ABSTRACT
In 1945 Japan was prostrate, its military power annihilated and its nationalsymbol, the emperor, nullified. Many of its cities had been devastated, some 10-15 million were unemployed, and it was occupied and ruled by the United States. Within a generation Japan regained the status of a great power, not by replacing its armouries but by rebuilding its industries, regaining its foreign trade and reconstituting its reserves of cash and currencies; it was the one power in the world that could be referred to as a great power but had no nuclear capacity and it was evidently more powerful than some powers – Britain, France, India – which had made nuclear explosions.
