Postwar Japan 1945 to the Present

By Paul J. Bailey

Within forty years of the end of the Second World War, Japan was transformed from a nation in defeat to one of the most successful economic forces in the world. In this book, Paul Bailey draws on the most recent research to analyse the significance of the American Occupation (1945-52) as well as the later political, social and economic factors that contributed to postwar recovery.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0631179011
• ISBN13: 9780631179016
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Postwar Japan

Postwar Japan is a publication of The Historical Association of London whose aims are to further the study and teaching of history. Paul Bailey presents a concise and readable analysis of the events in Japan after World War II. He includes a smattering of 19th and early 20th century Japanese history that led to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and enumerates the terrible loss of life caused by the war. Paul Bailey uses the changing faces in the office of prime minister to characterize Japan's internal and external turbulence. Bailey elaborates in great detail about the public shifts in attitude and activism based upon the directions the prime minister in office chose to go.Paul Bailey concludes that Japan's postwar period is not over because there are too many unresolved feelings about the war that affect the way Japan views the world. The postwar period may have ended at Hirohito's death in January 1989, but old hostilities and feelings resurfaced at the 50th anniversary ceremonies marking the atomic bombings and the surrender. Bailey's book includes a handy outline chronology and a map at the beginning of the book. He suggests further readings, includes an extensive bibliography, translation glossary, and a detailed index. Postwar Japan is excellent reading for those who want to study how sweeping lifestyle, economic and cultural changes in a country can be effected by a single person - General MacArthur. Readers will learn how those changes affect the long-term relationship between the victor and the defeated.