Japan+post+WWI

Japan ** Page 812-823 Notes. **

MI: Non communist regimes have been established along the Pacific Rim, but religious preferences were implying divisions.
 * New division and the end of the empires **
 * Korea had been divided between a Russian zone of power in the north and an American zone in the south.
 * The island of Taiwan was restored to Chinese control ruled by ** Chiang Kai Check. **
 * European powers regained their control over their holding such as Vietnam, Malaya and Indonesia.
 * Decolonization lead to independence but many problems still existed as a result of Taiwan communist relation.
 * Korea was still divided but had gone though conflicts as a result of foreign intervention.
 * Japan is the only nation that was a success with its recover while accepting other preferences.

MI: The atomic devastations and their shock of surrendering were problematic to many Japanese people.
 * Japanese Recovery **
 * Japan was able to reestablish its economy and industrial growth providing a new period of selective westernization.
 * Americans had leaded a scheme to tear down Japan’s political structure headed by people like ** General Douglas Mac Author **.
 * Americans presses for a democratization of Japanese societies society by giving women to vote, encouraging labor Unions and abolishing Shintoism.
 * A new constitution tried through the older beliefs and limitations by making the government the supreme power.
 * Gender equalities and civil liberties were guaranteed with gender and race.
 * A law called for social obligations to the obligation to the elderly in western approached (showing respect for the elderly)
 * Many of the political features of the new military might and responsibility kept important bases for Japan.
 * ** Liberal democratic party  ** which monopolized Japan’s government into the 1990s.
 * Unusual emphasis on one party rule was a different democratic type of government.
 * Defense responsibility for the region was left to the United States.
 * Two moderate political parties merged to form the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955.
 * It monopolized Japan's government into the 1990s. The educational system became one of the most a system in which advancement is based on individual ability or achievement in the world.

MI: Cold War tensions kept Korea divided into Russian and American zones. The north became a Stalinist-type communist state ruled until 1994 by Kim Il-Sung.
 * Korea: Intervention and War **
 * The south, under ** Syngman Rhee **, developed parliamentary institutions under strongly authoritarian leadership.
 * The North Koreans, hoping to force national unity on communist terms, invaded the south in 1950.
 * The United States organized a United Nations defense of South Korea that drove back the invading forces.
 * China’s Communist government reacted by pushing the Americans southward.
 * People’s democraric republic of korea was in the north becong a communist state.
 * Korean was under General MacArthur’s leadership, driven by the Noth korea toward Chinese borders causing concerns.
 * The fighting stalemated and ended with a 1953 armistice recognizing a divided Korea.
 * In the following years, North Korea became an isolated, dictatorial state.
 * South Korea, under authoritarian military officers, allied to the United States, the South Korean economy flourished.
 * ** Emerging Stability in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore **
 * MI: When the ** Guomindang ** regime was defeated in China by the communists, it fell back on Taiwan.
 * The Chinese imposed authoritarian rule over the majority Taiwanese.
 * The United States supported Taiwan against China until tensions lessened in the 1960s.
 * By then, Taiwan had achieved growing economic prosperity.
 * Hong Kong remained a British colony, with its peoples gaining increasing autonomy, until returned to Chinese control in 1997.
 * Singapore developed into a vigorous free port and gained independence in 1965.
 * By the end of the 1950s, there was stability among many smaller East Asian states; from the 1960s, they blended Western and traditional ideas to achieve impressive economic gains.

MI: From the 1950s, Japan concentrated upon economic growth and distinctive cultural and political forms.
 * Japan, Incorporated **
 * The results demonstrated that economic success did not require strictly following Western models.
 * The liberal Democratic party held held the government from 1955 onward.
 * Japn had no experience with shifts in party administrations until 1993.
 * Changes in leadership handeled negotiations among liberals Democratic elite.
 * Japan showed strength in cooperation and business.
 * Customary styles in poetry, and spiritual elements continued.
 * Kabuki and No theater flourished and idealizing their culture and honor.
 * Hiraoka Kimitoke was a case point began his novels dealing with controvertial themes and dissapearance of its tradition.
 * ** Japan’s Distinctive Political and Cultural Style **
 * MI: The Liberal Democrat party provided conservative stability during its rule between 1955 and 1993.
 * The political system revived oligarchic tendencies of the Japanese past as changes in parliamentary leadership were mediated by negotiations among the ruling elite.
 * Change came only in the late 1980s when corruption among Liberal Democratic leaders raised new questions.
 * Japan’s distinctive political approach featured close cooperation between state and business interests.
 * Population growth slowed as the government supported birth control and abortion. Most elements of traditional culture persisted in the new Japan.
 * Styles in poetry, painting, tea ceremonies, theater, and flower arrangements continued. Films and novels recalled previous eras.
 * Music combined Western and Japanese forms. Contributions to world culture were minimal.
 * Nationalist writers, as ** Hiraoka Kimitoke **, dealt with controversial themes to protest change and the incorporation of Western ideas.

MI: By the 1980s Japan was one of the two or three top economic world powers.
 * The Economic Surge **
 * The surge was made possible by government encouragement, educational expansion, and negligible military expenditures.
 * Workers organized in company unions that stressed labor-management cooperation.
 * Company policies provided important benefits to employees, including lifetime employment.
 * The labor force appeared to be less class-conscious and individualistic than in the West.
 * Management demonstrated group consciousness and followed a collective decision-making process that sacrificed quick personal profits.
 * Leisure life was very limited by Western standards, family life also showed Japanese distinctiveness.
 * Women’s status, despite increased education and birthrate decline, remained subject to traditional influences, feminism was a minor force.
 * They concentrated on household tasks and child- rearing, and did not share many leisure activities with husbands.
 * In child rearing, conformity to group standards was emphasized and shame was directed at nonconformists.
 * Group tensions were settled through mutual agreement, and individual alienation appeared lower than in the West.
 * Competitive situations produced stress that could be relieved by heavy drinking and recourse to geisha houses.
 * Popular culture incorporated foreign elements, such as baseball.
 * Pollution became a major problem and the government gave the environment more attention after 1970.
 * Political corruption led to the replacement of the Liberal Democrats during the 1990s by unstable coalition governments.
 * Severe economic recession and unemployment disrupted former patterns.

MI: The South Korean government normally rested in the hands of military strongmen.
 * The Korean Miracle **
 * One general, ** Chung-hee **, held power from 1961 to 1979; the military was pressured from power at the end of the 1980s and was succeeded by an elected conservative government.
 * Limited political activity and press freedom was allowed.
 * From the mid-1950s, primary attention went to economic growth.
 * Huge firms were created by government aid joined to private entrepreneurship.
 * Huge industrial groups such as Daewoo and Hyundai resembeled their holdings and great political influence.
 * South Korea’s rapid entry into into the ranks of newly industrialized nations.
 * Rising poverty wasresembeling the undeveloped nations.
 * Korea was competing in areas of cheap consumer good as well as steel and authomobiles in a variety of international markets.
 * The Koreans exported a variety of consumer goods, plus steel, automobiles, and textiles.
 * The industrial groups, such as Hyundai, resembled Japanese ** zaibatsus ** and had great political influence.
 * As Korea industrialized, population soared to produce the highest national world population density.
 * Per capita income advanced, but was still far behind Japan’s. Important economic inequalities continued.
 * Other Asian Pacific coast states mirrored Japan’s economic and political development.
 * Political authoritarian rule under parliamentary forms was common.
 * Governments fostered economic planning and technical education.
 * Economies flourished until the end of the 1990s.

MI: The Republic of China (Taiwan) experienced a high rate of economic growth.
 * Advances in Taiwan and the City-States **
 * Agricultural and industrial production rapidly increased as the government concentrated on economic gains.
 * Education received massive investments; the policies meant important economic and cultural progress for the people of Taiwan.
 * The government remained stable despite the recognition of the Communists as the rulers of Chinas by the United States in 1978.
 * The Taiwanese built important regional contacts throughout eastern and southeastern Asia to facilitate commerce and opened links with the regime in Beijing that continued to claim the island was part of China.
 * After the death of ** Chiang Kai-shek ** in 1978, the gap between mainland-born Chinese and Taiwanese lessened as gradual reform went forward.
 * Singapore developed along lines roughly similar to those of Taiwan.
 * Prime Minister** Lee Kuan **Yew held power for three decades after 1965.
 * Tight controls were maintained over many aspects of public and private life. Authoritarian rule suppressed opposition movements.
 * Successful economic development eased the political strains; by the 1980s Singapore’s people had the second-highest per capita income in Asia.
 * After its return to China in 1997, Hong Kong continued as a major world port and international banking center. It linked China to the rest of the world.
 * Industrial development fueled high export levels.

MI: The nations had more in common than economic success. They all stressed group loyalty over individualism and emphasized hard work.
 * Common Themes and New Problems **
 * Confucian morality played a part in the process, the all relied on government planning and limits on dissent.
 * All benefited from contact with the flourishing Japanese economy.
 * Pacific Rim dynamism influenced other regions of Southeast Asia.
 * By the 1980s Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia experienced rapid economic growth.
 * But by the closing years of the 20th century, the region showed weaknesses in the region as growth lessened, currencies declined, and unemployment rose.
 * Many Westerners thought that the nations had to adopt more free-market competition.
 * The economic distress brought political difficulties that played a role in a change of government in Indonesia, whereas economic progress weakened.