Chrysanthemum and Christianity: Education and Religion in Occupied Japan, 1945–1952

Abstract

American occupying forces had an unprecedented opportunity to establish Christianity in post-World War II Japan, but their efforts failed. This article argues that Gen. Douglas MacArthur's efforts at Christianization failed because of a fundamental contradiction within the goals of the Occupation. On the one hand, MacArthur saw Christianity and American-style democratic institutions as inextricably linked and serving similar purposes, including fending off communism. On the other, the American ideal of the separation of church and state, which explicitly criticized the influence of State Shinto in pre-war Japan and was embodied in the Occupation's Shinto Directive, ran counter to the promotion of Christianity to replace Shinto. This internal conflict eliminated one of the Occupation's more promising avenues for Christianization—public education.