The Widening Of The Cold War - 1949-1955

Question 1

Who was General Douglas MacArthur?

Answer 1

• supreme commander of US forces from 1942
• he accepted Japan’s surrender in September 1945 abroad the USS Missouri and moved on to become the Governor of Japan during the period of occupation
• he managed a series of political, economic and military reforms and integrated Japan as a firm ally of the USA

Question 2

Who was Hirohito?

Answer 2

• titular head of Japan during its phase of aggressive nationalism and imperial expansion in the Far East and the Pacific during the 1930s and the 2nd world war
• he was allowed to continue as Emperor and became a symbol of reconciliation and political and economic recovery after 1945

Question 3

What was US policy towards Japan before 1947?

Answer 3

• After Japan surrendered unconditionally at the end of the Second World War, the USA began sole occupation of the country, according to an agreement among the USA, the UK, the Soviet Union and China, which lasted until 1952.
• In September 1945, US General Douglas MacArthur was given decision-making powers to help rebuild Japan
• Rebuilding included re-education, democratisation, economic reform and demilitarisation

Question 4

When did the USA introduce the reverse course towards Japan?

Answer 4

• early 1947

Question 5

What did the reverse course mean?

Answer 5

• this meant that the era of Japanese punishment was over
• instead, the US wanted to develop democracy + firm economic reconstruction to achieve economic stability
• US adopted a pragmatic approach to reconstructing Japan - however this involved an undisguised strategy aimed at ensuring communist influences do not tale over in the far east

Question 6

Why was the US focused on Japan’s recovery?

Answer 6

• Japan’s recovery was seen by the USA as an essential element of its power base in East Asia

Question 7

What economic measures did the USA begin to take from early 1949 onwards?

Answer 7

• increased regulation of foreign exchange
• a balanced budget
• stricter lending criteria
• wage controls
• a more efficient taxation system
• price controls
• increased regulation of trade

Question 8

Who was appointed as the economic adviser to SCAP?

Answer 8

• Joseph Dodge
• worked with Japan’s finance minister, hayato Ikeda and they produced a ‘super balanced budget’

Question 9

When was the super balanced budget implemented?

Answer 9

• March 1949

Question 10

What did the Super balanced budget entail?

Answer 10

• set up a target of nearly 157 million yen
• balancing the national budget to reduce inflation
• more efficient taxation system collection
  -decreasing the scope of government intervention

Question 11

What were the consequences of the super balanced budget?

Answer 11

• policies succeeded in getting japan’s rampant inflation under control, but caused significant short term hardships for Japanese employers, which led to a lot of unemployment
• the economy went into contraction ; a painful period of economic adjustment known as the dodge squeeze
• japan was then thrown into a deep recession which did not end until the massive economic stimulus produced by U.S. military special procurements in Japan following the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950

Question 12

What did the US demand Japan joins?

Answer 12

• GATT - General Agreement On Tariffs and Trade
• this was created with the United Nations at the end of the Second World War, formed through a multinational agreement to manage international trade and attempted to minimise tariffs and duties in order to maximise international trade

Question 13

When did Japan join GATT?

Answer 13

• September 1955

Question 15

Why did Japan’s geopolitical significance increase?

Answer 15

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• In February 1950, Mao Zedong formed a military alliance with the USSR
• In November, China also joined North Korea in its war against the non communist South Korea
• in a way that- kind of led to the globalisation of containment + an increasing commitment on the USA’s part to see its role as a global policemen, despite the existence of the United Nations

Question 16

Who was Japan’s Prime Minister?

Answer 16

• Shigeru Yoshida
• he saw an opportunity to negotiate a Second World War peace treaty with the USA that would restore Japan’s sovereignty and provide security for japan, in return for its acceptance of US troops on Japanese territory

Question 17

What was the San Francisco Peace Treaty of September 1951?

Answer 17

• treaty between Japan and the allied powers
• significant for its limitations
• it did not place significant restrictions on Japan’s economy
• it did not place significant restrictions on its future political model
• it did not identify Japan’s responsibility for the war
• it did not restrict Japan’s future rearmament
• it did not impose reparation payments for those Southeast Asian states occupied by Japan during the war

Question 18

Which one of the allied powers refused to sign the San Francisco peace treaty?

Answer 18

• the USSR
• china

Question 19

What did the San Francisco treaty achieve?

Answer 19

• recognised the full sovereignty of the Japanese people
• force Japan to renounce any claims to a wide range of neighbouring territories, including Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), the Kurile Islands, the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands

Question 20

What did the US require Japan to sign in return for the San Francisco peace treaty?

Answer 20

• bilateral security agreement known as the ‘US Japan Security Treaty’
• this gave the USA unrestricted use of military bases in Japan, administrative control of Okinawa (a Japanese island separate from the four main islands that made up mainland japan)
• the right to use military force to intervene in any internal disorder in Japan
• the right to veto Japan offering military bases to other states

Question 21

What did the Japanese government establish in August 1952?

Answer 21

• established a force of 110,000 ground troops and 7600 maritime personnel, collectively known as the National Safety Agency (NSA)

Question 22

What was agreed by the Eisenhower Administration by July 1954?

Answer 22

• agreed that a new 140,000 strong Self-Defence Force should be created supported by US funding to the tune of $240 million and the sale of US agricultural surplus to Japan

Question 23

What was US policy towards Japan up to 1954 driven by?

Answer 23

• the threat of communism in Korea, but it had abated by them
• rearmament had been an economic asset to Japan but it had also created some internal instability due to pro and anti rearmament attitudes
• the USA’s attitude towards Japan was now based on managing rearmament in order to avoid any consequences that might lead to instability
• Japan had become an important element of the USA’s containment strategy

Question 24

When did the Chinese communist party announce its allegiance to the USSR?

Answer 24

• June 1949

Question 25

What was Mao considering at the beginning of 1949?

Answer 25

- fear of US intervention in the Chinese civil war - but reached the conclusion that this would not happen as the US were much more concerned with Europe than Asia - real concern remained the possibility of the USA supporting an exiled Jiang Jieshi from Taiwan - which would undermine Mao’s aims of ensuring a united and intact communist China

Question 26

What was the USA’s strategy towards Japan defined as?

Answer 26

- defined in the China White Paper in July 1949 - Acheson, as Secretary of State was committed in supporting the KMT in Taiwan, but this should be done secretly so that the USA did not appear to be an imperialist menace to china - Acheson wanted to ensure that the USA does not do anything that might reinforce a Sino-Soviet alliance - supporting the nationalists in Taiwan was a means to an end, namely undermining the CCP, rather than an end in itself - in Acheson’s white paper on china, the USA attempted to justify its withdrawal from direct military support for Jiang Jieshi

Question 27

What was the defensive perimeter strategy defined in January 1950?

Answer 27

- Acheson reviewed the USA’s policies towards the Far East in early 1950 - his thinking was focused on the military security of the Pacific and the policy the USA should develop to ensure this - argued that the military defence of Japan was the responsibility of the USA - and would be achieved in the first instance by defining what he described as a ‘defensive perimeter’ -defined in advance of the sink soviet treaty of friendship

Question 29

When was NSC-68 established?

Answer 29

- April 1950

Question 30

What was the aim of NSC-68?

Answer 30

- USA’s nuclear monopoly had ended in September 1949 when the USSR tested its own atomic bomb - this + Trumans loss of ‘our China’ triggered a fundamental review of the USA’s strategic objectives and priorities - led to NSC-68 - this stressed the urgency of building USA’s political, economic and military power - focused on the globalisation of the Cold War + emphasis on military application of containment