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| American President Barack Obama with Japanese Emperor Akihito. |
In the second section of John W. Dower's book,
Embracing Defeat, the author looks at how Japan was being occupied by the victorious Americans, and how the victors infused ideas of democracy and freedom into the indigenous population. The author also mentions that a place called 'Little America' was created within the few square miles of downtown Tokyo that had been spared by the air raids. Dower also highlights that it was essential to get at the individual Japanese and remold his ways of thinking and feeling to enhance appreciation of freedom after Japan has started to rebound from the loss in the war. The author notes that between October 1st of 1945 and December 31st of 1946, over 5.1 million Japanese people returned to their homeland. He also includes that Japan was occupied and was forced to 'Americanize' their cultures and their cities. Dower examines this democratic revolution by the American's and the victorious Allied Powers
Japanese-American relations will only become better as time progresses.
and states that it was seen as a 'revolution from above'. Many cartoonists depicted the American's as omnipotent and godlike, and they frequently resorted to a virtually identical 'hand of God' iconography by depicting little Japan in the palm of the Allies, or receiving MacArthur's orders from on high. Dower points out that this revolution from above received an early endorsement from Tokuda Kyuichi, a fiery communist party leader who had been imprisoned for eighteen years. Kyuichi's declarations would become a point of embarrassment to the Communists, who lamely rationalized Tokuda's words by pointing out that his thanks to the 'Allies' for liberating the world from fascism and militarism and for opening the way for the democratic revolution in Japan included the Soviet Union. Dower closes the section by noting that
