Book Review: The Occupation of Japan. Second Phase: 1948–50
| Published date | 01 September 1951 |
| Date | 01 September 1951 |
| Author | H. D. Johns |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205100600315 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
248
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
There
is
a
strong
central
theme and
the
reader
will
find
himself
caught
up
with
the
story
of
this
first
experiment
with
democracy.
It
deals
with
the
fall
of
the Shogunate
and
the
rise
of
certain
limited
forms
of
government
by
representation during
the
earlier
part
of
the
Meiji
era.
The
difficulties
involved
were considerable
particularly
in
the
selection
of
the
precise
form in which
the
new
type
of
government
should
operate.
Factions
argued
about whether
the
British
form
should
be
used
or
the
German;
and
the
problems concerned
with
just
who
should
have a
vote
were
interminable.
The
maintenance
of
the
sovereignty
of
the Emperor
appears to
have
been
the
keystone
of
the
new
thought.
Perhaps
there
was
a
moral
in
this
that
was seen
by
those
who,
during
and
after
the
last
war, argued
to
keep
the
present
Emperor
on his
throne.
This
early
movement
towards
"liberty and
popular
rights"
ended
with the
Meiji
promulgation
of
1889,
but
the
author
of
this
work
follows
the
effects
of
enlightened
political
thinking
through
to
present
day
democratic leanings
in
Japan.
That
the
Japanese
people
took
so
readily
to
the
theories
of
government
imposed
by
the
occupation
forces
may
be
due
in
no
small
measure to
these
earlier
tendencies.
With
all
these
factors
examined
in
a
fascinating
way
by
an
author
who
has
checked
and
double
checked
his facts,
the
book
reads
like
a
story.
The
story
is
the
first
experiment
in
democracy
in
a
country
used
to
the
ways
of
the
Shogun
and
his
hordes
of
Samurai.
Toronto,
June
1951.
H.
D.
Johns
THE
OCCUPATION
OF
JAPAN.
SECOND
PHASE:
1948-50.
By
Robert
A.
Fearey.
1950.
(New
York,
Toronto:
Macmillan,
under
the
auspices
of
the
Institute
of
Pacific
Relations.
xii,
239
pp.
$3.50,
members
$2.80.)
This
book
continues
the
story
of
the
occupation
from
the
point
where
an
earlier
one
(The Allied
Occupation
of
Japan,
Stanford,
Cal.,
1948)
leaves
it.
The
authors
are not
the
same.
This
fact
is
very
much
apparent
from
the
reading.
The
earlier
one,
while
dealing
with
the setting up
of
the
occupation
framework,
is
like
a
skeleton
without
flesh.
This
present
work
also
contains little
humour or "story"
value,
but
it
does
a
much
more
interesting
job
of
detailing to
the
reader
the
steps
that
have
been
taken
to
make
the
occupation work.
In
view
of
the
current
interest
in
a
realistic
Japanese
peace
treaty-the
work
of
John
Foster
Dulles-and
the
MacArthur
controversy
this
book
would
seem
to
have
within
its
covers
much of
the
evidence needed
by
a
press-enlightened
public
to
formulate
their
own
opinions.
There
are
a
number
of
problems
which
this
book
deals
with.
That
is
one
of
the
fascinating
things
about it.
Great
problems
which
have
been
dealt with
in such
a
way
as
to
set
the
scene
for
the
future
growth
or
otherwise
of
the Japanese nation.
Many persons have
had
a
hand
in
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