Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


kent1271527718.pdf (931.59 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

IMAGINARY DEMOCRATIZATION UNDER TURMOIL: EMBRACING THE REAL POLITICS AND BROADCASTING IDEALIZED DEMOCRATIC IMAGES OF THE JAPANESE EMPEROR, 1945-1947

Mizoguchi, So
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1271527718

Abstract Details

2010, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
Historiography currently evaluated the American Occupation of Japan as a success for the most part. Some scholars had a tendency to define the Occupation as an example of American benevolence that democratized the Japanese. When the Pacific War ended, the United States possessed overwhelming national power. Nevertheless, the American Occupation of Japan faced constrains and limits. Truman’s realistic way of thinking that the United States had to finish the Pacific War before the Soviets entered the Japanese mainland and that the American occupation policy should be as cost-effective as possible corresponded to Joseph Grew’s idea. Grew considered that the main purpose of the American Occupation would be ideologically to destroy militarism and establish democratic regime but the Truman administration could not ignore reality. Retention of the emperor, he believed, would shorten the occupation, thereby reducing domestic U.S. opposition to the continued deployment of U.S. troops. However, this gap between the reality and the ideal when it came to the emperor could not be easily offset. The majority of Americans called for punishing the emperor as a major war criminal. In addition, the China hands in the State Department always opposed an appeasement policy toward the emperor. While the emperor showed a cooperative attitude toward the American occupation, it was MacArthur who established the groundwork of the new institution of the emperor in postwar Japan. MacArthur adroitly remade the status of the emperor from sacred ruler of the Japanese to a symbol of the democratic Japan. He conducted these policies in the form of the emperor and the Japanese government’s initiative. Through this sophisticated political decision, the constitutional monarchy was established from the top. This did not mean, however, that the Japanese accepted the new emperor as a symbol of the democratic Japan without criticism. The Japanese soon started to consider the emperor and institution of the emperor in the new constitution. Their responses to the new emperor were diverse. Some people begged MacArthur to save the emperor. Some denied the existence of the emperor himself. Even though the people could change the institution in a short time, it was impossible to change the people’s minds. Debates about the future of the emperor ceased when the new constitution was enforced. It was only two years from the defeat of the war to enforcement of the new constitution, but the people’s struggle between democratic and traditional values continued.
Mary Heiss, PhD (Advisor)
Patti Kameya (Committee Member)
Hongshan Li (Committee Member)
100 p.
History
The Japanese Emperor; American Occupation; Democracy; Censorship

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Mizoguchi, S. (2010). IMAGINARY DEMOCRATIZATION UNDER TURMOIL: EMBRACING THE REAL POLITICS AND BROADCASTING IDEALIZED DEMOCRATIC IMAGES OF THE JAPANESE EMPEROR, 1945-1947 [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1271527718

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Mizoguchi, So. IMAGINARY DEMOCRATIZATION UNDER TURMOIL: EMBRACING THE REAL POLITICS AND BROADCASTING IDEALIZED DEMOCRATIC IMAGES OF THE JAPANESE EMPEROR, 1945-1947. 2010. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1271527718.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Mizoguchi, So. "IMAGINARY DEMOCRATIZATION UNDER TURMOIL: EMBRACING THE REAL POLITICS AND BROADCASTING IDEALIZED DEMOCRATIC IMAGES OF THE JAPANESE EMPEROR, 1945-1947." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1271527718

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1271527718
1,262
© 2010, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.