Book Reviews and Notices : The Allied Occupation of Japan. BY EDWIN M. MARTIN. (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. 1948. Pp. xiv, 155. $3.00.)

• Date: 01 December 1949
• Published date: 01 December 1949
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200416
• Subject Matter: Articles

634

Roosevelt

moved

onto

the

diplomatic

stage

in

his

own

right,

after

having

endorsed

Mr.

Stimson’s

League

of

Nations

policy

as

President-elect

Mr.

Hull,

the

acerbic

Free

Trader,

forthrightly

announced

that

he

did

&dquo;not

intend

that

this

Government

shall

assume

the

role

of

mentor

to

the

League

or

accept

a

responsibility

which

initially

lies

with

and

belongs

to

the

League

under

the

League’s

Covenant&dquo;

(p.

265).

Following

Japan’s

de-

cision

to

withdraw

from

the

League,

Mr.

Grew

was

certain

that

&dquo;there

is

no

bluff

in

her

attitude,&dquo;

and

that

&dquo;the

military

themselves ...

are

fully

prepared

to

fight

rather

than

to

surrender

to

moral

or

other

pressure

from

the

West&dquo;

(p.

195).

An

unidentified

&dquo;French

diplomat&dquo;

warned,

more

precisely,

that

Japan’s

&dquo;present

preparations

for

war

were

aimed

directly

at

the

United

States&dquo;

(p.

155).

Nelson

Johnson

anticipated

the

tragedy

detailed

in

the

White

Paper by

asserting

that

&dquo;the

[Chinese]

people

have

lost

faith&dquo;

in

the

Kuomintang

(p.

171),

which

&dquo;becomes

in-

creasingly

impotent&dquo;

(p.

491).

This

volume

refreshes

our

recollection

of

tragic

events.

It

still

leaves

the

reader

pondering

whether,

during

the

sixteen

years

that

these

papers

gathered

dust

in

the

files

of

the

Department,

the

United

States

has

at-

tained

the

imagination

and

maturity

that

the

successful

conduct

of

its

foreign

affairs

in

1949

reauires.

H.

ARTHUR

STEINER.

University

of

California

at

Los

Angeles.

The

Allied

Occupation

of

Japan.

BY

EDWIN

M.

MARTIN.

(Stanford,

California:

Stanford

University

Press.

1948.

Pp.

xiv,

155.

$3.00.)

This

brief

volume,

the

first

of

a

series

on

the

reconstruction

and

re-

form

of

Japan

sponsored

by

the

Institute

of

Pacific

Relations,

is

a

concise

compilation

of

international

declarations

and

official

directives

relating

to

the

occupation

of

Japan.

The

author,

formerly

Chief

of

Occupied

Area

Economic

Affairs

in

the

Department

of

State,

states

in

a

balanced

fashion

the

basic

problems

of

reconstruction

in

Japan,

with

emphasis

on

the

eco,

nomic

aspects.

Mr.

Martin

devotes

most

of

his

space

to

a

description

of

the

pur-

poses

of

the

occupation

and

the

conditions

and

rationale

of

its

opera-

tions,

and

limits

himself

to

a

minimum

of

analysis

and

evaluation.

In

jus-

tification

of

this

treatment,

the

author

notes

that

the

major

objectives

of

the

occupation

cannot

be

accomplished

except

by

&dquo;changing

the

funda-

mental

emotional

drives

and

patterns

of

thought

of

the

individual

japa,

nese&dquo;

or

by

creating

&dquo;a

revolution

in

the

structure

and

working

processes

of

complicated

social

institutions&dquo;

(ix).

Accordingly,

one’s

conclusions

with

respect

to

the

progress

already

made

toward

occupation

goals

are

apt

to

be

derived

principally

from a

priori

reasoning,

at

best

&dquo;a

slippery

foundation.&dquo;