A Guide to Research on the Allied Occupation of Japan

 

By Matthew R. Augustine

 

CONTENTS:  

 

I. Introduction

II. Annotated Bibliography of Western-Language Materials

III. Archival Materials

IV. The Prange Collection

V. Columbia University's Oral History Project

VI. Microfilmed and Published Records

VII. Newspaper and Periodical Sources

VIII. Japanese-Language Materials

 

I. Introduction

 

The Allied occupation of Japan refers to the military and political control of Japan by the United States and its allies following World War II, a period of  over six years from Japan's formal acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration on August 15, 1945 to the implementation of the San Francisco Peace Treaty on April 28, 1952.   For more than six and a half years, Japan was subject to the authority of Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), a term that referred both to the person who embodied that position--General Douglas MacArthur and his successor, General Matthew Ridgway--and to the supporting bureaucracy.   In late 1945 the Far Eastern Commission and the Allied Council for Japan were established ostensibly to give guidance and supervision to SCAP, but these bodies could not act effectively without the concurrence of the United States and were therefore limited in their power.   Although the occupation was officially an Allied effort, it was primarily directed and staffed by the United States.   Unlike Germany or Korea, Japan was to have no separate zones of occupation, and there was to be no real chance for the Soviet Union or the other Allies to make policy decisions.

 

The Occupation can be roughly divided into three major phases; 1) the period from 1945 to 1947 when extensive political, social, and economic reforms were instituted under intense American pressure; 2) the period between 1947 and 1950, sometimes referred to as the "reverse course," when U.S. policy makers shifted their major concern from political reform to the economic rehabilitation of Japan; and 3) the period from 1950 to 1952 when occupation policy focused most sharply upon preparing for the restoration of Japanese sovereignty and on the nation's post-occupation security requirements.  

 

Basic policy for the occupation was spelled out in the "United States Initial Post-Surrender Policy for Japan" of August 29, 1945.   SCAP was to work through the existing Japanese government to disarm Japan, to eliminate institutions that had supported its militarism, and to encourage the democratization of the Japanese state and society.   To accomplish this, SCAP commanded a contingent of about 150,000 troops and some 5,500 bureaucrats.  In the absence of any real security problems, it was the bureaucrats who were by far more important throughout the occupation period.   Divided into a number of functional sections and often engaged in competition with one another, the SCAP bureaucrats managed to pass a sweeping set of social, political, and economic reforms--using a group of conservative Japanese civilian politicians as the medium for their implementation.

 

This guide is meant to provide a list of primary sources that may be helpful to anyone interested in researching a particular topic related to the Allied occupation of Japan.  To begin with, most written records basic to any social scientific study of the Allied occupation of Japan are held in governmental collections or archives.   Much of these records are physically located in and around Washington, D.C. In many cases, such official documentation held by agencies of the U.S. government is still classified and not readily available for scholarly research.   But going directly to these archives may not always be an option, and furthermore is not necessarily the most efficient means of conducting research.   Fortunately, an increasing number of primary sources are being declassified and published, so that a relatively extensive and well-rounded bibliography can thus be pieced together.   This guide will be divided into the following seven subsections, beginning with the most comprehensive encyclopedia on occupation sources-- The Allied Occupation of Japan, 1945-1952: An Annotated Bibliography of Western Language Material -- and end with Japanese-language materials.   The call number listed following the source cited indicates its availability at major libraries and institutions.  

 

II. An Annotated Bibliography of Western-Language Materials

 

Robert E. Ward and Frank Joseph Shulman, The Allied Occupation of Japan, 1945-1952: An Annotated Bibliography of Western Language Materials (Chicago: American Library Association, 1974).   Z.3308.A5 W35 1974g

 

This annotated bibliography, together with its companion volume of Japanese-language materials entitled Nihon senyô bunken mokuroku (A Bibliography on the Allied Occupation of Japan), is by far the most comprehensive encyclopedia on occupation sources to date.   This English companion to the Japanese volume treats the literature of the occupation in the principal Western languages that appeared through the end of 1972.  This "bible" of occupation materials provides a complete and annotated guide to primary sources that have been made public.  At the same time, it also restricts coverage to items which relate to the planning, staffing, structure, operation, or direct consequences of the occupation and Japanese or foreign relations.  In general, items that describe or analyze developments in Japan during this period without reference to the presence or influence of the occupation are excluded.   The exceptions are works that provide contextual information of relevance and value.  

 

All items are listed alphabetically by author within each section of the bibliography and have been numbered serially from 1 to 2537.   One item that is sure to interest anyone doing research in occupation history--the Columbia University Oral History Project, item number 43--has some seventeen subentries distinguished as 43a, 43b, etc.   When an item refers to more than a single aspect of the occupation, it is treated in one of two ways.  If its coverage is very basic, it is placed in a general category; for example, the section providing a calendar of general commentaries or the section dealing with the economy in general and SCAP's role within it.   If its treatment is more focused, unnumbered cross-reference entries are inserted in the appropriate sections.   These provide the author, short title, and date of publication, and refer the reader to the annotated entry for the item in question.

 

Two types of indexes are also provided at the end of this annotated bibliography.   The first is an author's index that includes the editors of certain publications cited and the names of individuals who have provided recorded interviews about the occupation.  The second index is useful for readers who wish to identify and locate recurrent accounts of the occupation that share a common editorial viewpoint or even a common area of publication.  Examples would be the numerous editorials or reports about the occupation appearing in the Economist , the Far Eastern Survey , the Nation , and the Soviet Press Translations .  Entries within this index are listed under the titles of the serial publications concerned and provide the names of the authors publishing in them, dates of the items in question, and the relevant entry numbers.  There is no subject index as such, since the table of contents is detailed enough to make it unnecessary. 

 

Brief introductory statements or essays by the compilers on any given subject is helpful in orienting the reader with respect to the literature on that particular aspect of the occupation. These appear at the beginning of most sections and subsections.  Organizational charts that depict the structure of SCAP headquarters are also appended to the text.

 

Although this is an impressive compilation of all sources written on the occupation, it is a dated source and does not cover materials included in the voluminous central files of the National Archives. In addition, this annotated bibliography does not include materials concerned exclusively with the Ryukyu Islands, and all master's and doctoral theses on the occupation are left out.

 

III. Archival Materials

 

As noted in the Annotated Bibliography of Western-Language Materials , a high proportion of written records basic to almost any serious historical or social scientific study of the Allied occupation of Japan are held in governmental collections or archives.  The largest and most directly relevant portion was generated by the defense establishment, especially the General Headquarters of SCAP, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Offices of the Secretaries of War and Navy, the Army's Civil Affairs Division, the Navy's Occupied Areas Section, and the Sixth and Eighth Armies.   Another important section of the records originated with the Department of State, its political advisers attached to SCAP's staff, or with numerous agencies within the department concerned with developments and policies toward occupied areas.   The Treasury, the Foreign Economic Administration, and the Office of Strategic Services also contributed les extensive but relevant materials to the total mass of documentation.   Some interdepartmental committees, especially the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee (SWNCC), were extremely important.   The Far Eastern Commission, the Allied Council for Japan, the Combined Chiefs of Staff, and the Pacific War Council all produced records of interest that provided an international dimension to this literature.

 

The bulk of these records are physically housed in the Washington, D.C. area.   Some of the military records are in regional depositories in Kansas City and St. Louis, while the Roosevelt Papers are at Hyde Park, New York and the Truman Papers at Independence, Missouri.   General MacArthur's personal and office files are in part located at the MacArthur Memorial's Bureau of Archives in Norfolk, Virginia, while another part remains with his family.   By far the largest part of the relevant records, however, are deposited with the National Archives and Records Service and falls under the jurisdiction of its Modern Military Records Division.   This division is housed in the Archive's depository at Suitland, Maryland.   A second major collection is in the Department of State's central files, while smaller but important collections are in the possession of the Office of the Chief of Military History, the Army Library in the Pentagon, the Historical Office of the Department of State, and the Library of Congress.   The McKeldin Library of the University of Maryland at College Park has a unique collection of Japanese-language materials published during the occupation.

 

As for documents that are still classified, some form of security clearance is needed to have access to the official records.   The procedures involved in obtaining this clearance vary according to the department that happens to control access to the particular records.  The problem is further complicated by the fact that many of the major collections contain large amounts of action or information copies of documents originating outside of their own department or agency. The authority to clear such materials for scholarly use legally resides with the issuing agency rather than the agency that happens to have current custody of them.   According to the Annotated Bibliography of Western-Language Materials , the problems involved in alleviating this situation range from an insufficiency of funds to bureaucratic indifference.  The sheer bulk of the records involved is truly formidable--almost 9,000 linear feet of files, for example, in the main SCAP collection alone.   The archival and historical branches of the government do not generally have a high budgetary priority and are badly in need of both personnel and operating funds.  It is partly for these reasons that the system of declassification over a set period of years leading in theory to eventual declassification does not in practice work so effectively.

 

There are nevertheless a growing number of notable but much smaller collections of materials linked with individual participants in the occupation and with prominent U.S. government statesmen of the period.   The following is a list of archival collections that is easier to access than the National Archives:

 

Army Library.

Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

 

Alfred Rodman Hussey Papers.

Asia Library.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

 

Joseph M. Dodge Papers.

Detroit Public Library.

Detroit, Michigan.

 

John Foster Dulles Papers.

Princeton University Library.

Princeton, New Jersey.

 

MacArthur Memorial.

Bureau of Archives.

Norfolk, Virginia.

 

McKeldin Library.

University of Maryland

College Park, Maryland.

 

National Archives and Records Service.

Modern Military Records Division.

Suitland, Maryland.

 

Oral History Project.

Oral History Research Office.

Columbia University in the City of New York.

 

U.S. Department of the Army.

Office of the Chief of Military History.

Washington, D.C.

 

For further information on the nature and availability of materials in these collections, one should consult the following guides in particular: 1) the annual volumes of The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections compiled by the Library of Congress, which provides brief descriptions (the size, scope, contents and location of a collection, restrictions on access to its holdings, etc.) of nearly 30,000 manuscript collections housed permanently in over 800 repositories that are regularly open to scholars, and 2) the "news notes" section of the quarterly issues of the journal American Archivist , which contains valuable information on recent accessions of manuscript material by various libraries.

 

IV. The Prange Collection

 

A vast array of Japanese-language books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, news photographs, political posters, and other types of published and unpublished materials from the Allied occupation of Japan are currently available at the McKeldin Library in College Park, University of Maryland.   These materials constitute what is formally known as "The Gordon W. Prange Collection: the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1945-1952" in honor of Gordon W. Prange who helped to acquire them on behalf of the University of Maryland. Most of these materials once constituted the files of the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD), Press Publication and Broadcasting Section of SCAP.  Between 1945 and 1949, the CCD had the responsibility of examining all Japanese publications in order to insure that they adhered to the censorship codes that SCAP had set up as part of its efforts to reform Japan.   Japanese publishers, companies and individuals were required to submit copies of everything that they intended to print for public distribution. After being examined, these items were kept on file within the CCD offices.   When censorship came to an end in 1949, arrangements were made to ship these files directly to the University of Maryland.   Since then, they have been gradually processed by the staff of the library's East Asia Collection and increasingly made available for scholarly use and research. 

 

The entire collection at the University of Maryland constitutes a reasonably complete publications record for Japan over a four-year period.   Comparably extensive and important holdings are not known to exist anywhere else in the world.   These materials can be described and categorized best under five headings: 1) censored materials; 2) monographs and pamphlets; 3) magazines; and 4) newspapers.   The following descriptions of each category is borrowed from Frank Shulman, who is bar far the leading expert on bibliographical sources on the occupation period:

 

1)     Censored Materials

 

Consisting of nearly 100 cubic feet of files containing periodical articles and book-length manuscripts submitted for pre-publication censorship, these are items that SCAP disapproved of in their original form.   Certain books and articles were suppressed entirely or had extensive passages deleted from them because they extolled militaristic, ultranationalistic, or rightist views.  Others were censored because they advocated radical Communism, failed to support programs and policies of SCAP, or were critical in some direct or indirect way of the Allies. The documents have been completely processed and are arranged alphabetically by title of periodical or book.  While there are certain restrictions on photocopying and publishing them, they are not classified and are all available for legitimate scholarly use.

 

2)     Monographs and Pamphlets

 

The book collection contains works on virtually every subject including law, economics, agriculture, literature, education, science and technology, geography, and children's literature.    There are an estimated 45,000 books and pamphlets in all.   Of particular significance are the several thousand first editions of contemporary literature ranging from novels by Kawabata Yasunari and by Tanizaki Junichirô to volumes of poetry composed by high school students.   The works pertaining to education include postwar textbooks that reflect the lively debates of that time on the rewriting of history.   Since the 1960s, the East Asia Collection has pursued a policy of incorporating all of these books into its general library holdings are cataloged and placed on open shelves.  The estimated 14,500 volumes that have already been fully processed are now readily accessible through the library's public card catalogue and may be borrowed through interlibrary loan.

 

3)     Magazines

 

The Prange Collection contains an estimated 13,000 periodical titles from the Occupation years.  These periodicals cover virtually every topic of interest.   In many cases, an unbroken run from 1945-1949 may be found within the library; in other cases, only one or two issues of a particular journal are available. Quite a few periodicals may no longer be available anywhere in Japan because the copies, published during a time of extreme shortages, were subsequently recycled for their paper content or destroyed through the ravages of time.  A holdings card has been prepared for each magazine title.   Containing basic bibliographical information in both Japanese and English (e.g., the title, place of publication, publisher, and a listing of a specific issues held at the University of Maryland), these cards have been arranged in alphabetical order. All of these magazines and the related bibliographical card files can be found in College Park.  

 

4)     Newspapers

 

<>The Prange Collection has an estimated 16,500 titles of daily and non-daily, local and national newspapers, including major national publications such as the Asahi shimbun ; local newspapers (chihôshi) such as the daily Kumamoto min'yū shimbun and the Gekiryū<>, the latter a mimeographed Communist newspaper from Okayama city; newspapers which were the organs of political parties, labor groups, farm cooperatives, literary societies, educational organizations; newspapers for youngsters.

 

Okuizumi Eizaburô, Senryôgun kenetsu zasshi mokuroku (Tokyo: Yushodo Booksellers Ltd., 1982). REF Z 3308.A5 O4.   Also known as the User's Guide to the Gordon W. Prange Collection, East Asia Collection, McKeldin Library, University of Maryland at College Park (Part I--Microfilm Editions of Censored Periodicals, 1945-1949, compiled and edited by Okuizumi Eizaburo).

 

This guide is the first in a series of projected user's guides to The Gordon W. Prange Collection.   These important materials have been microfilmed in the hopes of better preserving and making them more readily accessible to historians and other scholars of the occupation era.   Staff members of the Prange Collection organized and prepared the censored periodicals and related materials for microfilming over a period of several years.  They determined which materials were to be filmed, and arranged them in proper sequence.   Whenever possible, all magazines were placed in alphabetical order by title, and all issues of each title were arranged in chronological order by date of publication. Civil Censorship Detachment documents are also included whenever they shed light on the nature and activities of the censorship system.

 

V. Columbia University's Oral History Project.

 

The Oral History Project at Columbia University includes significant materials relating to the occupation of Japan.   Mrs. Beate Gordon, formerly of the Government Section of SCAP, conducted interviews with participants in the occupation who served with various sections of SCAP and the Far East Command.   In the course of these interviews she briefly questions interviewees on their general backgrounds and then concentrates on their experiences in occupied Japan and their impressions of various aspects of the occupation.   The taped interviews have then been transcribed and the resulting typescripts average approximately 60 pages apiece.   There are 16 completed interviews that relate exclusively to the occupation.  The project also has interviews with Roger Baldwin, Joseph Ballantine, and Sir George Sansom that include considerable material relating to the occupation of Japan.  

 

The Reminiscences of Roger Nash Baldwin.

Typescript, section in "Japan, 1947." Volume 1. p. 432-503.

1954

 

The Japanese Reminiscence of Roger Baldwin.

Typescript, 118 pages.

1961

 

The Reminiscences of Ai Kume.

Typescript, 59 pages.

1962

 

The Reminiscences of Alvin Graves.

Typescript, 141 pages.

1961

 

The Reminiscences of Burton Crane.

Typescript, 75 pages.

1961

 

The Reminiscences of Cyrus H. Peake.

Typescript, 56 pages.

1961

 

The Reminiscences of Dr. Lauren V. Ackerman.

Typescript, 29 pages.

1961

 

The Reminiscences of Douglas W. Overton.

Typescript, 53 pages.

1960

 

The Reminiscences of Esther Crane.

Typescript, 59 pages.

1961

 

The Reminiscences of Faubion Bowers.

Typescript, 58 pages.

1960

 

The Reminiscences of Harlan Youel.

Typescript, 54 pages.

1961

 

The Reminiscences of Harold C. Henderson.

Typescript, 62 pages.

1962

 

The Reminiscences of Jake R. Harold.

Typescript, 55 pages.

1962

 

The Reminiscences of Joseph Ballantine.

Typescript, 262 pages.

1961

 

The Reminiscences of Joseph Gordon.

Typescript, 32 pages.

1961

 

The Reminiscences of Josephine Colletti McKean.

Typescript, 80 pages.

1962

 

The Reminiscences of Sir George Sansom.

Typescript, 98 pages.

1957

 

VI. Microfilmed and Published Records

 

Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, General Headquarters, History of the Non-Military Activities of the Occupation of Japan, volumes 1-55 (Tokyo: SCAP, 1952).   Available in 13 reels of microfilm at Starr Library.   MICROFILM F d2084. This series is also available in Japanese; GHQ Nihon senryôshi, vol. 1-55 (Tokyo: Nihon Tosho Center, 1996-2000).

 

This work consists of fifty-five monographs that were prepared by the Statistics and Reports Section of SCAP and edited by William E. Hutchinson.  The collection is an official record of SCAP's activities in Japan, and it describes the rationale behind many of the most significant occupation policies and reform programs.   Data for these monographs were originally collected by SCAP's special staff sections and cover the nonmilitary activities of the occupation of Japan from 1945 through July 1951.

 

The monographs generally begin with a description of the historical background of the subject treated, then explain the occupation's objectives and comment upon the effects of occupation policies and the Japanese reaction to them.  The monographs present a comprehensive description of the occupation's programs rather than a critical analysis of its policies.  Each report contains useful appendixes that contain statistical data, charts, legal documents, reports, speeches, and SCAP directives relevant to the subject of the monograph.   Those SCAP staff members who took part in the compilation of the work are acknowledge at the beginning of the first monograph, which is an introduction to the series.  

 

It appears that SCAP arbitrarily assigned numbers 1 through 55 to the entries, according to a particular subject.   As a result, many monographs indicate a volume and part, but many others do not.  When used, volume numbers are often confusing and inconsistent, thus making it extremely difficult to comprehend the internal ordering of subseries. It does not help that there are classified monographs in the series.  

 

The original manuscript of this series is kept at the World War II Record Division, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

 

Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, General Headquarters, Summation of Non-Military Activities in Japan and Korea, 1945-1948, numbers 1 - 35 (Tokyo: SCAP, 1945-1948).   Available in 8 reels of microfilm at Starr Library.   MICROFILM, F d1120.

 

This is SCAP's comprehensive monthly report on nonmilitary activities in postwar Japan and Korea.  Although Japan is covered from September 1945 to August 1948, Korea is omitted from the series after March 1946, the words "and Korea" being deleted from the original title.  The reports describe the existing situation in Japan rather than explain SCAP directives to the Japanese government.   Individual numbers vary in length from 200 to 340 pages, and cover 4 general categories of information.   The first category, entitled "General," presents a concise summary of the entire issue and discusses SCAP organization and operations.   The other categories, political, economic, and social, give more detailed information on particular topics.   The political section discusses developments with respect to national and local government, political parties, the Diet, the purge, the police, prisons, accidents, legal affairs, war criminals, etc.   The economic section also covers a wide range of topics such as agrarian reform, production and distribution by industrial sectors, export-import rations, etc.  The last category, social, treats public health, public welfare, education, religion, public libraries, and communication media, etc.  Each August issue contains an appended review of the previous occupation year.   Each issue also contains approximately 100 charts, graphs, and maps relevant to the material discussed.

 

United States Department of State, Occupation of Japan, Policy and Progress (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946). LEHMAN, D802.J3 U5 1946.

 

A general outline of Allied policy toward the occupation of Japan is presented along with a report of progress up to the middle of 1946.  The document begins with a presentation of major official policies and decisions that led to the establishment of the Allied occupation, such as the Cairo and Yalta conferences and the Potsdam Declaration, the Far Eastern Advisory Commission, the Far Easter Commission, and the U.S. Initial Post-Surrender Policy.   This section on policy development is followed by a description of SCAP's structure and SCAP's directives with respect to various aspects of Japanese society.  They include demilitarization, constitutional reform, the growth of party government, electoral practice, war criminals, reparations, education, economics, the zaibatsu, labor, and international trade.   The report concludes with President Truman's Army Day speech on April 6, 1946 relating to the American role in the Far East in the attainment of a lasting peace.  The appendixes comprise the texts of 39 major documents prepared by the Allied nations, the United States, or Japan, in 1943-1946.   Beginning with the Cairo Declaration of 1943, the documents range from the text of the first Japanese offer of surrender made to the united States through the Swiss government on August 10, 1945, to a summary of the U.S. Education Mission to Japan's report in April 1946.   Other important documents are SCAP directives on the purge, the Japanese draft constitution as submitted to SCAP on April 22, 1946, the imperial rescript of January 1, 1946, the charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East as amended on April 26, 1946, the initial reparations policy formulated by the Far Eastern commission on May 13, 1946, and so forth.    This is a very useful publication.

 

George H. Blakeslee, The Far Eastern Commission: A Study in International Cooperation, 1945-1952 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1953). This report has been republished as volume one in a two-volume study of the Far Eastern Commission by Yamagiwa Akira, a leading occupation scholar in Japan. Yamagiwa Akira, Kyokutô iinkai, dai ikkan (Tokyo: Azuma shuppan sha, 1994).  Not yet available at Starr Library.

 

This study of the Far Eastern Commission was written by George H. Blakeslee, who was a member of the United States delegation to the Far Eastern Commission and United States representative on the Steering Committee of that Commission.  The Far Eastern Commission was set up in December 1945 to serve as the policymaking agency for occupied Japan.  Its chairman, Maj. Gen. Frank R. McCoy had an independent jurisdictional status from that which he occupied as head of the United States delegation to the Commission.   Blakeslee was the chairman's political adviser and was assigned by General McCoy to serve as the United States member of the Steering Committee.   General McCoy asked Blakeslee to prepare an overall review of the work of the Commission, with special emphasis on the participation of the United States delegation, and the Department of State was asked to publish it as an independent study. 

 

This study describes the organization of the Far Eastern Commission, its development, the subjects it discussed, the policy decisions it passed, the views of the several delegations, and its overall achievements and limitations.  To trace the development of events within the Commission and to present the various points of view of the several delegations, the minutes of all meetings of the Commission and the Steering Committee and of various sessions of working committees are consulted and quotations from them embodied in the text.   These official records are supplemented by memoranda of conversations with members of various delegations in which are recorded views that are perhaps more illuminating than statements in formal documents.   Additional information was available from the participation of the author in the activities of the Commission, from the sessions of the Subcommittee on the Far East of the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee, in which the proposal for a Far Eastern Advisory Commission was initiated and its terms of reference drafted, through the entire history of the Far Eastern Commission, where he was political adviser to the U.S. representative and also U.S. member on the Steering Committee.

 

The contents of the report are organized according to the major topics that the Far Eastern Commission focused its efforts on.   The first chapter is a helpful chapter on the organization of the Commission, followed by a chapter explaining the terms of reference of the Commission and the Allied Council.   The major topics covered in the report include: the new Japanese constitution; the demilitarization of Japan; Japanese external contacts; Japanese fishing and whaling in the high seas; reparations; labor policy, food, and looted property; and all other policy decisions and issues.  

 

Volume two of this series, also published in 1994, is a compilation of the "Activities of the Far Eastern Commission," three reports submitted by the Secretary -General of the Commission to the Secretary of State of the United States.  The first report covers the period of February 26, 1946-July 10, 1947; the second report covers July 10, 1947-December 23, 1948; and the third report covers December 24, 1948-June 30, 1950.  Compared to the study by Blakeslee cited above, the language of these official reports is more simplistic and formal.  However, these reports are the very source from which Blakeslee himself got his information, and one can get a good sense of the flow of events that the Far Eastern Commission was involved in a given period. The most useful part of the reports is perhaps the appendix, which can generally be divided into two categories. The first category includes basic sources necessary to understand all of the activities that the Far Eastern Committee was involved in, such as organizational charts, rosters of personnel, and terms of reference of the Committee.   The second category is a compilation of all the policy decisions that the Commission adopted, such as the "Basic Post-surrender Policy for Japan."  

 

VII. Newspaper and Periodical Sources

 

The occupation was a subject of close and well-sustained interest to a small number of newspapers and periodicals.   Prominent among the former were such major newspapers of record as the New York Times , the Christian Science Monitor , and London Times , and the Manchester Guardian .  In addition to carrying the usual wire service reports on developments in Japan, all of these maintained special correspondents on the scene and published commentaries on the news.   In so doing, these papers came to adopt particular editorial stances and viewpoints with respect to the occupation that supplement their reporting, and provide a more critical insight into the merits and shortcomings of the policies involved.  Such newspapers thus constitute a detailed and continuous source of information.

 

English-language newspapers published in Japan during the occupation period such as the Nippon Times or the Pacific Stars and Stripes fall in a somewhat different category, but they too supply a great deal of useful information about contemporary developments of interest. On a somewhat more restricted basis the same is true of a few periodicals that paid an unusual amount of attention to the occupation.   Examples include the Department of State Bulletin , the Nation , or the New Republic within the United States; Cotemporary Japan or the Oriental Economist in Tokyo; the New Times or Soviet Press Translations for the USSR: or Current Notes on International Affairs for Australia.  These journals were certainly not the only ones carrying valuable and fairly numerous articles on the occupation, but over the 6 years and 8 months that it lasted, their coverage tended to be more continuous and extensive.   In many cases, they also represent national or other points of view of interest.

 

VIII. Japanese-Language Sources

 

Sakamoto Yoshikazu, et al., Nihon senryô bunken mokuroku (Tokyo: Nihon Gakujutsu Shinkôkai, 1972).   REF Z3308.A5 N54 1972.

 

This bibliography on the Allied occupation of Japan is the companion volume of Robert Ward and Frank Shulman's Annotated Bibliography of Western Language Materials. It is a complete and annotated guide that treats the literature of the occupation in Japanese that appeared through the end of 1971.   The items described are all in Japanese but the format is essentially the same as the Annotated Bibliography, as the two-volume series was initiated, planned, and carried out jointly by Japanese and American scholars.  The main difference is that this Japanese-language companion does not include bibliographical sources on prewar and postwar periods.

 

Not every item listed is annotated, but those that do are considered by the editors to be particularly significant materials, or they may be difficult to surmise their content without some sort of explanation.   Most of the nearly 3,000 entries were compiled from three main sources, Zen Nippon shuppanbutsu sômokuroku, Zasshi kiji sôin, Nôhon shžhô, all published by the National Diet Library.   Each entry, listed in alphabetical order, notes the publisher, year of publication, number of pages, name of library where the publication can be found, and whether or not one can borrow the particular resource.   The subject matter is categorized and divided into seven chapters, including "general materials," "politics and governing system," "economy," "labor and society," "education," "media," and "religion." Most sources are in libraries in and around Tokyo, with a large proportion physically housed in the National Diet Library.  Although this bibliography may be a dated resource, it is still an impressive compilation and is the best available tool for researching occupation sources in the Japanese language.  

 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nippon senryô jûyô bunsho (Documents Concerning the Allied Occupation and Control of Japan), v. 1 - 6 (Tokyo: Nippon Tosho Center, 1989).  DS 889. A15 1989.

 

This series is a reprinted edition of the original publication by the Special Records Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The original volumes 1 through 4 were published between 1949 and 1950 while volumes 5 and 6 were subsequently published in 1977.   This new edition is a compilation of a wide range of political, military, cultural, and economic aspects of the occupation-related official documents, categorized according to subject matter and in chronological order.   Many of the documents that were compiled were memorandums sent from the GHQ to the Japanese government, but there are also speeches and letters written by the Supreme Commander, official announcements by the GHQ, and even includes policy decisions by the Far East Commission and official documents from the United States government.   In this way, it is fair to say that it is a comprehensive compilation of official documents that were made available to the Japanese government at the time of the occupation. 

 

What is important to keep in mind here is that this is not only a compilation of commands that were sent to the Japanese government during the time of its occupation, but also the fact that all of these documents were translated, edited and published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time.   In this sense, it is a valuable source that represents the process of implementing democratization, demilitarization, and other occupation policies as recorded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   The six volumes are divided as "Basic Documents," "Political, Military and Cultural," "Financial, Economic & Reparations," "Commercial and Industrial," "On Civil Property," and "On Aliens," the last two volumes of which are an explanation of revised Japanese laws which were translated to English.   Some of the earlier directives issued by SCAP and official documents such as the "United States Initial Post-surrender Policy for Japan" were translated into formal bungo script mixed with kata kana and are difficult to read, but every document in Japanese is accompanied by the original text in English on the opposite page.

 

Etô Jun, Senryô shiroku , v. 1--4 (Tokyo: Kôdansha, 1989).   DS 889.16.S46 1989.

 

This four-volume series is a compilation of the "Sengo kiroku" (Post-war Records) made public by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1976 and 1978.   Volume 1 consists of official documents of the period from which Japan was considering the terms of unconditional surrender to the official surrender ceremony on September 2, 1945, as well as the documents related to the initial terms of the Allied occupation.   The second volume covers documents concerning Japan's cease-fire agreement and demobilization of its presence throughout Asia, the removal of leadership involved in the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere, as well as termination of Japan's diplomatic rights.   The third volume consists of documents related to the revision of the Imperial Constitution.  The last volume is a compilation of documents concerning the military occupation of Japan, both at the national and regional levels.   The forward to the series notes that most of these documents were unpublished until Kôdansha undertook this project.

 

Although most of the retransmitted documents are true to its originals, the editor has included helpful footnotes to provide supplemental information.   In addition, each volume begins with an introductory article or interview by a Japanese scholar or a former American occupation official, and ends with a commentary written by the editor.   These are useful in so far as they help to contextualize the subject matter of each volume. This pocket-size series also contains frequent maps and charts that makes what could at times be dry reading more visually entertaining.

 

Yamagiwa Akira and Nakamura Masanori, Shiryô nihon senryô , v. 1 - 2 (Tokyo: Otsuki Shoten, 1990).   DS 889.16.S54 1990.

 

The first volume entitled Tennôsei is a compilation of primary sources that have been translated into Japanese concerning the treatment of the emperor system by the Allied powers.   Although the sources examined here are mainly official policy documents and reports of various U.S. government agencies, non-official sources in English, as well as in Japanese, Chinese, and Russian are also provided as supplementary material.  For example, the chapter on "Debates Within and Outside of the United States Concerning the Emperor System" includes editorials from the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle , speeches and interviews by Generals Chiang Kai-shek and Joseph Stalin, and journal articles by other prominent political figures from the Allied powers. 

 

The structure of this volume is divided into wartime sources and postwar sources, each section containing three chapters according to a specific subject, and the documents contained in each chapter are organized in chronological order.   The three chapters in the section on wartime sources (December, 1942-September, 1945) are "Examination of the Emperor System by the U.S. State Department," "Debates Within and Outside of the United States Concerning the Emperor System," and "Unconditional Surrender and the Emperor System."  The three chapters in the section on postwar sources are "The Problem of War Crimes by the Emperor," "Treatment of the Emperor System," and "Occupation Policy and the Emperor System."   Since some of the wartime sources, and much of the postwar sources are State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee and State Department reports, the bibliography at the end of this volume is most helpful in identifying these government record groups and where they come from.   The footnotes accompanying each document also provide helpful information to the reader who might be unfamiliar with the background of the subject and terminology in question.

 

The second volume entitled Rôdô kaikaku to rôdô undô, published in 1992, is currently not available at Starr Library.

 

E. H. Norman, Nippon senryô no kiroku : 1946-48, translated by Nakano Toshiko, (Tokyo: Jimbun Shoin, 1997).  DS 889.16.N66 1997.

 

E.H. Norman, primarily known as a Japanese historian, was a Canadian diplomat in Tokyo during the occupation.   From 1946 to 1950, part of his job as the head of the Canadian delegation to the Allied occupation entailed dispatching letters, reports, and other official documents to the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   From this mass of documentation, the editor of this book has selected 60 reports from 1946 to 1948, and has translated and added extensive explanatory notes to these otherwise unpublished records, so as to shed some light on Norman's observations of occupied Japan.

 

What is of interest to the reader is that this book provides a comparatively objective account of the events of the occupation as seen through the eyes of E. H. Norman.   There are two factors that account for the author's ability to see things more objectively.  One is that, as the Canadian government representative of the Allied powers in occupied Japan, Norman had free access to the General Headquarters of SCAP, the Far East Commission, and Japan's governmental as well as non-governmental organizations.   For all practical purposes, Canada was not really an occupying power; it had neither the power nor responsibility in the administration of the occupation.   In this regard, Norman was in a unique position to observe first hand Japan's transition in the immediate postwar years, and from a perspective more detached than the primary actor in the occupation--the United States.   Secondly, the author himself is the focus of this book.   As a diplomat and historian who lived for a long time in Japan before the outbreak of the Pacific War, Norman had greater insight in evaluating the various facets of wide-ranging and fundamental social transformations of postwar Japan. 

 

This book is not a comprehensive bibliography of E.H. Norman's observations of occupied Japan, but deals with the most outstanding reform measures that were carried out in the first three years of the occupation.   The editor's notes on the bottom of each page is very helpful in contextualizing Norman's reports.  The biographical reference, the timeline of the occupation, and the document list of Norman's reports at the back of the book are also useful.   It would, of course, be easiest to read this all in English, but the original documentation is only available in the National Archives of Canada.   

 

Rinjiro Sodei, Correspondence Between General MacArthur, Prime Minister Yoshida and Other High Japanese Officials (1945-1951) (Tokyo: Hosei University Press, 2000). DS 889.16.Y67 2000. 

 

As the title suggests, this book is a compilation of correspondence between General Douglas MacArthur and the Japan's three leading Prime Ministers during the occupation--Yoshida Shigeru, Katayama Tetsu, Ashida Hitoshi.   The texts are provided in both the English-language originals and the Japanese translations.  Preceding the texts is a 100-page commentary on what the author calls "correspondence diplomacy." which helps to explain the process by which General MacArthur communicated SCAP's occupation policies and reform program to the heads of the Japanese government.  The author's narrative puts the documents in context, while the documents themselves are invaluable primary sources that shed some light on how the occupier and the occupied felt about specific measures of reforming Japanese state and society.   The fact that these letters of correspondence were not official documents in a strict sense gives the reader a rare glimpse into the minds of the highest officials involved in the Allied occupation of Japan.  

 

This book makes available crucial historical documents concerning not only the relationship of SCAP and General MacArthur to Japan's key prime ministers during the occupation, but also the relationship of those government leaders to the issues of democracy that was so divisive to the contemporary popular movements and the old-guard elites. It deserves, therefore, to be on any meaningful list of bibliographical sources on occupation literature.    The letters of correspondence have been gathered mainly from the MacArthur Memorial Library, the Prange Collection, and the National Archives.