Lecture 4 - Japan, Korea, and Asian Tigers after WW2

When did Japan surrender?

Aug 14, 1945

Who was the leader of OPEC/leader in general in Japan after WW2?

-MacArthur becomes the supreme commander of the allied powers in Japan (mostly just the US occupying Japan, and MacArthur runs the show while they set up the government)

What was the US's intial objectives in Japan after WW2?

-rebuild Japan as a Western-style democracy
-eliminate militarism
(all to keep fascism away)

"Democracy cannot be taught to a starving people"

-Japan's infrastructure was shot, and they were looking at mass starvation
-US needs to feed Japan before worrying about government

MacArthur and Emporer Hirohito

-MacArthur did not want Hirohito tried for war crimes
-Tojo (the army leader) took all the blame to save the emporer, and the US wanted to keep the emporer so Japan would listen to them
-MacArthur makes the Emporer anounce publicly that he was not a god, that way he had no more political power, but the Japanese ppl still trust him
-Now we can establish real democracy w/o having to control the emporer

Tojo before arrest

-before getting arrested, he tried to shoot himself in the heart, missed, and was tried and hung

What is SCAP?

Supreme Commander Allied Powers

Japan's postwar constitution

-Written by SCAP
-Article 9
-was based on the Japanese model but was still a liberal democracy

Article 9

-Peace Article
-no army, but can still have a police force that must stay in Japan (current army is all cops)
-Japan is okay w/ this bc they are embrassing pacificm and they sthink the military is a money trap
-they poor their money into education and infrastructure
-the US troops are in Japan so they feel safe (still about 35000 troops in Japan today)

religion in Japan after WW2

SCAP REFORMS
-elimination of militaristic state shinto
-weed shinto out of schools
-garuntee freedoms for all religion

Shinto
-super ancient, ancestor woship
-indigenious to Japan
-ran public education during fascism

Buddhism
-from India
-pacifist
-persecuted by fascism

MacArthur let all the Buddhist out of Jail, punished the Shintos, US troops pick up Buddhism and bring it to the US

Recent reinterpretation of Article 9

Japan recently interpreted Article 9 to allow overseas combat, but it was very controversial bc of what they did during WW2

US objectives in Japan after the start of the Cold War

-after Cold War starts, US shifts focus in Japan from democratization to economic growth
-forget facism, we need to worry about the communists
-we wanted a strong military partner to fight the commies, and Japan needed the money

Zaibatsu changes to the Kietsu

Zaibatsu
-Japanese way of running the economy
-coporations + labor unions + government work together closely
-government is pro business (law taxes, helps out businesses)
-looks like Communism to MacArther
-the Zaibatsu helped build Japan's army during WW2

Kietsu
-Japan gives MacArthur some push bakc, he never breaks down the Zaibatsu completely
-Kietsu is a watered down Zaibatsu

Japan land reforms

-Japan is very communal bc it's not an easy place to live
-Land reform is also conducted
-all farms were owned by a small group of land owners, so MacArthur buys all of them, and sells them back to peasants for super cheap to create a middle class agriculture

San Francisco Peace Treaty

Sept 8, 1951
-If US + Japan go to war, the other will help
-Rlly about the US protecting Japan, but it lets the US focus on Korea

Treaty of Mutual Cooperation

-signed Jan 19, 1960

Japan's post war economic miracle

-Korean War (Japan produced stuff for the US army)
-Increased efficiency
-Kierestu
-Unions (good pay, healthcare)
-Gov support of business
-garuntee of lifetime employment

Koroshi

"death from overwork"
-60 hr weeks, unpaid overtime, highly stressfu;
-to be busy is honorable
-stree leads to stroke or heart attack even at middle age

-entrance exams + Juku acadamies
-the college you go to determines everything
-SATs on Meth

Japan's recession

-Japan experienced a recession after OPEN raises oil prices in 1973
-"lost decade of the 90s"
-no economic growth
-Kieretsu was helping everyone too much
-businesses make bad investments, relax of efficiency, bubble economy
-break the stock bubble, economy breaks, gov lets this happen to naturally fix everything

SOUTH KOREA after WW2

-After WW2, 38th parallel marked the division between US and USSR occipied Korea
-North - DPRK - USSR
-South - ROK - US
-Unstable time w many refugees returning back to Korea on both sides (Japanese used Koreans for slave labor during WW2)

US in Korea

-not as good as in Japan
-not enough translators
-never had democracy before, had to learn from scratch

Republic of Korea

-ROK
-established Aug 15, 1948
-Syngman Rhee is the 1st president
-He was educated in US, was anti-communsit, but was a little authoritarion

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

-DPRK
-established Sept 9, 1948
-leader is Kum Il-Sung

Land reform in ROK

1945-1950
-creates middle class in Korea

Syngman Rhee in South Korea

-was notably harsh; cracked down of left-wing opposition (McCarthyism on crack)
-supported huge sums of US aid (almost entire GNP of ROK was US aid)

Korean war start and end

-Jun 25, 1950 - DPRK invades ROK, starting the Korean War
-July, 1953 - ceasefire signed, but NOT a peace treaty

Syngman Rhee + Revolution

-Rhee is constantly attempting to secure his power, during and after the war
-president for 12 yrs
-tried to change term limits so he could be president forever

1960: April Revolution
-college students
-Rhee resigns

continued revolution

-left-wing backlach leads to charges against those who have participated in the revolutions
-More ptrotests and union strikes

-May 1961: Major General Park Chung-lee launches a coup in the face of growing instability
-claimed they wanted to return to a civillian government
-this takes a long time

-combinations of dramatic economic growth _ government repression
-park Chung-lee assassinated in 1979, offed by his secretary of state
-military coups and rioting repeatedly

Relations between Japan and Korea

-relations normalize in 1965
-US pushes them to do this
-Japan pays restitutions to Korea
embassadors and embassies

Koreans participate in _______ with the US

Vietnam

Everntual return to democracy in South Korea

-1987: General Roh Tae-woo ELECTED president
-1992: Kim Young-sam is ELECTED president; first civillian president in 30 yrs and first peaceful transfer of pwr

Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy"

-attempts to place nice with North Koreans and end the war
-peace village in the DMZ
-fizzles out, North Korea doesn't want peace bc they need to justify their authoritarian government

Singapore location

-city state
-island on tip of malaysian peninsula

Singpore history before and during WW2

-British troops return to Singapore in Sept 1945
-island was taken in the 1700s as an entrepot, Asia ships stuff to SIngapore, Singapore ships to Britain
-City was badly damaged by WW2 when US bombed the occupying Japanese
-defeat of the British by the Japanese invasion of Singapore durring WW1 spurred nationalism
-Brits were not welcomed back

The Brits in Singapore

-British were prepared to transition out of Singapore to an independent state, BUT they wanted to leave behind a pro-british government to stop communism
-"Malayan Emergency" delays independence

-social unrest on the rise in SIngapore; Brits unwilling to give up full control yet
-ethnic tensions + poverty
-crackdown on the leftists by the Pro-British government
-the Brits are pleased and agree to full independence

"Malayan Emergency"

-40+50s
-communist unrest in Malaysia
-called an emergency so they didn't need to raise the insurance premiums

Singapore becomes independent

-Elections for new Legislative Assemply held in May 1959

-The People's Election Party (PAP) sweeps the nations
-left wing
-Britian still honors promise to pull out

-PAP social programs reduce poverty and homelessness
-industrial parks + foreign companies
-invest in the projects (better than homelessness)
-school language changed from Chinese to English

Singpore isn't independent anymore

-PAP wants to unify w/ Malaysia
-Pro-Communists opposed to merger
-Malaysia is very anti-communist, but everyone votes to do it

-July 1963: Singapore, Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawok sign the Malaysia agreement to establish the federation of Malaysia

Malaysians and Chinese

-racials tensions between the Malaysians and the Chinese

Konfrotosi

-low level war between Indonesia and Malaysia
-Indonesia wanted to take Malaysia, so they weaken Malaysia from the inside
-Brits know what happened, tell Indonesia to stop, send nuclear weapons to Malaysia, and then Indonesia stops

Singapore is independent again

-Aug 1965 - Parliament of Malaysia votes to expel Singapore bc all of the racial tensions are really troubling
-Sept 1965 - Independent Singapore joins to UN

Why was the world skeptical about Singapore surviving?

They were so small

What does the newly independent Singapore focus on?

-economic growth (industrial parks, refineries, English in schools)

housing projects in Singapore

-virtually eliminate homelessness
-reinvest into economy

Singapore Armed Forces

-NAVY keeps an eye on the Chinese + defend agaisnt pirates
-Great Coast Guard (search and rescue)
-rest of armed forces are sufficient