In the hours before Japan surrendered to end World War II, on Aug. 15, 1945, while American bombers blanketed the island with leaflets, an influential coterie of military and civilian leaders was working late into the night to craft U.S. policy for the post-imperial nation.
While crowds jammed into New York’s Times Square, the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee, a precursor to today’s National Security Council built to address the postwar occupation of Japan, decided that the nation would be “completely disarmed and demilitarized,” with militarism “totally eliminated” from political life. Under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who acted as virtual viceroy during the postwar occupation, the changes were made part of Japan’s new constitution, dismantling one of the world’s biggest militaries and shuffling the remnants of the defense industry into business conglomerates.
