ABSTRACT
Germany and Japan faced complete military, political, and moral defeat in 1945. It extended to all areas of social, political and intellectual life. Due to the repressive nature of National Socialism in Germany and of militarism in Japan, any political and intellectual opposition that remained in 1945 was severely weakened and was primarily intent on survival. The Allied occupations stepped into this situation with explicit policies to extract admissions of guilt from German and Japanese leaders as well as from the general public. Allied officials saw the roots of the global catastrophe of the all-encompassing wars that had engulfed two continents in the political histories of Germany and Japan. While some one-dimensional public portrayals of the leadership of National Socialist Germany and militarist Japan located responsibility for war in the political leadership only, history and the historical genesis of fascism and militarism always played a prominent role in analyses of dictatorship and militarism.
