From Enemies to Friends: The United States and Japan After World War II
By Ms. Betty Nylund Barr, Staff Writer
The evolution of the relationship between the United States and Japan since World War II has been nothing short of extraordinary.
The two countries were bitter enemies during the war. From Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor to the United States dropping two devastating atomic bombs on Japanese cities, bringing a swift end to the war, no love was lost between the two countries. After the war ended, the road to recovery for Japan could have gone in one of two directions: with the United States as either a gloating victor or a potential friend with an outstretched hand. General Douglas MacArthur, who oversaw the Allies’ postwar transition in Japan, chose the latter route.
First and most immediately, anticipating widespread famine throughout a war-ravaged Japan, the United States airlifted the largest amount of food it had ever sent to Japan: 22,500 tons of wheat flour and rice, which was rationed and distributed to the Japanese people.[1]
Perhaps even more important, the United States treated Japan with civility and the clear intent to lift it out of defeat and into a new, prosperous age—as an Asian ally and defense against the spread of communism.[2] The Potsdam Declaration, the document calling for Japan’s surrender, pledged that after the occupation, once the Allies were satisfied that Japan was peaceful, the Japanese people could choose their own form of government.[3]
The Japanese people were in a desperate economic state and were disillusioned with the government and the military, and the Allies used that discontent “to sow the seeds of democracy and rewrite the constitution.”[4] Instead of being tried for war crimes, Emperor Hirohito was portrayed as a victim of betrayal by Japanese militaristic forces who were responsible for Japan’s direction in the war. Hirohito was allowed to stay on the throne—albeit as simply a figurehead. By letting the emperor retain his dignity, the Allies anticipated his support in getting Japanese citizens to accept and cooperate with the occupation and the transition from an imperial nation to a democratic one.
A military government installed by MacArthur facilitated the transition. The occupation teams supervised the process, but they encouraged local officials and Japanese citizens to handle as much of the reform as possible. Although plenty of animosity remained between the Japanese and the Allied occupation forces, the U.S. forces generally treated the Japanese people with respect, which paved the way for what would eventually be a mutually beneficial relationship.
One component of the successful relationship-building efforts was the first-generation Japanese Americans, called “Nisei,” who served as linguists during and after the war. Of particular value were “Kibei”—Nisei who had returned to Japan for their education before the war. Having lived in the country and been immersed in the language, culture, and customs of their ancestral country, the Kibei were effective intermediaries for the Japanese citizens and the occupation forces. Among the many valuable tasks they performed, the Kibei and the Nisei helped to return Allied and Japanese soldiers and civilians to their home countries, worked to get political prisoners released, and aided in the search for war criminals, even gathering evidence for their prosecution.
Just a few years after WWII ended, in early March 1952, a devastating earthquake hit eastern Hokkaido and northern Honshu in northern Japan.[5] In addition to the destruction wrought by the earthquake, tidal waves and landslides in eastern Hokkaido destroyed the homes of twenty-eight hundred people. In a demonstration of the United States’s support of Japan, the Air Mobility Command’s (AMC’s) own (at that time) 374th Troop Carrier Wing (TCW), out of Tachikawa Air Base near Tokyo, loaded a C-54 transport airplane with hundreds of pounds of clothing, blankets, food, and medical supplies gathered by the Japanese Red Cross. In a mission called OPERATION WARM CLOTHES, 374 TCW delivered supplies to southern Hokkaido. From there, ground transport conveyed them to Red Cross workers in the disaster area.
Less than a month later, floods brought on by fast-melting snow cut off supplies from villages at the base of mountains in northern Honshu.[6] People living in the town of Kuji had collected two tons of rice for the residents of villages, such as Fudaicho and Hiranamisawa, but had no way to deliver it. In OPERATION RICELIFT, Lt Robert L. Dunlap of the 3d Air Rescue Squadron flew an H-5 helicopter on a series of shuttle flights, carrying about four hundred pounds of rice on each trip, to the Fudaicho area. There, victims of the flood were able to obtain rice for their families until the roads had been cleared and food deliveries resumed.
The United States and Japan successfully made the transformation from bitter enemies in a war to trans-Pacific neighbors who help each other in a crisis.
As advances in transportation continue to make our world seem smaller, and people who were once unknown to us draw closer, one hopes this will be the paradigm.
[1] Hirai, L. Stuart. 2024 (Originally posted December 7, 2022). “How the US and Japan Went From Enemies to Allies After WWII.” https://www.history.com/news/post-wwii-us-japan-occupation-allies.
[2] Hirai, “Enemies to Allies.”
[3] Frank, Richard B. 2020. “The Fate of Emperor Hirohito.”
[4] Hirai, “Enemies to Allies.”
[5] Haulman, Daniel L. n.d. “OPERATION WARM CLOTHES.” https://amcmuseum.org/history/operation-warm-clothes/.
[6] Haulman, Daniel L. n.d. “OPERATION RICELIFT.” https://amcmuseum.org/history/operation-ricelift/.