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Abstract
Reconstruction of a society through foreign intervention has been a topical issue during recent years mainly because of the events that have taken place in Afghanistan and Iraq. These countries are facing an extrinsic pressure to undergo a series of social, political and economic reforms. While the prevailing interest is derived from ongoing occupations, notable attention has also been paid to corresponding experiences of the past. This has especially placed the Allied occupation of Japan under the spotlight. Despite the unique internal and external characteristics of the process that took place in Japan from 1945 to 1952, the political reconstruction of Japan can be utilized as a frame of reference against which the lessons drawn from the recent democratization processes can be reflected. This not only reveals the challenges and possibilities of the political reconstruction processes aiming at democracy, but also leads to the question as to whether the process of democratization can ever meet the demands of democracy if it is enforced by foreign occupiers. The experiences in Japan suggest that the utilization of nondemocratic practices and the period of pseudo-democracy do not rule out the possibility of the emergence of a genuine democracy.
Notes on contributor
Juha Saunavaara is Postdoctoral Researcher, the Academy of Finland and Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu.
Notes
1. Hinnebusch, “Authoritarian Persistence, Democratization Theory”.
2. Khalilzad, “Lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq,” 42.
3. Stradiotto, “Democratic Prospects in Iraq”; Dōjidaishi Gakkai, Senryō to Demokurashii no Dōjidaishi.
4. U.S. Plans for War and Occupation in Iraq are a Historical Mistake; Dower, “Lessons from Japan”.
5. About the analytic model of democratic and its critic, see Carothers, “The End of the Transition Paradigm”.
6. Sorensen, Democracy and Democratization, chapter 4.
7. Grimm and Merkel, “War and Democratization,” 458–60.
8. Khaliizad, “Lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq,” 47.
9. Sorensen, Democracy and Democratization, 15–18.
10. Hinnebusch interpreting Diamond, Hinnebusch, “Authoritarian Persistence, Democratization Theory,” 392.
11. About planning: Mayo, “American Wartime Planning”.
12. Saunavaara, In Search of Suitable, 75, 83–4.
13. Tominomori, Sengo Hoshutōshi, 1–8.
14. Saunavaara, In Search of Suitable, 79–82, 134–5.
15. Studies of the creation of the Constitution: Koseki, The Birth of Japan's; McNelly, The Origins of Japan's; Hellegers, We the Japanese.
16. About the purge: Baerwald, The Purge of Japanese; Masuda Hiroshi, Seijika Tsuihō.
17. Saunavaara, In Search of Suitable, 204–25; Masuda, Seijika Tsuihō, 38–58.
18. Saunavaara, In Search of Suitable, 269–70.
19. Masumi, Postwar Politics in Japan, 149–55; Fukunaga, Senryō-shita Chūdō Seiken, 184–91, 220, 233–9.
20. Masumi, Postwar Politics in Japan, 155–61; Ishikawa, Sengo Seijishi, 43–4.
21. Masumi, Postwar Politics in Japan, 162–6; Fukunaga, Senryō-shita Chūdō Seiken, 268–274.
22. The often repeated story tells that MacArthur referred to his trusted ultra-conservative intelligence chief as “my lovable fascist”. Takemae, The Allied Occupation, 161.
23. Takemae, The Allied Occupation, 491, 493; Tsutsui, “Toward the Liberal”; Tani, “The Japan Socialist Party”.
24. About the relation between Kishi and the Americans: Schaller, “America's Favorite War Criminal”; Schaller, Altered States, 124–6, 135–7; Swenson-Wright, “Unequal Allies?,” 222–35.
25. Schaller, Altered States, 135–6; Samuels, Machiavelli's Children, 236–7.
26. Schaller, Altered States, 136, 159–61; Ishikawa, Sengo Seijishi, 86.
27. “U.S. Plans for War.”
28. Grew, Report from Tokyo, vii–viii; Lattimore. Solution in Asia, 4–5, 29; Roth, Dilemma in Japan, 47, 53.
29. Beetham, “The Contradictions of Democratization”, 445.
30. Williams, Japan's Political Revolution, 22; Saunavaara, In Search of Suitable, 35.
31. Diamond, “Building Democracy After Conflict,” 16; Khalilzad, “Lessons from Afghanistan,” 43.
32. Weiner, “CIA Spent Millions”.
33. See for example: The Freedom House index, Sorensen, Democracy and Democratization, 18–21: The Economist, Democracy Index 2011.
34. Haddad, Building Democracy in Japan, xiv, 8–9, 27, 83, 101.
35. Baerwald, The Purge of Japanese Leaders, 10.
36. Saunavaara, In Search of Suitable, 158.
37. Diamond, “Building Democracy After Conflict,” 18.
38. Expression ‘democracy as a veil’ borrowed from Öjendal and Lilja, “Introduction,” 16.
39. “U.S. Plans for War.”
40. About the role of citizens and civil society organizations: Haddad, Building Democracy in Japan.
41. Sorensen, Democracy and Democratization, 33.
42. Dower, “Occupied Japan as History,” 488; Moore, “Reflections on the Occupation,” 723.
43. Beetham, “The Contradictions of Democratization,” 450.