American Influence on Japanese Political Parties: Post-World War II

 

The United States has an extended history of exercising its power and influence over countries across the world. From political, to economic, to cultural intrusions, the United States has done it all. Through examining and researching specific instances of the United States’ impact in certain situations, one specific period of history seemed to provide the largest window into understanding the way that the United States chose to approach international intervention and reconstruction. This was the Post-World War II era. When inspecting this era more closely, my colleagues and I first narrowed down the scope to American influence on Japanese reconstruction. Because of the tremendous amount of effort that went into the reconstruction movement itself and the countless moving parts we chose chose to just focus on American influence in the three main axis- power countries: Japan, Italy, and Germany. I decided to then pursue Japanese political parties in the post-war era and the extent of the influence.

Before launching into a comprehensive analysis of all United States’ efforts that went towards Japan and trying to find how each individual effort could have been involved in the shaping of Japanese political parties, we came up with six types of American influence that we would focus our efforts on. These six areas of influence were: influence on the drafting of the new constitution, American support for specific political parties, support for specific political figures, financial support for certain parties, banning of specific parties, and timing of the new elections.

Following the end of the war and the signing of the Potsdam declaration, the United States placed General MacArthur in charge of getting the new Japanese constitution drafted and put into effect. The three main components that the United States wanted to drive home were the demilitarization of Japan, denouncing the emperor’s divinity and making them the head of the state, and the ending of the feudal system in Japan. These main points in the new constitution shaped political parties to forever after having anti-war and military sentiments, create the base for a democratic system, and create a system where every citizen could play a role in politics. This formed the foundation for the new political parties that would emerge out of the era.

The main political parties that emerged directly following the end of the war were the Japanese Socialist Party, the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party. The political confusion following the war lasted for about a decade until the Liberal and Democratic parties united to form the Liberal Democratic Party or the LDP. The United States had already been favoring the non-socialist parties but now had a firm foothold to stand behind to resist the socialist party. The LDP has now been in power in Japan almost continuously up to this point with the exception of a few party changes.

After looking into the Japanese Prime Ministers that came into leadership following the end of the war, I found that the United States essentially handpicked leaders who already had positive views towards the West and its ideals. As we know, the United States largely favored those that had views that supported democratic systems and capitalism. Therefore, Shidehara Kijuro seemed like the ideal candidate for the Americans following the war. He had had extensive overseas experience and had served as an ambassador to the United States. His tendencies towards passivism also played a large role in him being chosen for the position. Subsequent Prime Ministers such as Yoshida Shigeru also shared similar ideals and were shoe-ins to the position because they were democratically minded and supported American sentiments.

The United States also provided extensive funding for the LDP. Following their emergence in 1955, the LDP was facing financial struggles and a tough election against the Japanese Socialist Party. Two members approached the head of the U.S. embassy and asked for assistance. The United States began sending off the record funding to the LDP to the tune of 2-10 million per year. Unsurprisingly, the CIA also became involved and enjoyed a relationship with the LDP by trading money for inside information.

To close out the analysis, I wasn’t able to find evidence of the United States banning any Japanese parties or focusing on election timing. However, the United States’ role in shaping the path that Japanese political parties have taken largely lies in the way that they drafted the Japanese constitution, supported early political ideals, backed certain leaders, and directed funding. The United States, once again, successfully extended their reach across oceans to plant seeds of democracy that have bloomed into wonderfully enriched societies.