ABSTRACT
At noon on a hot 15 August 1945, millions of Japanese, being alerted to an important news broadcast, heard the weak but firm voice of the emperor: The war was over; Japan had lost and would surrender. People accepted the message like an awakening from a nightmare. No more deaths in battle, no more bombing raids. But what would come? They expected the worst and when the American occupation did not start wholesale reprisals, they were won over for co-operation and even friendship. Yet the country lay prostrate in devastation. The production machine had almost come to a stop. People were hungry and into this hungry and desperate situation millions of soldiers and colonial repatriates swelled the ranks of job-seekers. And yet with the help of the former enemy, the country was able to overcome the worst period, and then, based on new democratic forms, it began to surprise and even startle the world with its economic success. How was such fast recuperation and astonishing economic success made possible?
