(VICTORS against the DEFEATED – continued)
VICTORS against the DEFEATED (7 of 7)
The United States and Britain succeeded militarily against Italy without an occupation, leaving the Italians to deal with their own internal politics and fascists as they saw fit. All of this allowed the greatest friendliness by the Italians to the United States and Britain.
The occupation of Germany by France, Britain and the United States ended in 1955, when their zones became the Federal Republic of Germany. Germans had some hostility to the occupiers, and in the beginning some tried to start an insurgency, but in the wake of World War II most Germans were sick of war and demoralized. They wanted merely to survive. An advanced economy had existed in Germany, and Germans saw recourse in applying their skills to rebuilding. Germans were homogenous and respected order. Their nation had formally surrendered. The insurgents of 1945 gained little support and faded away. The arrogance of occupation was largely forgotten or forgiven.
Like Germany, Japan was also a homogenous nation that had surrendered formally. Its population also respected order and authority. The general population had an increased distaste for war, and they met postwar deprivation with stoicism. An advanced economy had also existed in Japan, and the skilled were eager to get back to work. The occupation force under General MacArthur largely impressed the Japanese. There was some hostility to foreigners, but it was not organized politically. Plans for resistance to the occupation by a few were discarded. Contrary to the wartime righteousness of those in the United States who wanted to punish or hang the emperor, the occupation benefitted from leaving Emperor Hirohito in place and it benefitted too by the degree that the occupation left Japanese governments functioning at both the local and national levels. The occupation ended and Japan received full sovereignty on April 28, 1952.
Sources
The Allied Occupation of Japan, by Takemae Eiji, 2002. (In Japan, Takemae Eiji is considered the doyen of Occupational scholarship.)
Embracing Defeat, Japan in the Wake of World War II, by John W. Dower, 1999
A History of West Germany: From Shadow to Substance, 1945-1963, Volume I, by Dennis L Bark and David R. Gress, 1989
The German Catastrophe, by Friedrich Meinecke, 1946
The Nazi Impact on a German Village, by Walter Rinderle and Bernard Norling, 1993
Quisling: A Study in Treachery, by Hans Fredrik Dahl, 2008
From the Ruins of the Reich: Germany 1945-1949, by Douglas Botting, 1985
The Bitter Years: The Invasion and Occupation of Denmark and Norway, April 1940-1945, by Richard Petrow, 1974
East Germany: What Happened to the Silesians in 1945? by Ursula Lange, 2000
Behind a Curtain of Silence: Japanese in Soviet Custody, 1945-1956 by William F Nimmo, 1988
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, Chapters 14 to 16, by Herbert P Bix, 2000
The People's Anger, by Herbert R. Lottman, 1986
Iron Curtain, the crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944 – 1956, by Anne Applebaum, 2012
Henri Philppe Petain, photo gallery. Simon Wiesenthal Center http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/gallery/pg46/pg5/pg46532.html Nuremberg trial. Wisenthal learning center http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/gallery/pg00/pg8/pg00828.html
Yale Law School, the enormous transcript of the Nuremberg trials http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/v1-06.htm
Nuremberg trials, defendants and verdicts – a summary, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/verdicts.html
Occupation of Japan, Wikipedia
Movies
The Sorrow and the Pity (Chagrin et la Pitié), a motion picture by Marcel Ophuls (More than 3 hours long.)
Judgment at Nuremberg, a motion picture with Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Maximilian Schell, Burt Lancaster, Montgovery Clift, Marlene Dietrich.
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