Japan And World War II Essay, Research Paper
The Economic Effect on Japan during Post World War II
Japan?s economy was greatly affected by the atomic bombs
dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan?s
economic recovery as a result of this incident transformed
Japan?s economic growth which has become known as the
?Economic Miracle.? The bombs caused Japan to
reconstruct many more facilities in which the economy
moved forward. The Economic Planning Agency, which
used to be known as the Economic Stabilization Board,
helped Japan to become one of the leading economic
nations. The United States also contributed to much of
Japan?s recovery by occuping it from 1945-1951. After the
bombs shattered the cities on August 6 and August 9 in
1945 the war was concluded. Japan had many parts to pick
up such as the deaths of innocent citizens and the
dilapidation of their major cities. Peter Tasker (40) mouthed
?When the casualties were counted they calculated to more
than three million people and left more than ten million
people lacking housing.? The war forced the economy to be
cut off from its normal flow of trade. That was hurtful
because Japan needed to trade with other nations to receive
money to rebuild their damaged cites. Many Japanese
people suffered severely because they were forced to live on
the black market to stay alive which helped them in some
ways because they could purchase goods for a much
cheaper price. Even though the black market is illegal, Japan
stayed on it to survive the post war age. Edwin Reischauer
(103) uttered that ?The unfortunate circumstance about the
tragedy was that the hearts of many civilians had been
burned out as well as their cities.? What Reischauer said is
probably correct because many Japanese civilians were
presumably so shocked at what surrounded them that they
did not know what to do in this astonishing situation.
Because of the war Japan experienced shortages of food,
clothing and other goods and services. This was very harmful
because many people had lost all their food and clothing
during the explosions and they needed to change their lives
drastically. The only fortunate thing about the bombs was
that they did in fact leave the railways and electric power
with little damage. That was very positive for Japan because
they still had power to the factories where people could go
to work and get money to reconstruct their lives. In Paul
Langer?s book, Japan Yesterday and Today (135) he said,
?The bombs left the prices to rise 10 per cent a month in
which the civilians had to pay because of the United States?
destruction to Japan.? The ruins that were leftover from the
attack left Japan in a time for a major recovery. The
destruction from the war is one of major items that will go
down in Japanese history forever. The United States, the
nation which caused this frightful and fatal period, engaged in
Japan from the day after the releasing of the bomb until 1951
when a treaty was signed forcing the United States to leave
Japan. General Douglas Mac Arthur led the American army
into Japan to give them help. The United States helped
Japan by bringing in food and in the year of 1946, 800,000
tons of American food was rushed into Japan. Paul Langer
(136) mouthed, ?From the damages done the United States
had to pay about one million dollars per day which included
the bill for food, fertilizer and other major essentials.? The
United States had to pay this enormous amount of money
because they were forced to help Japan recover both
physically and economically. Japan, a nation that was in
great need of aid, accepted the United States? support but
tried to pretend that they did not need them. While the
Americans stayed in Japan they wanted to destroy the
power, privileges and wealth of Japanese ruling classes who
were blamed for Japanese militarism. The United States
occupation of Japan led to the distribution of many of the
American ideas and practices into the Japanese culture. This
was a negative aspect because Japan and the United States
are two different countries who have different ideas and
practices. So, in fact the American occupation of Japan tore
away from the Japanese culture and filled it with American
culture and traditions which was harmful to the Japanese
civilized life. Besides destroying Japan, the United States
introduced many new reforms. One of the improvement
programs that was broken up was called the Zaibatsu which
was a land-reform program that required landlords to sell
land cheaply to their tenants. This was broken up because
after the war the land was destroyed and many of the
landlord?s tenants wanted to buy the land cheaply to begin a
new life. While the United States was in Japan, they wanted
to turn it into a military power and help to get them out of the
depressing time they were in. The Japanese people did not
really have a choice but to listen to the Americans because
they did not have enough money and they still needed
support from the Americans. The United States continued to
help Japan in its defense so Japan used a lot of its money to
rebuild their country?s industries.
stated, ?What was good for the United States must be good
for Japan.? The United States helped Japan both positively
and negatively throughout their occupation. The war caused
many disasters in which new facilities were needed to be
built. Some of the facilities that were damaged had to be
completely rebuilt in newer and more advanced models
which helped Japan to become more powerful. The newer
machinery was more updated compared to the old
machinery. After World War II ended over thirty million
people made up the working population. That shows how
many people were ready to rebuild their lives and to forget
the past. Of the thirty million people that worked about half
were involved in agriculture and farming. Interesting enough,
3/4 of the Japanese farmers either rented the land they
cultivated or rented some land to supplement their own poor
holdings. That means that some Japanese farmers grew their
crops from someone else?s fields and paid to rent the land.
The manufacturing industry in Japan expanded after the
1950?s because of the serious emphasis on export items.
Due to the many unemployed Japanese, the government
worked to raise the level of technology and production
capacity in the heavy industry and steel machinery. The new
machinery was very helpful to the Japanese because they
were more advanced and the Japanese had to do less work
because of the well-developed machinery. With the new
materials, the local government was strengthened and
farmers were given the opportunity to own their own land.
Many labor unions were encouraged which helped the
people of Japan have better working conditions. Also
around the post war period, which was from 1945 to about
1955, many educational changes came about which had a
positive affect on Japan because the more children that got
educated in school, the better for Japan. As education
became popular Social Studies was emphasized so the
students could learn about the history of Japan and other
nations. As the new programs and facilities came about
Japan advanced itself and helped itself economically at the
same time. The Economic Planning Agency played a very
important role during Japan?s post World War II period.
The Economic Planning Agency had a lot of different names
before it became known as the EPA. The EPA was once
known as The Economic Stabilization Board and was
founded in 1946. When the ESB was founded in 1946 it
suddenly began to take Japan on the road to recovery.
Under the Economic Stabilization Board the economy was
able to recover by the end of the 1940?s and transformed
from a controlled system to a free market system. In 1952
the EDB took over the Economic Stabilization Board . Then
in 1955 the Economic Deliberation Board changed its name
to the Economic Planning Agency. The EPA drew a five
year plan for the economic self-support and it was Japan?s
first post war economic plan. In Roy Thomas? book, Japan:
The Blighted Blossom, (177) Hiroshi Kishida voiced that
?Japan has grown into an economic power. But we do not
feel that our country is an economic power…You must
understand that we live in small homes called ?rabbit
hutches,? work hard all year long and still worry about life in
old age.? In that quotation Kishida is saying that Japan did
recover from the bombs but they still are not a very powerful
economic nation. The Economic Planning Agency said, ?This
is no longer the post war period . The high growth unfolding
before us is supported by modernization and technological
innovation.? The Economic Planning Agency launched many
plans such as the Doubling National Income Plan of 1960,
and the Comprehensive National Development Plan of
1962. The Economic Planning Agency helped to get Japan
out of the post war period and helped them through what is
known as the ?Economic Miracle.? Japan suffered many
hardships from the time the bomb was dropped and for
many years later. Japan recovered from the deaths and
destruction and started to build again with the help of the
Economic Planning Agency and the United States. With all
this aid Japan recovered so quickly from the slump that it
became known as the, ?Economic Miracle? and to this day it
is still known as that. Japan?s recovery became known as
the ?economic miracle? because it recovered so quickly after
war. Much of Japan?s recovery was because of the help
from other nations such as the United States.
Page: Economic Planning Agency.
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