How the U.S. Occupation of Japan After WW2 Forged the Most Durable Peace of the 20th Century

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During World War II, the U.S. and Japan were locked in bitter hatred, fueled by propaganda portraying each other as ruthless enemies, exemplified by dehumanizing "Tokyo Woe" posters in the U.S. and Japanese depictions of Americans as barbaric invaders. After the war, the feelings seemed to turn 180 degrees overnight. By the early 1950s, American servicemen in the occupying forces learned about Japanese tea ceremonies and traditions during the U.S. occupation, fostering cultural appreciation. By the 1950s, dishes like teriyaki and sukiyaki became popular in America, with Kyu Sakamoto’s 1963 hit song “Sukiyaki” topping U.S. charts, signaling a growing fascination with Japanese culture. This led the way to the Japanese automotive and electronics invasion a decade later, with brands like Nikon, Canon, and Toyota crushing the domestic market. How did sentiments between the nations change so quickly?

Much of it has to do with the success of the American occupation of Japan after the war, which rebuilt Japan’s economy and fostered mutual respect. To explain this period is today’s guest, Christopher Harding, author of “A Short History of Japan.” We look at Japan’s own view of its past, the transformative policies of General Douglas MacArthur’s administration that democratized and modernized Japan, the role of cultural exchanges in softening mutual perceptions, and how Japan’s rapid post-war recovery laid the groundwork for its emergence as a global economic power by the 1960s.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Sky here with another episode of the History and Plug podcast.
0:08.0	Nearly one million U.S. troops occupied Japan after World War II from 1945 until the Treaty
0:13.6	of San Francisco took effect in 1952. Many of them read the Pacific Stars and Stripes,
0:18.7	a daily newspaper published by the Department of Defense for American military personnel and their families. There, many of them read the Pacific Stars and Stripes, a daily newspaper published by the Department of Defense
0:20.9	for American military personnel and their families. There, many of them enjoyed the comic strip of
0:25.7	Bill Hume, who published a series called When We Get Back Home. It was illustrations about how
0:30.5	American servicemen were so immersed in Japanese culture that when they returned to America,
0:35.0	they would act Japanese. One strip shows Navy sailors on American
0:38.3	streets, bowing to each other, carrying the Wagasa paper umbrella, avoid the sun and rain,
0:43.1	and wearing the wooden sandals, the ghetto on his feet. Another one shows a circle of servicemen,
0:47.9	playing cards together, but sitting on the ground cross-legged. Another one shows a serviceman
0:52.1	with his wife and children in front of his house instructing his wife to put all of their shoes on the house's doorstep in Japanese style.
0:59.0	These comics were published less than a decade after Pearl Harbor, an event that so
1:03.0	angered the American public that it triggered millions of young men to flood recruiting offices
1:07.5	to go fight a war halfway around the world. In the early years of the war,
1:11.4	anti-Japanese sentiment in America was so strong that interment camps for ethnic Japanese Americans
1:15.9	were universally popular. How did sentiment like this flip on a dime? How did the United States
1:21.0	go from intense hatred of Japan and associated dislike of ethnic Japanese to strong friendship
1:26.5	between American Japan right after the war.
1:29.5	This episode, we're going to look at the American occupation of Japan, why it succeeded, and how it brokered one of the strongest pieces in the 20th and 21st centuries.
1:37.7	We're joined by Christopher Harding, author of the book A Short History of Japan.
1:41.5	We look at this period, the long history of Japan that explains
	...

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