Prospects for a Japanese Peace Treaty
| Author | Charles E. Martin |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205100600103 |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
PROSPECTS
FOR
A
JAPANESE
PEACE
TREATY
Charles
E.
Martin
T
HE
MILITARY
OCCUPATION
of
Japan
and
its
control
leading
to
the
defeated
country's
readmission
to
normal
diplomatic
inter-
course
and
to
membership
in
the
community
of
states
was
provided
for
in
a number
of
instruments
of
authority,
implemented
by
even
a
greater
number
of agencies
of
control.
The
basic
external
objective
of
the
Allied
Powers
was
to
establish
peace
in
Japan
and
to
prevent
any
immediate
return
to
aggression.
This
was
to
be
done
through
the disarmament and
demilitarization
of
Japan, through
the
destruction
of
her
economic
basis
of
aggression,
through
the
trial
of
war
criminals,
through
reparations
charges
and the.
restitution
of
properties
and
through
the
limitation
of
Japan's
territory
and
sovereignty to
the
four
major
and
certain minor
islands.
The
leading
internal
objective
was
to
establish
democracy
and
to
uproot
authoritarianism. The
means
toward
this
end included
the
setting
up
of a
peaceful
and
responsible
government,
the
elimination
of
militarism
and
ultra-nationalism, provision
for individual liberties
and
human
rights, the
achievement
of economic
rehabilitation
on
a
democratic
and popular
basis,
and
the
establishment
of a
new
culture,
divested
of
state
control,
and
supporting
the
new
Japanese
social, economic,
and
political
.system.
A
peaceful
and
non-aggressive
Japan
seems
to
have
been
established
by
the
Allied
powers.
By
means
of
the
Surrender
and
Occupation
measures,
a
sense
of
guilt
and
a
mental
climate
for
peace
have
deve-
loped.
The
enforcement
of
these measures
has
for
the
most
part
been
considerate,
moderate,
and
at
times
even
benevolent.
By
the
Japanese
Constitution
war,
the
use
and
threat
of
force
have
been
renounced,
and
the status
of
belligerency
is
regarded
as
a
thing
of
the
past.
The
purges,
conducted
on
all
levels of
rank
and
responsibility,
have
had
a
substantial
effect.
Mistakes
were doubtless made,
both
in
the
selection
of
men
purged,
and
in
the
means employed.
The
War
Crimes
Trials
by
the
International
Military
Tribunal
for
the
Far
East
brought
home
to
Japanese
of
all
ranks
the
meaning
and
consequences
.of
aggression.
A
democratic
Japan
exists
today
in
a
real
sense.
New
institutions
speak
eloquently
of
the
revolutionary
political,
economic
and
social
changes
which
have
taken
place.
A
new
Constitution
has
changed
Japan
from
an
authoritarian
state
to
a
democracy,
and
has
transferred
sovereignty
from
the
Emperor
to the
people.
Under
the
new
Emperor
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