ABSTRACT

The American Occupation of Japan approached its task with a victor’s confidence, selfrighteousness and optimism. The occupiers reached Japan in the autumn of 1945 with lofty, admirable goals and the authority over the defeated nation which appeared to assure ultimate success in any undertaking. Indeed, the potential for fundamental change in Japanese society under American stewardship must have seemed, at the time, to be virtually limitless. Armed with a sense of moral superiority and a very real measure of power, the Occupation fully intended to effect a thorough transformation of its recent enemy.