Japan Under Macarthur Essay

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Japan under MacArthur Prior to World War II Japan was a country that was facing a domestic crisis. The economic collapse that occurred during the Great Depression sent the country into an uncontrollable spiral causing unemployment, falling prices, social and civil unrest from within. During this time period Japan was controlled by a dictator who was trying to model his country after the British Empire. Japan had always wanted economic control of the Asian Pacific region and wanted to strengthen its control by taking over other Asian Pacific areas. By the year 1931 US and Japan relations had begun to take a turn for the worse. Japan's government was unable to cope with the economic strains caused by the Great Depression had given way to a militaristic government. The new regime was prepared to strengthen Japan by forcibly annexing areas in the Asia-Pacific and it started with China. By 1939 the United States began to directly challenge Japan for their aggression toward China. It was then that the United States announced that it was pulling the plug on the 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation with Japan which ended trading. Japan’s aggression continued and in 1940 President Roosevelt declared a partial embargo of U.S. shipments of oil, gasoline, and metals to Japan. The United States completely embargoed resources from Japan in July 1941 which froze all Japanese assets in American entities. This forced American policies onto Japan and on 07 December 1941 Emperor Hirohito executed his plan to attack Pearl Harbor thus thrusting the United States into World War II. Postwar Japan saw the United States drop two nuclear bombs on the cities of Hirohito and Nagasaki. By doing this Japan surrendered to the United States onboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. General MacArthur had the daunting task of infusing the situation more after the war Japan was devastated, there were more than 3 million dead; all but one major city was destroyed or heavily damaged. Close to 9 million people were homeless, basically everything had been flatten. General MacArthur realized that imposing a new order on the nation of Japan would be a grueling undertaking he decided instead of creating an American military government to rule Japan, he would employ the existing Japanese government that was in power. Though sometime his policy was harsh he promoted the development of democracy. Under his direction he had the Meiji constitution rewritten. In the new constitution it established a
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