Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

“The ease with which the great majority of Japanese were able to throw off a decade and a half of the most intense militaristic indoctrination, for instance, offers lessons in the limits of socialization and the fragility of ideology that we have seen elsewhere in this century in the collapse of totalitarian regimes.”

Militarism was the ideology of the aggressively expanding Japanese Empire in the 20th century. Dower argues that shortly after the Japanese surrender in late 1945, the extent to which Japanese citizens were tired of militarism became obvious. He extends his analysis to other scenarios in which ideological indoctrination displayed limitations, as was the case with the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

“Similarly, the preoccupation with their own misery that led most Japanese to ignore the suffering they had inflicted on others helps illuminate the ways in which victim consciousness colors the identities that all groups and peoples construct for themselves.”

The Japanese imperial army participated in many atrocities, such as the Rape of Nanking, and was known for its harsh treatment of its own soldiers. At the same time, the Japanese civilians suffered tremendously—from the firebombing of Tokyo to the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Allied bombing destroyed 40% of urban areas, leaving 30% of the Japanese without a home. After 1945, the Japanese faced starvation and homeless, and the streets were filled with orphans, among many other serious issues. Dower’s statement, therefore, raises the question of collective guilt and war reparations, considering that many Japanese did not participate in any military action or only participated indirectly by working in the industries that supplied the war effort. These civilians’ identities were thus complex; some were complicit in militaristic efforts but were also war victims themselves.