Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 480, The Dynasty, Part 3.

One has to imagine that being purged from office was one hell of a shock for Hatoyama Ichiro.

The original purge directive announced on January 4,1946, by the Supreme Command for the Allied

Powers, the U.S. occupation government in post-World War II

Japan, did not contain any designation for purged targets that would seem to apply to Hatoyama.

It banned from public office anyone directly associated with the army or navy leadership,

with Japan's overseas colonial affairs,

and with the host of wartime political and economic agencies and extra-governmental right-wing

societies, which had directed the war effort. Hatoyama had not been a part of any of these

groups, and thus assumed he would not be targeted. In fact, the

decision to purge him came after a very tangled series of discussions, which is why it was announced

five months after the initial purge directive. Much ink has been spilled as to why the Scap

occupation authorities decided to bar Hatoyama from politics.

Ultimately, it comes down to a few key reasons.

First, it's very important to remember that Asia looked very different in 1946 than it would

just a few years later.

The assumption among American leaders was still that wartime ally the Republic of China

would be the main American ally in Asia going forward into what was looking more and more

like a Cold War with the Soviet Union.

As a result, there was not much urgency to get Japan up and running, so to speak, relative to

Republican China, and thus more of a willingness to go after anyone even remotely associated

with the wartime government.

...