Analysis and Interpretation
As a result of victories at the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf, the U.S. was able to cut Japanese supply lines, launch bombing operations against Japan, and eventually drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This forced the Japanese to surrender.
"The thoughts and hopes of all America--indeed of all the civilized world--are centered tonight on the battleship Missouri. There on that small piece of American soil anchored in Tokyo Harbor the Japanese have just officially laid down their arms. They have signed terms of unconditional surrender." - President Truman in a radio address to America on September 1, 1945
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This quick victory saved many American and Japanese lives by preventing an invasion of Japan. It also saved perhaps as many as 10 million Japanese people who were on the verge of starvation. The U.S. sent 800,000 tons of food to help.
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"The disasters affecting the 1945 rice crop compelled the government officials progressively revise downward the per-capita food ration. By November 9, 1945, the government reported that, under the ideal conditions, food supplies would suffice for an average daily diet of only 1,325 calories. This proved optimistic. By February, 1946, normally the end of the food collection cycle from the fall harvest, government requisitions stood at only 60 percent of quotas." - Downfall by Richard B. Frank
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The U.S. and her allies, under the command of General MacArthur, occupied Japan from 1945 to 1952. Major goals of the occupation were:
- Disarmament of Japanese military
- Repatriation of all POWs and civilian internees (Japanese and Allied) throughout Asia and the Pacific
- Draft Constitution for Japan, and establish democratic government while suppressing communist influences
"Japan provides bases as well as financial and material support to U.S. forward-deployed forces, which are essential for maintaining stability in the region. Over the past decade the alliance has been strengthened through revised defence guidelines, which expand Japan's noncombatant role in a regional contingency, the renewal of the agreement on host nation support of U.S. forces stationed in Japan, and an ongoing process called the Defence Policy Review Initiative (DPRI)."
- U.S. Relations with Japan, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (U.S. Department of State) Oct. 24, 2012
Japan has now become one of the worlds most successful economies and democracy. Since the end of the U.S. occupation in 1952, Japan has been a strong ally of the U.S. for defense and an invaluable trading partner.
"The Japanese people since the war have undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history, With a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and marked capacity to understand, they have from the ashes left in war's wake erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty and personal dignity and in the ensuing process there has been created a truly representative government committed to the advance of political morality, freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice."
- General MacArthur's Address to Congress, April 19, 1951