Embracing Defeat by John W. Dower, Essay Example

World War II remains in the hearts of the whole world as a huge tragedy that left no country and no part of the world unaffected. However, despite the inhumane violence and atrocities that the humankind witnessed during the war, post-war times also turned out to be fundamental for many countries, especially the defeated ones. Allied forces declared the occupation of Germany and Japan, the enemies that seemed to be the most dangerous menace for global peace. The occupation resulted in the split of the nation, much grief, oppression and humiliation mixed with the national guilt for atrocities that were committed in the name of Hitler. However, Japan took the most of its occupational period and progressed during nearly seven years of the American reign on its territory.

Despite the fact that many researchers and historians as well as political activists in Japan underestimate the role of General McArthur in the progress and establishment of democracy in Japan, a great load of documentation and mass media information as well as recollections of contemporaries provide evidence for the opposite opinion. The book of Dower titled Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II unveils the history of occupation in Japan from both sides – the attitude of the Japanese and Americans on the ideology, policies and innovations brought to the country. The author assumes the considerable advancement brought to militarized Japan at the verge of despair and frustration by democratic Americans, multiple challenges that the new regime encountered on the alien territory and the balance that diametrically different forces managed to achieve at the sake of concessions, negotiations and conflicts.

At the period when American forces can to Japan with the ideology of “democratization and demilitarization, Japan was a defeated and demoralized nation (Dower 24). The country that was composed not of citizens but of subjects of the Emperor who were ready to die for him at any moment of the war was lost and misguided, its ideology turned out empty and senseless. The Emperor personally announced the defeat and informed the nation about the coming occupation that was further on called “an almost sensual embrace with its American conquerors” (Dower 22-23). The Japanese clearly needed a new direction, a new culture and a new understanding of what they lived for, what they aimed at; the crush of their hopes and incentives prevented them from living a normal life that would revive them.

However, the nation that was considered “an obedient herd” turned out a much more complicated entity to influence and to reshape, which was later understood by the American potentate and the Japanese government as well (Dower 25). Americans came to conquer and confront the nation, but they met with excessively polite and pleasant people who were eager to serve the newcomers. They were seduced by their openness and flexibility, which prevented them from full understanding of the national characteristics that further on affected American-Japanese interrelations:

“The Americans arrived anticipating, many of them, a traumatic confrontation with fanatical emperor worshippers…Most of all, they encountered a populace sick of war, contemptuousness of the militarists who had led them to disaster, and all but overwhelmed by the difficulties of their present circumstances in a ruined land” (Dower 23-24).

Once sewing the seed of democracy and peace, the United States suffered from their own national direction later on – the unsuccessful attempt of rearmament of Japan as a potential ally in the Cold War proved how strong and disobedient the nation could be in situations that contradicted its deeply rooted self-awareness (Dower 23).

To understand the essence of American impact on the Japanese consciousness and national identity, it is essential first of all to recollect the changes that the victor brought during the occupation. It goes without saying that the positive attitude that was evident from the side of the Japanese was the result of real, effective democratization that the USA brought to their land. People who used to be only subjects of the Emperor finally acquired the status of citizens, independent people of the state with the proclamation of the Constitution (Dower 206). The task was not an easy one as the nation welcomed change and reactive authorities did not want changes, but General McArthur finally managed to achieve the long-aspired aim:

“A reluctant government was forced to introduce an entirely new constitution that retained the imperial system but simultaneously established the principle of popular sovereignty and guaranteed a broad range of human rights” (Dower 82).

Together with the constitution authoritarian structures that were a part of the traditional political power model in Japan were seriously undermined and found no way to get the power back into their hands (Dower 244). The imperial regime lost the authority, and the nation became directed at liberalization and democratization, autonomy and peace. The major breakthrough in a generally patriarchal country was that the constitution legitimized equal female and male suffrage, which changed the Japanese culture fundamentally and reshaped the role of women in the political agenda of the country (Dower 264). Before the constitution was adopted, a strong economic reform policy had been taken by the American victors: the country witnessed the land reform, pro-labor legislation and other democratization measures enacted (Dower 352). The Japanese Emperor seized to be the unanimous ruler, but remained a mere symbol of the state and unity of its people, which also affected the sense of identity the Japanese possessed (Dower 367). Among other reforms that were enacted in the period of legislation and shaped the modern Japanese profile one should remember about the establishment of three branches of power to balance the mechanism of decision-making and to initiate national participation in it.

The changes described surely left a visible trace on the Japanese self-awareness, cultural and national identity and consciousness. Nonetheless, it is obvious that the nation was deeply divided on the subject of their acceptance – there were reactive forces that resisted the change and considered it a colonial attempt of the US, violent “Americanization” that had no place and sense in Japan (Dower 23). However, the dominant attitude in Japan was pro-American, which can be seen from the assessment of American forces as the “army of liberation” given by Communists, which was a really significant achievement (Dower 26). It goes without saying that the diverse response evident from the side of the Japanese was predetermined by uniqueness of reforms introduced by the western rulers:

“They reflected an agenda inspired by heavy doses of liberal New Deal attitudes, labor reformism, and Bill of Rights idealism of a sort that was in the process of being repudiated (or ignored) in the United States” (Dower 26).

Notwithstanding the uniqueness and freshness of reforms, they were of great effect in Japan, widely accepted by vast groups of population, which was proven by the remarks given upon the dismissal of General McArthur by the President Truman; the population of Japan treated it as an “astonishing and tragic event”, public expressions were “heartfelt and immediate”, and the overall feedback on McArthur’s reign in Japan was that he “saved Japan from confusion and starvation” (Dower 549). These comments are eloquent about the true situation in Japan in the period of occupation and after it – the country’s response was positive and inspired, which is absolutely understandable about the country that lived according to the principle “offer yourself courageously to the state” and was left without any idea and encouragement in the devastating and shameful defeat it had never experienced before.

Obviously, the response that the nation revealed during the American occupation was fully explainable by the unique peculiarities of the Japanese nation that formed historically. First of all, the author notes that the favorite topic of all cross-cultural researchers, the Japanese ethnocentrism is commonly exaggerated, and it in no way reveals the Japanese nature (Dower 29). Japanese acted as any other nation would act in the period of a traumatic, fundamental change – they tried to invent something to hold on to (Dower 30).

The Japanese were transformed in terms of peacefulness and democracy and experienced the historical amnesia noted by Dower (30) to forget about atrocities they had recently committed in the wartime. People who used to commit suicide in case of disgrace became the nation aspiring to reforms, equality and justice. Surely, they retained their determination, cultural traditions that they had been preserving for centuries, which was reflected in their perseverance of peace and neutrality that no American incentive could overcome. Shaping the new identity was the key achievement and mistake of the USA; however, it resulted in the cultural image of Japan that the global community sees nowadays.

Works Cited

Dower, W. John. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. W. W. Norton & Company. 2000.