MacArthur was from a long line of veterans and managed to be highly respected in the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and America. Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers On 29 August 1945, MacArthur was ordered to exercise authority through the Japanese government machinery, including the Emperor Hirohito.[228] MacArthurs headquarters was located in the Dai Ichi Life Insurance Building in Tokyo. As Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) in Japan, MacArthur and his staff helped Japan rebuild itself, institute democratic government, and chart a new course that ultimately made Japan one of the worlds leading industrial powers. The U.S. was firmly in control of Japan to oversee its reconstruction, and MacArthur was effectively the interim leader of Japan from 1945 until 1948.[229] In 1946, MacArthurs staff drafted a new constitution that renounced war and stripped the Emperor of his military authority. The constitution—which became effective on 3 May 1947—instituted a Westminster system form of government, under which the Emperor acted only on the advice of his ministers. It included the famous Article 9, which outlawed belligerency as an instrument of state policy and the maintenance of a standing army. The constitution also enfranchised women, guaranteed fundamental human rights, outlawed racial discrimination, strengthened the powers of Parliament and the Cabinet, and decentralized the police and local government.[230] A tall Caucasian male (MacArthur), without hat and wearing open necked shirt and trousers, standing beside a much shorter Asian man (Hirohito) in a dark suit. MacArthur and the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito A major land reform was also conducted, led by Wolf Ladejinsky of General Douglas MacArthurs SCAP staff. Between 1947 and 1949, approximately 4,700,000 acres (1,900,000 ha), or 38% of Japans cultivated land, was purchased from the landlords under the governments reform program, and 4,600,000 acres (1,860,000 ha) was resold to the farmers who worked them. By 1950, 89% of all agricultural land was owner-operated and only 11% was tenant-operated.[231] MacArthurs efforts to encourage trade union membership met with phenomenal success, and by 1947, 48% of the non-agricultural workforce was unionized. Some of MacArthurs reforms were rescinded in 1948 when his unilateral control of Japan was ended by the increased involvement of the State Department.[232] During the Occupation, SCAP successfully, if not entirely, abolished many of the financial coalitions known as the Zaibatsu, which had previously monopolized industry.[233] Eventually, looser industrial groupings known as Keiretsu evolved. The reforms alarmed many in the U.S. Departments of Defense and State, who believed they conflicted with the prospect of Japan and its industrial capacity as a bulwark against the spread of communism in Asia.[234] In an address to Congress on 19 April 1951, MacArthur declared: The Japanese people since the war have undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history. With a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and marked capacity to understand, they have from the ashes left in wars wake erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty and personal dignity, and in the ensuing process there has been created a truly representative government committed to the advance of political morality, freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice.[235]
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 22:11:08 +0000
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