needed and more people to sell it to. Also, the large number of friendly troops stationed in Japan ensured that Japan wouldn't have any reason to militarize, even when a war was being fought at about 100 miles away.
