ABSTRACT

In the aftermath of World War II, Japan was essentially occupied and controlled by the United States. In order to insure that Japan would never again threaten the peace and security of the world and that a peaceful and responsible government would be established in Japan in due course, the American occupation authorities not only destroyed Japan's war capabilities and eradicated militarists and ultra-nationalists'influences, but embarked on a full-scale reform of Japan's political system, economy, society, and culture. During the occupation period, the General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers（GHQ/SCAP）formulated and implemented the American policies toward Japan, and those in the area of culture were prepared and carried out by GHQ's Civil Information and Education Section（CIE）. Primarily drawing on the GHQ/SCAP Records, this book examines the formulation, implementation, and influence of the U. S. cultural policies toward Japan during the occupation period.

In contrast to political and economic reforms which tend to emphasize building institutions, cultural reforms directly affect people's life styles, behavioral norms, thoughts and values and, therefore, play an unparalleled role in the process of democratic nation-building. Since the Japanese had long viewed themselves as imperial subjects, it was imperative to reform the old Japanese culture and replace it with the soil of civic culture if the new democratic institutions, introduced as a result of the political and economic reforms, were to take roots in Japan. During the occupation period, the Civil Information and Education Section not only implemented democratic reforms in the areas of press, radio, motion pictures, education and religion according to the U. S. historical experience. It also sought to introduce a liberal and democratic culture into Japan's society to re-orientate and re-educate Japanese people. This book explores CIE's cultural reforms as a whole. It does not examine the establishment and development of various specific cultural institutions in postwar Japan under the guidance of CIE. Instead, it focuses on the ways in which CIE employed those cultural means in order to exert influence on the mentalities, sentiments, and opinions of the Japanese.

Drawing on concepts and theories of political culture and civic culture in the field of political sciences, the author examines CIE's activities from the angle of the transition of Japan's political culture after World War II. This book views CIE's activities as a process of exporting America's democratic political culture, i. e. civic culture; it analyzes the relationship between CIE's activities and the nurturing of civic culture in postwar Japan. Such an analysis helps to elucidate the role of the U. S. cultural policies toward Japan during the occupation period in the process of postwar Japan's democratization.

This book draws the following conclusions: CIE's activities helped nurture the Japanese people's independent and sound personalities, fostered their concept of human rights, and raised the level of their understanding and abilities of political participation. Through the cultural reforms during the occupation period, the Japanese people underwent a significant transformation, psychologically, from imperial subjects to citizens. In other words, by way of the American exportation and the Japanese nurture, the democratic culture took roots in Japan and became Japan's own civic culture in the modern sense, buttressing Japanese democratic institutions from within.

 

Key Words: the American Occupation of Japan, the Civil Information and Education Section, Cultural Reform, Civic Culture, Democratization