Dayna L. Barnes. Architects of Occupation

Most Americans view the Allied occupation of Japan after the Second World War as an example of a “good” occupation. Within a few years, a relatively small group of Americans and other foreigners directed Japan’s dramatic transformation from a militaristic and aggressive imperial power into a peaceful trading partner and a beacon of democracy in the region. Dayna Barnes’s Architects of Occupation offers a fascinating glimpse into the policymaking process that resulted in that successful occupation. Rather than focus on the occupation itself, Barnes’s book examines wartime planning in the years leading up to Japan’s surrender. As Barnes explains in the conclusion, her book serves as a “prologue to occupation histories” (167). But the book is much more than a prologue; it is a captivating testament to the power of ideas in foreign-policy making. Barnes argues that between 1939 and 1945, American policymakers made the critical decision “to reorient rather than punish postwar Japan” (2). During that period, bureaucrats, intellectuals, and media figures worked to create a framework for reinventing Japanese culture, politics, economy, and society. Despite minor differences over some specific aspects of the occupation, nearly everyone involved in the planning process believed that “integrating Japan into the postwar world economy was the key to pacifying the country” (46). Relying on government records, memoirs, diaries, letters, and other writing by key figures, Barnes re-creates how American officials’ vision for Japan became accepted policy.

Democracy · Diplomacy · Economic history · Government (linguistics) · Memoir · Militarism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Prologue · Sociology · Surrender · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies