Revisionist Opinion in Post-Treaty Japan

Abstract

Over two years have passed since the Japanese peace treaty came into effect and Japan once again embarked on a relatively independent course. In view of the unprecedented scope and method of the Allied Occupation, many divergent postaudits can be expected to emerge in the near future dealing with the relative success or failure of Occupation reforms and with post-treaty revisions made by the Japanese government. Such studies can be valuable for the understanding both of Japanese domestic politics and of American policy toward Japan.It is the purpose of this paper to analyze some results of a two-pronged voter and leadership survey of post-treaty Japanese political opinion made by the author between the fall of 1952 and the late summer of 1953. Few scholars would be bold enough to draw final conclusions on the Occupation from a one-year study of Japanese opinion, but history's verdict on the subject will be determined largely by native opinion rather than by the theorizing of foreign observers. And, in the first year after the treaty, certain patterns of Japanese opinion crystallized sufficiently to permit us to make tentative conclusions about Japanese revisionist attitudes.