Shōwa era
Shōwa昭和 | |||
---|---|---|---|
December 25, 1926 – January 7, 1989 | |||
Location | Japan | ||
Including | Major events | ||
Monarch(s) | Shōwa | ||
Key events |
| ||
Chronology
|
Part of a series on the |
History of Japan |
---|
The Shōwa era (昭和時代, Shōwa jidai,
Before 1945, Japan moved into political totalitarianism, ultranationalism and statism culminating in Japan's invasion of China in 1937, part of a global period of social upheavals and conflicts such as the Great Depression and World War II.
Defeat in the Second World War brought about radical change in Japan. For the first and only time in its history, Japan was occupied by foreign powers, an American-led occupation which lasted for six years and eight months. Allied occupation brought forth sweeping democratic reforms. It led to the formal end of the emperor's status as a demigod and the transformation of Japan from a form of mixed constitutional and absolute monarchy[2] to a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary system with a liberal democracy. In 1952, with the Treaty of San Francisco, Japan became a sovereign state again. The postwar Shōwa period was characterized by the Japanese economic miracle.
The Shōwa era was longer than the reign of
Etymology
The two kanji characters in Shōwa (昭和) were from a passage of the Chinese Book of Documents: 百姓昭明,協和萬邦 (Translated: "[T]he people (of his domain), ... all became brightly intelligent. (Finally), he united and harmonized the myriad states.") From this same quotation, Japan also adopted the era name Meiwa (明和) during the Edo period in the late-18th century. There were two other candidates at the time – Dōwa (同和) and Genka (元化).
The term could be roughly understood as meaning "enlightened peace" or in some interpretations "radiant Japan".
In his
I have visited the battlefields of the Great War in France. In the presence of such devastation, I understand the blessing of peace and the necessity of concord among nations.[4]
End of "Taishō Democracy"
The election of Katō Takaaki as the Prime Minister of Japan continued democratic reforms that had been advocated by influential individuals on the left. This culminated in the passage of universal adult male suffrage in May 1925. General Election Law gave all male subjects over the age of 25 the right to vote, provided they had lived in their electoral districts for at least one year and were not homeless. The electorate thereby nearly quadrupled in size, from 3.3 million to 12.5 million.[5]
However the forces of reaction grew more powerful and steadily; after 1925 there was a retreat from reform, liberal policies and democracy.[6][page needed][7] Pressure from the conservative right forced the passage of the Peace Preservation Law of 1925 along with other anti-left-wing legislation, only ten days before the passage of universal manhood suffrage. The Peace Preservation Act curtailed activism on the left—which was not extensive—and the screws were steadily tightened. It outlawed groups that sought to alter the system of government or to abolish private ownership. The small leftist movements that had been galvanized by the Russian Revolution were subsequently crushed and scattered. This was in part due to the Peace Preservation Act, but also due to the general fragmentation of the left. Conservatives forced the passage of the Peace Preservation Law because the party leaders and politicians of the Taishō era had felt that, after World War I, the state was in danger from revolutionary movements. The Japanese state never clearly defined a boundary between private and public matters and, thus, demanded loyalty in all spheres of society. Subsequently, any ideological attack, such as a proposal for socialist reforms, was seen as an attack on the very existence of the state. The meaning of the law was gradually stretched to academic spheres. After the passage of the Peace Preservation Law and related legislation, kokutai emerged as the symbol of the state. Kokutai was seen as the barrier against communist and socialist movements in Japan. With the challenge of the Great Depression on the horizon, this would be the death knell for parliamentary democracy in Japan.[8]
Washington Conference to Mukden Incident
After
In 1924, however, friendly U.S.–Japanese relations were torpedoed by the Immigration Act of 1924. The act closed off Japanese immigration to the United States and dropped Japanese immigrants to the level of other Asians (who were already excluded). The overwhelming reaction in Japan, both at the highest levels and in mass rallies that reflected angry public opinion, was hostile and sustained. Commentators suggested the opening guns of a race war and called for a new buildup of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces.[9]
The Shōwa financial crisis was a financial panic in 1927, during the first year of the reign of Emperor Hirohito. It was a precursor of the Great Depression. It brought down the government of Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijirō and led to the domination of the zaibatsu over the Japanese banking industry.
From 1928 to 1932, a domestic crisis could no longer be avoided. As the left was vigorously put down by the state, the economic collapse brought new hardship to the people of Japan. Silk and rice prices plummeted and exports decreased 50%. Unemployment in both the cities and the countryside skyrocketed and social agitation came to a head.[citation needed]
Meanwhile, the London Naval Treaty was ratified in 1930. Its purpose was to extend the Washington Treaty System. The Japanese government had desired to raise their ratio to 10:10:7, but this proposal was swiftly countered by the United States. Thanks to back-room dealing and other intrigues, though, Japan walked away with a 5:4 advantage in heavy cruisers,[10] but this small gesture would not satisfy the populace of Japan, which was gradually falling under the spell of the various ultra-nationalist groups spawning throughout the country. As a result of his failings regarding the London Naval Treaty, Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi was shot on November 14, 1930, by an ultranationalist and died in 1931.
By this time, the civilian government had lost control of the populace. A New York Times correspondent called Japan a country ruled by "government by assassination".[11] The army, moving independently of the proper government of Japan, took the opportunity to invade Manchuria in the summer of 1931.
Since the
Rise of nationalism
Prior to 1868, most Japanese more readily identified with their
The rise of Japanese nationalism paralleled the growth of nationalism within the West. Certain conservatives such as
During the first part of the Shōwa era,
The Anti-Comintern Pact brought Nazi ideologues to Japan who attempted but ultimately failed to inject Nazi-style anti-Semitic arguments into mainstream public discussion. Where the government presented the popular image of Jews, it was not so much to persecute but to strengthen domestic ideological uniformity.[17]
The
Imperial Japanese Army General Kiichiro Higuchi and Colonel Norihiro Yasue allowed 20,000 Jews to enter Manchukuo in 1938. Higuchi and Yasue were well regarded for their actions and were subsequently invited to the independence ceremonies of the State of Israel. Diplomat Chiune Sugihara wrote travel visas for over 6,000 Lithuanian Jews to flee the German occupation and travel to Japan. In 1985, Israel honored him as Righteous Among the Nations for his actions.
Military state
The withdrawal from the
From 1932 to 1936, the country was governed by admirals. Mounting nationalist sympathies led to chronic instability in government. Moderate policies were difficult to enforce. The crisis culminated on February 26, 1936. In what became known as the
Within the state, the idea of a
The reality during this period differed from the propaganda. Some nationalities and ethnic groups were marginalized, and during rapid military expansion into foreign countries, the
Some of the atrocities were motivated by racism. For instance, Japanese soldiers were taught to think of captured Chinese as not worthy of mercy.[19]
Second Sino-Japanese War
On July 7, 1937, at the Marco Polo Bridge, the Japanese Kwantung army stationed there used explosions heard on the Chinese side of Manchuria as a pretext for invasion. The invasion led to a large-scale war known as the Second Sino-Japanese War approved by the Emperor that was called a "holy war" (Seisen) in Imperial propaganda.
At the time, China was divided internally between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which was under the leadership of Mao Zedong, and the Nationalist government of China, the Kuomintang (KMT), which was under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek.
The years of 1937–38 were a time of rapid and remarkable success by the Japanese, who had a number of advantages over the Chinese army. While the Japanese army possessed a smaller force of
By the end of July 1937, the Japanese had slaughtered the elite 29th Army at Kupeikou[citation needed] and soon captured Beijing. From there, the Japanese advanced down south through the major railway lines (Peiping-Suiyan, Peiping-Hankow, and Tientsin-Pukow). These were easily conquered by the superior Japanese army.
By October,
On December 13, 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army, following the capture of Nanjing, began the Nanjing Massacre (sometimes called the "Rape of Nanking"), which resulted in a massive number of civilian deaths including infants and elderly, and the large-scale rape of Chinese women. The exact number of casualties is an issue of fierce debate between Chinese and Japanese historians.
By 1939, the Japanese war effort had become a stalemate. The Japanese Army had seized most of the vital cities in China, including Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, and
Second World War
Negotiations for a German-Japanese alliance began in 1937 with the onset of hostilities between Japan and China. On September 27, 1940, the
By 1938, the United States increasingly was committed to supporting China and, with the cooperation of Britain and the Netherlands, threatening to restrict the supply of vital materials to the Japanese war machine, especially oil, steel and money. The Japanese army, after sharp defeats by the Russians in Mongolia, wanted to avoid war with the Soviet Union, even though it would have aided the German war against the USSR.[21] The Emperor became fatalistic about going to war, as the military assumed more and more control. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe was replaced by the war cabinet of General Hideki Tojo (1884–1948), who demanded war. Tōjō had his way and the attack was made on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, as well as British and Dutch strong points. The main American battle fleet was disabled, and in the next 90 days Japan made remarkable advances including the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Malaya and Singapore.[22]
The quagmire in China did not stall imperial ambitions for the creation of a
it is impossible, from the standpoint of our domestic political situation and of our self-preservation, to accept all of the American demands. ...we cannot let the present situation continue. If we miss the present opportunity to go to war, we will have to submit to American dictation. Therefore, I recognize that it is inevitable that we must decide to start a war against the United States. I will put my trust in what I have been told: namely, that things will go well in the early part of the war; and that although we will experience increasing difficulties as the war progresses, there is some prospect of success.[23]
With the Emperor's approval,
The decisive naval/aerial
Total Japanese military fatalities between 1937 and 1945 were 2.1 million; most came in the last year of the war. Starvation or malnutrition-related illness accounted for roughly 80 percent of Japanese military deaths in the Philippines, and 50 percent of military fatalities in China. The aerial bombing of a total of 69 Japanese cities appears to have taken a minimum of 400,000 and possibly closer to 600,000 civilian lives (over 100,000 in Tokyo alone, over 200,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, and 80,000–150,000 civilian deaths in the battle of Okinawa). Civilian deaths among settlers who died attempting to return to Japan from Manchuria in the winter of 1945 were probably around 100,000.[24]
Imperial rule
Japan launched multiple attacks in East Asia. In 1937, the Japanese Army invaded and captured most of the coastal Chinese cities such as Shanghai. On 22 September 1940, the Japanese invasion of French Indochina began. Japan took over French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), British Malaya (Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore) as well as the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). Thailand managed to stay independent by becoming a satellite state of Japan. On 13 April 1941, the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed. In December 1941 to May 1942, Japan sank major elements of the American, British and Dutch fleets, captured Hong Kong,[25] Singapore, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, and reached the borders of India and Australia. Japan suddenly had achieved its goal of ruling the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
The ideology of Japan's colonial empire, as it expanded dramatically during the war, contained two somewhat contradictory impulses. On the one hand, it preached the unity of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a coalition of Asian nations, directed by Japan, against Western imperialism. This approach celebrated the spiritual values of the East in opposition to the "crass" materialism of the West.[26] In practice, however, the Japanese installed organizationally-minded bureaucrats and engineers to run their annexed territories, and they believed in ideals of efficiency, modernization, and engineering solutions to social problems. It was fascism based on technology and rejected Western norms of democracy. After 1945, the engineers and bureaucrats took over and turned the wartime techno-fascism into entrepreneurial management skills.[27]
The Japanese government established puppet regimes in Manchuria and China; they were dismantled at the end of the war. The Army operated ruthless governments in most of the conquered areas but paid more favorable attention to the Dutch East Indies. The main goal was to obtain oil. The Dutch sabotaged their oil wells but the Japanese were able to reopen them. However most of the tankers taking oil to Japan were sunk by American submarines, so Japan's oil shortage became increasingly acute. Japan sponsored an Indonesian nationalist movement under Sukarno.[28] Sukarno finally came to power in the late 1940s after several years of battling the Dutch.[29]
Defeat and Allied occupation
With the defeat of the Empire of Japan, the Allied Powers dissolved it and placed the territories under occupation. The Soviet Union was made responsible for North Korea, and annexed the Kuril Islands and the southern portion of the island of Sakhalin. The United States took responsibility for the rest of Japan's possessions in Oceania and took over South Korea. China, meanwhile, plunged back into its civil war, with the Communists in control by 1949. General Douglas MacArthur, from the US, was put in charge of the Allied Occupation of Japan as the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers; he and his staff exerted wide but indirect power, for the decisions were carried out by Japanese officials.
A
Douglas MacArthur sought to break the power of the zaibatsu; Japan was democratized and liberalized along American "New Deal" liberal lines. Parliamentary party politics was restored. Old left-wing organizations such as the Social Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party reasserted themselves. The first post-war general election was held in 1946, and for the first time, women were allowed to vote.
On 3 May 1947, the
In July 1947, the Japanese government, with the encouragement of the U.S. occupation forces, established a National Police Reserve (警察予備隊 Keisatsu-yobitai). This consisted of 75,000 men equipped with light infantry weapons. This was the first step of its post-war rearmament.
In mid-1952, The Coastal Safety Force (海上警備隊 Kaijō-keibitai) was founded. It was the waterborne counterpart of National Police Reserve.
By the late 1940s, there were two conservative parties (the
The "Japanese Miracle"
Japan's remarkable economic growth in the decades following 1950 has been called the "Japanese Miracle", as the economy grew three times faster than other major nations. It was achieved almost without foreign capital.[citation needed] The miracle slackened off in 1973 in the face of an upsurge in oil prices and the destabilization of international trade. By the mid-1990s the economy entered an era of stagnation and low growth that still persists.[32]
From 1950 onward, Japan rebuilt itself politically and economically. Sugita finds that "the 1950s was a decade during which Japan formulated a unique corporate capitalist system in which government, business, and labor implemented close and intricate cooperation".[34]
Japan's newfound economic power soon gave it dominant economic influence in the world. The Yoshida Doctrine and the Japanese government's economic intervention spurred on an economic miracle on par with the record of West Germany. The Japanese government strove to spur industrial development through a mix of protectionism and trade expansion. The establishment of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) was instrumental in the Japanese post-war economic recovery. By 1954, the MITI system was in full effect. It coordinated industry and government action and fostered cooperative arrangements, and sponsored research to develop promising exports as well as imports for which substitutes would be sought (especially dyestuffs, iron and steel, and soda ash). Yoshida's successor, Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda, began implementing economic policies which removed much of Japan's anti-monopoly laws. Foreign companies were locked out of the Japanese market and strict protectionist laws were enacted.[35]
Meanwhile, the United States under President
On 1 July 1954, the Self-Defense Forces Act (Act No. 165 of 1954) reorganized the National Security Board as the Defense Agency on July 1, 1954. Afterward, the National Security Force was reorganized as the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) (陸上自衛隊 Rikujō Jieitai). The Coastal Safety Force was reorganized as the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) (海上自衛隊 Kaijō Jieitai). The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) (航空自衛隊 Kōkū Jieitai) was established as a new branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) (自衛隊 Jieitai). These are the de facto postwar Japanese army, navy and air force as the successor to the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy.
On 12 December 1956, Japan joined the United Nations.
In 1957, Japan was the first country to build dedicated railway lines for high-speed travel. In 1957, Odakyu Electric Railway introduced its 3000 series SE Romancecar train, setting a world speed record of 145 km/h (90 mph) for a narrow gauge train. This would lead to the design of the first Shinkansen, This record gave impetus for the design of the first 0 Series Shinkansen.
In 1960, Japan was wracked by the massive
On 1 October 1964, the largest Japanese land reclamation project thus far was completed in Lake Hachirōgata. The village of Ōgata was established. Land reclamation work began at Lake Hachirōgata in April 1957.
On 1 October 1964, Tokaido Shinkansen was the first high-speed rail line in Japan and the oldest high-speed rail system in the world.[38]
On 10 October 1964, Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics. This marked the first time that the Olympic Games were held in Asia.
In 1968, Japan surpassed
By the 1970s, Japan ascended to great power status again. It had the world's second largest economy after the United States. However, its military power was very limited due to pacifist policies and article 9 of the 1947 constitution. This made Japan an abnormal great power.[39]
On 11 February 1970, the first successful launch of the Lambda 4S rocket placed the Japanese Ohsumi satellite on orbit.
On 20 December 1970, the
On 30 September 1971, the Zengakuren demonstrated and rioted in Tokyo against terms for the return of Okinawa from the US to Japanese control. They wanted to remove all American military presence.
On 24 November 1971, the Okinawa Reversion Agreement was ratified and returned the Okinawa Prefecture to Japanese sovereignty.
In 1974, Prime Minister Eisaku Satō was the first Asian to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1980, Japan became the biggest motor vehicle producing country in the world with 11,042,884 motor vehicles compared to the US's 8,009,841.
The beginning of 1980s saw the introduction of Japanese anime into the American and western culture. In the 1990s, Japanese animation slowly gained popularity in the United States.
In 1985, the home video game industry was revitalized by the widespread success of the Nintendo Entertainment System. The success of the NES marked a shift in the dominance of the video game industry from the United States to Japan during the third generation of consoles.
Organisms named after Shōwa era
A new genus, Showajidaia, and new family, Showajidaiidae, of nudibranch mollusks were named in 2020.[40]
Conversion table
To convert any Gregorian calendar year between 1926 and 1989 to Japanese calendar year in Shōwa era, 1925 needs to be subtracted from the year in question.
Shōwa | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AD | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 |
Shōwa | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 |
AD | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 |
Shōwa | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 |
AD | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 |
Shōwa | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 |
AD | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
See also
- Japanese resistance during the Shōwa period
- List of Japanese political figures in early Shōwa period
- Shōwa financial crisis
- Shōwa Modan (昭和モダン), referring to the modernization of Japan during the Shōwa era.
References
- ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Shōwa". Japan Encyclopedia, p. 888, p. 888, at Google Books.
- ISBN 978-3643100856.
- ^ Crossette, Barbara (May 21, 1989). "King Bhumibol's Reign". The New York Times.
- ^ Durschmied, Erik (2002). Blood of Revolution: From the Reign of Terror to the Rise of Khomeini, p. 254.
- ^ Hane, Mikiso, Modern Japan: A Historical Survey (Oxford: Westview Press, 1992) 234.
- ^ Sharon Minichiello, Retreat from Reform: Patterns of Political Behavior in Interwar Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 1984).
- ^ Germaine A. Hoston, "The state, modernity, and the fate of liberalism in prewar Japan." Journal of Asian Studies 51.2 (1992): 287-316.
- ^ Richard H. Mitchell, "Japan's Peace Preservation Law of 1925: Its origins and significance." Monumenta Nipponica (1973): 317-345. online
- ^ Izumi Hirobe, Japanese Pride, American Prejudice: Modifying the Exclusion Clause of the 1924 Immigration Act (2001) ch 4
- ^ Tohmatsu, Haruo; Willmott, H. P. A Gathering Darkness: The Coming of War to the Far East and the Pacific, 1921–1942 (Lanham, Maryland: SR Books, 2004), pp. 26–27.
- ^ Pyle, Kenneth, The Rise of Modern Japan, p. 189.[full citation needed]
- ^ Michael Edward Brown, et al. Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict (2001) p. 50.
- ^ Edwin P. Hoyt, Warlord: Tojo Against the World (1983) pp 43-54.
- ^ Robert J.C. Butow, Tojo and the Coming of the War (1961)
- ^ Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, p.280
- ^ Peter Wetzler, Hirohito and War, 1998, p.104
- ^ David G. Goodman, Masanori Miyazawa, Jews in the Japanese Mind :The History and Uses of a Cultural Stereotype , 1995, p.104-105, 106–134, Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, p.281
- ^ "THE JEWS OF JAPAN". March 1, 2000. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
- ^ Barak Kushner, The Thought War, 2006, p.131
- ^ Carl Boyd, Hitler's Japanese Confidant: General Ōshima Hiroshi and MAGIC Intelligence, 1941-1945 (UP of Kansas, 1993) pp 44-45.
- ^ Larry W. Moses, "Soviet-Japanese Confrontation in Outer Mongolia: The Battle of Nomonhan-Khalkin Gol" Journal of Asian History 1.1 (1967): 64-85 online.
- ^ Noriko Kawamura, "Emperor Hirohito and Japan's Decision to Go to War with the United States: Reexamined." Diplomatic History 2007 31#1: 51-79. online
- ^ Quoted in Marius B. Jansen, Japan and China: from War to Peace, 1894–1972 (1975), p. 405.
- ^ Dower, John (2007). "Lessons from Iwo Jima". Perspectives. 45 (6): 54–56.
- ISBN 978-0-7735-3162-8.
- ISBN 0-275-97714-5.
- ^ Moore, Aaron (2013). Constructing East Asia: Technology, Ideology, and Empire in Japan's Wartime Era, 1931–1945. pp. 6–8, 21–22, 226–27.
- S2CID 154027511.
- ISBN 90-6718-191-9.
- ISBN 0-674-25125-3.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-4932-1.
- ^ Katz, Richard (1998). Japan – the System that Soured: The Rise & Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle.
- ISBN 9780765603562.
- S2CID 144173659.
- ISBN 0-8047-1128-3.
- S2CID 144173659.
- ISBN 0-87338-706-6.
- ^ "Shinkansen – Bullet Trains in Japan". Trainspread.com. 2020. Archived from the original on March 21, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0415668187. Retrieved June 13, 2016. ("The great powers are super-sovereign states: an exclusive club of the most powerful states economically, militarily, politically and strategically. These states include veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council(United States, United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia), as well as economic powerhouses such as Germany, Italy and Japan.")
- .
Further reading
- Allinson, Gary D. The Columbia Guide to Modern Japanese History (1999). 259 pp. excerpt and text search
- Allinson, Gary D. Japan's Postwar History (2nd ed 2004). 208 pp. excerpt and text search
- Bix, Herbert. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan(2001), the standard scholarly biography
- Brendon, Piers. The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s (2000) pp 203–229, 438–464, 633–660 online.
- Brinckmann, Hans, and Ysbrand Rogge. Showa Japan: The Post-War Golden Age and Its Troubled Legacy (2008) excerpt and text search
- Dower, John. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (2000), 680pp excerpt
- Dower, John W. Empire and aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese experience, 1878–1954 (1979) for 1945–54.
- Dower, John W. (1975). "Occupied Japan as History and Occupation History as Politics*". The Journal of Asian Studies. 34 (2): 485–504. S2CID 155234627. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
- Dunn, Frederick Sherwood. Peace-making and the Settlement with Japan (1963) excerpt
- Drea, Edward J. "The 1942 Japanese General Election: Political Mobilization in Wartime Japan." (U of Kansas, 1979). online
- Duus, Peter, ed. The Cambridge History of Japan: Vol. 6: The Twentieth Century (1989). 866 pp.
- Finn, Richard B. Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan (1992). online free
- Gluck, Carol, and Stephen R. Graubard, eds. Showa: The Japan of Hirohito (1993) essays by scholars excerpt and text search
- Hanneman, Mary L. "The Old Generation in (Mid) Showa Japan: Hasegawa Nyozekan, Maruyama Masao, and Postwar Thought", The Historian 69.3 (Fall, 2007): 479–510.
- Hane, Mikiso. Eastern Phoenix: Japan since 1945 (5th ed. 2012)
- Havens, Thomas R. H. "Women and War in Japan, 1937–45". American Historical Review (1975): 913–934. in JSTOR
- Havens, Thomas R. H. Valley of Darkness: The Japanese People and World War Two (W. W. Norton, 1978).
- Hunter-Chester, David. Creating Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force, 1945–2015: A Sword Well Made (Lexington Books, 2016).
- Huffman, James L., ed. Modern Japan: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism (1998). 316 pp.
- LaFeber, Walter. The Clash: A History of U.S.-Japan Relations (1997). 544 pp. detailed history
- Lowe, Peter. "An Embarrassing Necessity: The Tokyo Trial of Japanese Leaders, 1946–48". In R. A. Melikan ed., Domestic and international trials, 1700–2000 (Manchester UP, 2018). online
- Mauch, Peter. "Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki on the Eve of Pearl Harbor: New Evidence from Japan". Global War Studies 15.1 (2018): 35–46. online
- Nish, Ian (1990). "An Overview of Relations Between China and Japan, 1895–1945". China Quarterly (1990) 124 (1990): 601–623. online
- Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: OCLC 58053128.
- Rice, Richard. "Japanese Labor in World War II". International Labor and Working-Class History 38 (1990): 29–45.
- Robins-Mowry, Dorothy. The Hidden Sun: Women of Modern Japan (Routledge, 2019).
- Saaler, Sven, and Christopher W. A. Szpilman, eds. Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese History (Routledge, 2018) excerpt.
- Sims, Richard. Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation, 1868–2000 (2001). 395 pp.
- Tsutsui Kiyotada, ed. Fifteen Lectures on Showa Japan: Road to the Pacific War in Recent Historiography (Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, 2016) [1].
- Yamashita, Samuel Hideo. Daily Life in Wartime Japan, 1940–1945 (2015). 238pp.
Primary sources
- Cook, Haruko Taya and Cook, Theodore F. eds. Japan at War: An Oral History (1992). 504 pp., interviews about the World War II homefront excerpt and text search
- Yoshida, Shigeru. The Yoshida Memoirs: The Story of Japan in Crisis (1961), on Occupation, 1945–51 online Archived November 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine