ABSTRACT
An important story of the Occupation concerns how the United States and Japan were able to transform their bitter rivalry into aclose alliance. During the Pacific War (1941-45), the propaganda machines of both nations demonized and dehumanized the enemy to an extraordinary extent. Each side committed atrocities, but focused only on those committed by the other, and citizens on both sides of the Pacific were conditioned to expect the worst from each other (Dower, 1986b). The Japanese had seen sixty-six of their major cities reduced to ashes by extensive conventional bombing and firebombing. The twin tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 brought an abrupt end to what has been called a ‘war without mercy’, but the decision to surrender was opposed by military leaders until the Emperor intervened and broke a deadlock among his senior advisors. Japan’s nearly 15 year rampage through Asia (1931-45) was finished, in the end claiming the lives of an estimated 3 million Japanese and over 15 million Asians, mostly in China. Japanese brutality in war, including mistreatment of prisoners-of-war (POWs), generated sentiments favouring retribution and punishment. It was in this inhospitable climate that US troops landed in Japan and began the Occupation.
