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Red Purge
The Red Purge (Japanese: レッドパージ, Hepburn: reddo pāji) was an anticommunist movement in occupied Japan from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. Carried out by the Japanese government and private corporations with the aid and encouragement of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), the Red Purge saw tens of thousands of alleged members, supporters, or sympathizers of left-wing groups, especially those said to be affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party, removed from their jobs in government, the private sector, universities, and schools. The Red Purge emerged from rising Cold War tensions and the Red Scare after World War II, and was a significant element within a broader "Reverse Course" in Occupation policies. The Red Purge reached a peak following the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, began to ease after General Douglas MacArthur was replaced as commander of the Occupation by General Matthew Ridgway in 1951, and came to a final conclusion with the end of the Occupation in 1952.
In August 1945, Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers. From September 1945 to April 1952, the United States occupied Japan and attempted to transform Japanese society from an authoritarian regime into a democracy. The Allies endeavored many ways to reform, including disarmament, dissolution of the Zaibatsu, granting of the freedom of speech, release of political prisoners, and enactment of the three labor laws to protect workers' rights: the trade union law, the labor standards law, and the labor relations adjustment law.
To manage Japan under the Allies, MacArthur constituted the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, a management organization of about 2,000 U.S. officers, also commonly known as General Headquarters (GHQ). Because MacArthur had a huge influence on the people of Japan, GHQ/SCAP was also often used to refer to MacArthur and his bureaucrats rather than just the organization itself.
On October 4, 1945, GHQ's Civil Information and Education Section composed the Civil Liberties Directive and ordered the Japanese government to abolish all laws and ordinances that restricted "freedom of thought, of religion, of assembly and of speech, including the unrestricted discussion of the Emperor, the Imperial Institution and the Imperial Japanese Government." Furthermore, SCAP commanded that all persons imprisoned under the designated laws must be released within a week, including many of these prisoners who were socialists or communists, and also specifically noted that the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) should be allowed become a legal political party again. Shortly afterward, many released communists and left-wing activists reorganized the JCP and held its first general assembly since 1926. Its membership grew rapidly, reaching 7,500 in 1946, 70,000 by 1947, and 150,000 in 1950.
Based on the Potsdam Declaration, Douglas MacArthur sent to the Japanese government a document "Removal and Exclusion of Undesirable Personnel from Public Office" on 4 January 1946, which commanded the purge of war criminals and leaders of ultranationalist groups. This purge, which lasted until May 1948, later came to be referred to as the "White Purge" in comparison to the "Red Purge", and led to more than 900,000 people undergoing investigation, with more than 200,000 former career military personnel, politicians, bureaucrats, educators, and opinion leaders ultimately being purged.
During the occupation period, the United States took many methods to reform Japanese educational system, which was heavily influenced by militarism, imperial ideologies and central government. These methods included expanded years of compulsory education, textbook reform, and issuance of the Fundamental Law of Education in 1947. Marxism, especially Marxian economics, was widely spread within many universities during this period. Many Marxists and leftist scholars, who had been banned from teaching, were encouraged by SCAP to organize social activities and regarded as victims of the previous regime and progressive and democratic by many students.
Japan was seriously devastated in World War II. Nonetheless, with the help of the United States, Japan quickly recovered from the suffering, earning the title of "Japanese Economic Miracle". In Japan, industrial production decreased in 1946 to 27.6% of the pre-war level, but recovered in 1951 and reached 350% in 1960.
By the end of the American occupation of Japan in 1952, the United States successfully reintegrated Japan into the global economy to eliminate the motivation for imperial expansion and rebuilt the economic infrastructure that would later form the launching pad for the Japanese economic miracle.
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Red Purge
The Red Purge (Japanese: レッドパージ, Hepburn: reddo pāji) was an anticommunist movement in occupied Japan from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. Carried out by the Japanese government and private corporations with the aid and encouragement of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), the Red Purge saw tens of thousands of alleged members, supporters, or sympathizers of left-wing groups, especially those said to be affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party, removed from their jobs in government, the private sector, universities, and schools. The Red Purge emerged from rising Cold War tensions and the Red Scare after World War II, and was a significant element within a broader "Reverse Course" in Occupation policies. The Red Purge reached a peak following the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, began to ease after General Douglas MacArthur was replaced as commander of the Occupation by General Matthew Ridgway in 1951, and came to a final conclusion with the end of the Occupation in 1952.
In August 1945, Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers. From September 1945 to April 1952, the United States occupied Japan and attempted to transform Japanese society from an authoritarian regime into a democracy. The Allies endeavored many ways to reform, including disarmament, dissolution of the Zaibatsu, granting of the freedom of speech, release of political prisoners, and enactment of the three labor laws to protect workers' rights: the trade union law, the labor standards law, and the labor relations adjustment law.
To manage Japan under the Allies, MacArthur constituted the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, a management organization of about 2,000 U.S. officers, also commonly known as General Headquarters (GHQ). Because MacArthur had a huge influence on the people of Japan, GHQ/SCAP was also often used to refer to MacArthur and his bureaucrats rather than just the organization itself.
On October 4, 1945, GHQ's Civil Information and Education Section composed the Civil Liberties Directive and ordered the Japanese government to abolish all laws and ordinances that restricted "freedom of thought, of religion, of assembly and of speech, including the unrestricted discussion of the Emperor, the Imperial Institution and the Imperial Japanese Government." Furthermore, SCAP commanded that all persons imprisoned under the designated laws must be released within a week, including many of these prisoners who were socialists or communists, and also specifically noted that the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) should be allowed become a legal political party again. Shortly afterward, many released communists and left-wing activists reorganized the JCP and held its first general assembly since 1926. Its membership grew rapidly, reaching 7,500 in 1946, 70,000 by 1947, and 150,000 in 1950.
Based on the Potsdam Declaration, Douglas MacArthur sent to the Japanese government a document "Removal and Exclusion of Undesirable Personnel from Public Office" on 4 January 1946, which commanded the purge of war criminals and leaders of ultranationalist groups. This purge, which lasted until May 1948, later came to be referred to as the "White Purge" in comparison to the "Red Purge", and led to more than 900,000 people undergoing investigation, with more than 200,000 former career military personnel, politicians, bureaucrats, educators, and opinion leaders ultimately being purged.
During the occupation period, the United States took many methods to reform Japanese educational system, which was heavily influenced by militarism, imperial ideologies and central government. These methods included expanded years of compulsory education, textbook reform, and issuance of the Fundamental Law of Education in 1947. Marxism, especially Marxian economics, was widely spread within many universities during this period. Many Marxists and leftist scholars, who had been banned from teaching, were encouraged by SCAP to organize social activities and regarded as victims of the previous regime and progressive and democratic by many students.
Japan was seriously devastated in World War II. Nonetheless, with the help of the United States, Japan quickly recovered from the suffering, earning the title of "Japanese Economic Miracle". In Japan, industrial production decreased in 1946 to 27.6% of the pre-war level, but recovered in 1951 and reached 350% in 1960.
By the end of the American occupation of Japan in 1952, the United States successfully reintegrated Japan into the global economy to eliminate the motivation for imperial expansion and rebuilt the economic infrastructure that would later form the launching pad for the Japanese economic miracle.