Historical+Context+-+Asia

Asia After the Bomb - Historical Context



**1: How was Japan treated in the years immediately after the war? ** After World War II had ended, Japan was devastated. All the large cities (with the exception of Kyoto ), the industries and the transportation networks were severely damaged. A severe shortage of food continued for several years.

The occupation of Japan by the Allied Powers started in August 1945 and ended in April 1952. General MacArthur was its first Supreme Commander. The whole operation was mainly carried out by the United States.Japan basically lost all the territory acquired after 1894. In addition, the Kurile islands were occupied by the Soviet Union, and the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa, were controlled by the USA. Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972, however a territorial dispute with Russia concerning the Kurile Islands has not been resolved yet. The remains of Japan's war machine were destroyed, and war crime trials were held. Over 500 military officers committed suicide right after Japan surrendered, and many hundreds more were executed for committing war crimes. Emperor Showa was not declared a war criminal. A new __ constitution __ went into effect in 1947: The emperor lost all political and military power, and was solely made the symbol of the state. Universal suffrage was introduced and human rights were guaranteed. Japan was also forbidden to ever lead a war again or to maintain an army. Furthermore, Shinto and the state were clearly separated. MacArthur also intended to break up power concentrations by dissolving the zaibatsu (industrial and financial business conglomerates) and other large companies, and by decentralizing the education system and the police. In a land reform, concentrations in land ownership were removed. Especially during the first half of the occupation, Japan's media was subject to a rigid censorship of any anti-American statements and controversial topics such as the race issue. The co-operation between the Japanese and the Allied powers worked relatively smooth. Critics started to grow when the United States acted increasingly according to her self-interests in the Cold War, reintroduced the persecution of communists, stationed more troops in Japan, and wanted Japan to establish an own self defence force despite the anti-war article in the constitution. Many aspects of the occupation's so called "reverse course" were welcomed by conservative Japanese politicians. With the peace treaty that went into effect in 1952, the occupation ended. Japan's Self Defence Force was established in 1954, accompanied by large public demonstrations. Great public unrest was also caused by the renewal of the US-Japan Security Treaty of 1960. After the Korean War, and accelerated by it, the recovery of Japan's economy flourished. The economic growth resulted in a quick rise of the living standards, changes in society and the stabilization of the ruling position of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but also in severe pollution. Japan's relations to the Soviet Union were normalized in 1956, the ones to China in 1972. The 1973 oil crisis shocked the Japanese economy which was heavily depended on oil. The reaction was a shift to high technology industries. //(Posted by: Mrs Byrne - 2011)//

**2:Explain briefly the significance of: ** **(a) The Domino Theory **  The domino theory was the basis for the __ [|United] __ States strategy of containment, and the reason for entering the __ [|Vietnam War] __. The Vietnam War was a result of the national strategy of containment. The national strategy of containment demanded the U.S. stop communist aggression into the countries of Southeast Asia. This strategy was developed from a belief in the __ [|domino theory] __. The domino theory basically stated if one new countrywent communist in Asia then it would begin a chain reaction that would cause several more Southeast Asian countries becoming communist. The experience of massive Chinese Communist intervention in Korea nonetheless created a restraining upper limit on the risks later administrations were willing to run in Southeast Asia.  As far back as January 1951, for instance, the then Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs had defined the domino thesis in these terms: "It is generally acknowledged that if __ [|Indochina] __ were to fall . . . Burma and Thailand would follow suit almost immediately. Thereafter, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for Indonesia, India, and the others to remain outside the Soviet-dominated Asian Bloc. Therefore, the Department's policy in Indochina takes on particular importance for, in a sense, it is the keystone of our policy in the rest of Southeast Asia." That spokesman was Dean Rusk, who, as Secretary of State under Kennedy and Johnson, remained a firm advocate of the domino thesis. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> The domino theory became engraved as part of formal US policy in 1964 (NSAM 288 of 17 March 1964), its domino concept section having been written the day before by Secretary McNamara: "We seek an independent non-Communist __ [|South Vietnam] __ . . . Unless we can achieve this objective . . . almost all of Southeast Asia will probably fall under Communist dominance (all of Vietnam, __ [|Laos] __, and Cambodia), accommodate to Communism so as to remove effective U.S. and anti-Communist influence (Burma), or fall under the domination of forces not now explicitly Communist but likely then to become so (Indonesia taking over Malaysia). Thailand might hold for a period with our help, but would be under grave pressure. Even the Philippines would become shaky, and the threat to India to the west, Australia and New Zealand to the south, and Taiwan, Korea, and __ [|Japan] __ to the north and east would be greatly increased." <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> The White House finally asked the Board of National Estimates for its view of the domino concept. "We do not believe that the loss of South Vietnam and Laos would be followed by the rapid, successive communization of the other states of the Far East. . . . With the possible exception of Cambodia, it is likely that no nation in the area would quickly succumb to Communism as a result of the fall of Laos and South Vietnam. Furthermore, a continuation of the spread of Communism in the area would not be inexorable, and any spread which did occur would take time--time in which the total situation might change in any of a number of ways unfavorable to the Communist cause. . . [Moreover] the extent to which individual countries would move away from the US towards the Communists would be significantly affected by the substance and manner of US policy in the area following the loss of Laos and South Vietnam." [Memorandum from the Board of National Estimates to Director John McCone, 9 June 1964, FRUS, 1964-68, Volume 1., p. 485.] <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> The fall of South Vietnam and Cambodia in April 1975, and the subsequent Pathet Lao takeover of Laos the following September, marked the complete and final failure of twenty-five years of American effort to prevent communist domination of the area. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> In the spring of 1995, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said he now believed that the domino theory was wrong. "I think we were wrong. I do not believe that Vietnam was that important to the communists. I don't believe that its loss would have lead - it didn't lead - to Communist control of Asia." McNamara now argues: "Today, it is clear to me that my memorandum pointed directly to the conclusion that, through either negotiation or direct action, we should have begun our withdrawal from South Vietnam. There was a high probability we could have done so on terms no less advantageous than those accepted nearly six years later--without any greater danger to U.S. national security and at much less human, political, and social cost to America and Vietnam." (p. 271). <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> The domino theory was accurate for its time, and this potential for major regional communist advances required the United States' national strategy to oppose the spread of communism. Burma, Indonesia, Malaya, the Philippines, and India were all being courted or targetted by the communists. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> After the election of Richard Nixon, the context of the war changed radically. North Vietnam's relationship with __ [|China] __ had cooled while the United __ [|States] __had improved relations with both China and the Soviet Union. Détente and successful strategic arms limitation talks between the United States and the Soviet Union isolated the North Vietnamese from their key supporters. North Vietnam became more desperate and launched more conventional and mechanized offensives against South Vietnam. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> //(Posted by: Mrs Byrne - 2011)//

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">(b) The Korean War ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">The Korean War, as a result of World War II and an extension of the Cold War, was a vehicle for hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union. Separating the Communist-leaning North Korea from the Western-backed South Korea, the war would play out as a civil conflict and a worldwide battle between Communism and capitalism. It would force many to question the domino theory, the influence of the United Nations and the status of the world superpowers and would result in millions of casualties. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Developing out of unresolved issues from World War II, the Korean War had its roots in the 1945 surrender of Japanese forces in Korea. With Russian forces accepting surrender north of the 38th parallel and American forces accepting surrender south of the 38th parallel, the country would be partitioned into North and South and would be dominated by the respective superpowers. After negotiations failed to reconcile the differences and unify the two countries, North Korea invaded South Korea with defensive assurances from the Soviet Union. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, with the invasion of South Korea. An American Task Force responded and was defeated at Osan on July 5 and was ultimately pushed into a small corner of southeast Korea. Following an Allied rally in South Korea, the country was recovered at the Battle of Inchon in September 1950. The Allied army then invaded North Korea and brought the war north of the 38th parallel. This was followed by two years of stalemate in the peninsula and the signing of an armistice on July 21, 1953. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Featuring many of the important players of world politics at the time, the Korean War would be fought on the U.S. side by Generals Douglas MacArthur and Matthew Ridgway and led by Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. It would be commanded on the Communist side by Joseph Stalin and North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung. The fighting featured many of the same weapons as World War II and relied heavily on ballistic missiles, aircraft carriers and naval bombardments. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">The effects of the Korean War were to leave the country much the same politically as it was at the beginning of the war. With a division still at the 38th parallel, the South Koreans were still backed by the capitalist United States and remained hostile toward the Communist North Korea. The nation would remain divided for decades to follow. To compound the physical devastation, both sides suffered severe economic losses and a death toll around 2 to 3 million civilian and military casualties. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">The Korean War would represent the first armed conflict of the Cold War. It demonstrated for the first time the capacity of limited war and showed both the power and restraint of the Soviet and United States militaries and governments. It demonstrated both sides' hesitance to use nuclear attack and showed how the war Cold War would develop as a proxy war between the domino countries set up around Europe and Asia. //(Posted by: Mrs Byrne - 2011)// **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Vietnam War **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">3: **Examine the relationship,** **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">in the period between 1949 - 1984 ****<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, between: ****<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- The Soviet Union and Communist China ****<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- The United States and Communist China. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">**Question 1:** http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2124.html <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">**Question 2 (a):** http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/vietnam2-domino-theory.htm <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">**Question 2 (b):** http://www.ehow.com/about_4568406_significance-korean-war.html <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Bibliography: **