The Occupation of Japan Begins - a WW2 Epilogue Special

The war is over and the occupation of Japan has begun. The country has largely been destroyed by Allied bombs, and shall be rebuilt, physically, economically, and even governmentally. But what will the new government be? What shall become of the Emperor? Who is to actually do the occupation? Today we look at all this and more.

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Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Marek Kamiński
Community Management: Jake McCluskey
Written by: Tom Aldis
Research by: Tom Aldis
Map animations by: Daniel Weiss
Map research by: Sietse Kenter
Editing and color grading by: Simon J. James
Artwork by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Marek Kamiński
Colorizations by: Mikołaj Uchman

Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

[WorldWarTwo]

Though the war has ended, our historical coverage continues! Tune in every Saturday at 15:30 CET for brand-new episodes. Each week we will alternate between a WW2 special and the next chapter of Rise of Hitler. Don’t miss out—TimeGhost Army members get early access to both!

[soratoyuki]

I still can't believe it's ending. This has been my Saturday afternoon ritual for all these years. Thank you so much for this project.

[naveenrajeee]

Hi Indy
Interesting epilogue.
Its no wonder japan is so powerful now because of their resilence.
Cpngratulation Time ghost team for one million subscribers.
You truly deserve it.
Thanks.

[guyh]

Not sure why this video frames the other occupation force as "British" or even "Commonwealth" when it was mostly Australian.
The British/Australian relationship was so toxic at the end of WWII the Australians rudely told the British where to go when approached about a contribution to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. Australian historians like Horner, Day and Freudenberg have written about it.
The Australians wanted to field their own occupation force directly to MacArthur which would have been extremely embarrassing for the British who were forced to make a series of concessions in order to secure Australian participation including the position of overall command and a steering committee located in Australia. CIGS Alan Brooke wrote in the 1950s version of his war diaries that if the Australians had not given in it would have meant the end of all Commonwealth military cooperation.
Australia provided the bulk of the forces and position of CinC which later transferred to British Commonwealth Forces Korea with MacArthur. The New Zealanders and British did not stay long because they had little to do and tensions with the Australians in command. The British also had financial issues.
Hiroshima was in the Australian zone and it was Australian journalists and servicemen who first leaked the extent of the devastation to the world.

[jpworowski]

I hope that there are special episodes about the Nuremberg trials.

[yes_head]

Awesome video, and hopefully not the last about the rehabilitation of Japan post-WW II. The decisions made here had profound effects for decades to come. I think the US government today views Japan as the model of successful rehabilitation of an entire country and has tried to repeat it elsewhere (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.), with... less success.

[sandybarrie]

my father was among the first Australians sent to the occupation force in japan. he was with 76 Sqn RAAF. dad was a pre war glider pilot. and he was sent ahead to go though all the villages surround Iwakuni. he had the job to burn any and all glider he found. the allies still thought there would be a last suicide Banzi attack, by trainee pilots gliding out of the hills with bags of hand-grenades around their necks. (the Japanese grenades had a percussion operated fuze, so if they had a ribbon 'tail' they could act as bombs) he found small gliders that the Japanes pilots trained on and burnt them on the spot. he was ordered if he could not get them out of their hiding plane, he was to burn the entire building. he said he cried as he burnt "Lillianthal' type historic gliders.

[Biker_Gremling]

After all these decades, we all agree Japan turned out allrigh.

[Elongated_Muskrat]

The God-Emperor didn’t die, he just got a new boss.

[michaelmoran]

An uncle served in Japan serving as a medic. He said that the Japanese suffered from outbreaks of many diseases like cholera and dysentery. Overall it was a positive experience for him as he was helping people and enjoyed his interactions with the Japanese people. A few men from my hometown in Arkansas returned from occupation duty with Japanese wives. I grew up with a few of their kids. One ended up as a cheerleader in my high school. I know that another is a university professor in Georgia.

[g.mantua]

I'm not a fan of MacArthur, but his handling of the Japanese occupation is his greatest moment, and the Japan we see today is the best part of his legacy. Going to miss my Sunday morning ritual. I've been here since the beginning of this series and have enjoyed every episode.

[TheGuy-cfrg]

"A role he Not enjoy." Yeah Indy, what an understatement! 😂😂

[MikeShaw-zax]

The Marshall Plan & the reconstruction/transformation of Japan stand out as among the most complex, wide-ranging, and successful foreign policy missions of the last century- by any country. The fact that they happened concurrently, on opposite sides of the world, and involved populations from vastly different cultures but focused on a similar outcome for both is astounding. A series that explored the progress of these programs would be an awesome epilogue. I'd love to learn more about their successes, failures, and the people involved in them.

[stephengoetsch]

Very well done discussion. My Japanese in-laws lived through the war, my wife discovered long lost photos of Hitler and Tojo in junk storage in her ancestral home when it came time for them to move out into a senior care facility. While the prospect of my marrying into my wife’s family was certainly not well received at the time, I soon discovered that they very much appreciated the changes that the American occupation brought to Japan. Land reform was epic, perhaps the single most radical thing that the Americans did. Real democratic reforms didn’t take as robustly as the land reform or breakup of the zaibatsu, but all those things greatly improved Japan’s social fabric.

[Custerd]

I served in the Peace Corps in a small town in Kazakhstan near the Chinese border. The largest employer there was the lead-zinc plant, which they were proud of telling me "produced as many as 1/3 of the bullets fired in WWII." No idea if this was just bragging or if there was any basis in fact. I was also told that the plant was maintained by Japanese POWs who "went on to stay there" after their terms of incarceration were fulfilled. After the collapse of the USSR they all (well, whoever remained) returned to Japan.

[alexamerling]

Thank you for the best coverage of WWII I have ever seen!

[daveirwin]

One of my best friends in high school had a dad who had spent time in a Soviet POW labor camp after the war. He said that there were a couple of Japanese POW’s in the camp. All the prisoners were treated harshly, but the Japanese got the brunt of the abuse. He doubted that they ever made it home.

[Paladin]

Perhaps MacArthur's greatest achievement was rescuing and rebuilding postwar Japan into a modern society. He may never have achieved his ambition of becoming an American President, but he was emperor of Japan in all but name.

[Ugnaught]

My father was in the 4th Marine Regiment, landing that day at Yokosuka Naval Base. He came in, in the second wave, he said everyone was very nervous as they were not sure if there would be any resistance. His landing craft came ashore at a seaplane hanger and just after unloading they were broken up into various size units to advance into the base and seize certain objectives. Suddenly there were three gunshots not too far off. A little later he found out that three Japanese soldiers had committed suicide rather than see the surrender through. Then, he heard a band playing, and getting closer and closer. He said the music was a bit off key, and soon a surrender delegation appeared with a small band. His group was then hustled off. He was assigned to moving any weapons found to the base jail. He said they soon spread out into the surrounding city, and they went room to room in several large apartment buildings. In one room, an elderly couple sat in the floor of their apartment. The man looked stoic but the woman was crying uncontrollably and bowing over and over, putting her head down to the floor. My Dad said that he must have looked very scary, with a full combat load and loaded M1 Garand, and he said some of his buddies had their bayonets fixed. They searched the room and left, leaving the woman looking rather surprised. He had always wondered they they had thought they were going to be killed.

[WalterReimer]

I would highly recommend the book 'Embracing Defeat' by John Dower, for additional information about how the Japanese adapted to postwar realities, how the Emperor remained on the throne, and how the Meiji Constitution was changed.