OCCUPATION PERIOD

OCCUPATION PERIOD: translation

After Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was appointed to oversee the Allied occupation of Japan. Initially, the occupation of Japan’s central archipelago was to be divided among the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and China, but mistrust of the Soviets led to a division of former Japan-held territories instead. The terms of surrender called for Japan to scale down its industrial assets, as well as sell land to farmers and eliminate the landlord hierarchy that had existed for centuries. A new constitution was also drafted by the Occupation forces that gave women the right to vote, guaranteed personal and civil rights, disenfranchised the nobility, established the emperor as the symbol of a constitutional monarchy system, abolished Shinto as the state religion, and included a “peace clause” that disallowed Japan to have any standing military.Educational reforms included the simplification of the kanji writing system and a more colloquial orthography, universal school lunch, and health reforms. Although the Occupation forces exercised censorship of some literature, the concomitant presence of thousands of foreign military and civilian workers served to bring Western, particularly American, popular culture to Japan following a period of nationalism. Although the occupation officially ended in 1952, there is still a U.S. military presence in Japan that has found its way into works by such contemporary writers as Yamada Eimi and Murakami Ryu.

See also HAKUBUNKAN; MANGA; POSTWAR LITERATURE; TOKUTOMI SOHO; WOMEN IN LITERATURE; ZAINICHI LITERATURE.