The Quest for Political Stability and Economic Growth, 1952–60

Abstract

SCAP had exercised little real direction since the late 1940s and the San Francisco peace treaty did little more than formally recognise the reality of Japanese independence. The Yoshida government, which negotiated the treaty, had effectively ruled Japan since 1948, and would continue to govern until Yoshida was forced from office at the end of 1954. The US-Japan Security Treaty, which the Americans had imposed as a condition for the peace treaty imposed by the United States, tied Japan into the US security system. In Japan, the Security Treaty was widely perceived as an ‘unequal treaty’, which, like those of the nineteenth century, had been forced upon a helpless nation. It did not materially alter the position or stance of Japan in the Cold War. Restoring Japan’s sovereignty in itself made no real difference to the economy but the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, coupled with the financial stability which the Dodge Line had imposed, inaugurated a period of rapid industrial development. This was the beginning of the postwar economic ‘miracle’.