世論 What Japan Thinks

Thanks to Peter at Friendly Noises for providing me with the text of the rest of the article regarding American attitudes towards Japan during and in the aftermath of World War Two.

This is a continuation from a previous post.

I think this summary of wartime and post-war surveys are interesting even today when we compare them with public opinion regarding Iraq and Afghanistan. Some unpopular choices were carried out, such as only 4% backing keeping Hirohito as the Emperor, but they seem to have worked out rather well in the end.

In December 1944, 88% percent of Americans were in favour of punishing the Japanese military leaders after the war. The article says “some suggested punishments went into hair-raising details”, but fortunately we are spared these details.

In June 1945, only (only?) 54% of the American people could correctly name Hirohito as the Emperor, but regardless of what he was called, a third were in favour of the death penalty for him, 11% wanted life imprisonment, 9% exile, 17% wanted the courts to decide, and 4% wanted nothing done to him – “He’s only a figurehead for the warlord” was a typical reason. 23% gave various other suggestions or had no opinion, and 3% suggested keeping him as a puppet to run Japan for the United States.

When getting onto the topic of prisoner of war treatment, in mid-1945 (post war or not is not noted, but I think this was during the war) public sentiment held the Japanese people guilty by association of breaching the Geneva Convention; when asked “To what extent do you think the Japanese people approve of the killing and starving of prisoners; entierly, partly, or not at all?”, 63% chose “entirely, 25% “partly”, and just 4% “not at all”. When asked the same question about the Germans, just 31% judged them “entirely” approving of mistreatment, 51% “partly”, and 4% “not at all”. In addition, 8% thought the German people were not aware of what was going on, and 6% had no opinion. Figures for these last two opinions in relation to the Japanese is not noted.

In August 1945, before Japan’s surrended, 53% of Americans were in favour of Japanese war crime trials, 14% wanted to hang them high with no due process or other similar summary dispatching of the bad guys, and a third advocated reeducation and democratisation. This last figure is in contrast with just 8% holding similar views in the 1944 survey published above.

In September 1945, the early days of the American occupation of Japan, 61% the American people felt they were not being tough enough on the Japanese. about a third thought it was about right, and just 1% felt they were too tough. 6% had no opinion. When viewed by education levels, the more educated people were more likely to think the treatment was about right. Older people also tended to find the treatment about right.

As a comparison, in October 1945 a similar poll was taken regarding attitudes to the German occupation, although since the occupation had started earlier, a direct comparison is difficult to make. Around half the sample thought they were not tough enough, 37% thought it was just right, and 2% that it was too tough, with 11% undecided.

Another poll in October 1945 illustrated that people thought the occupation of Japan would be a long-term affair; the median figure was 10 years, with college graduates reckoning on 15 years.

Towards the end of 1949, this question was asked: “General Douglas MacArthur says the Japanese have met the terms of surrender and are now entitled to a peace treaty. Do you think the United States should or should not take our troops out of Japan and let her govern herself?” 64% thought they should stay, 26% backed General MacArthur, and 10% didn’t know. However, the question did not say under what terms people wanted the troops to stay in Japan.

In 1946, when asked how the occupations of Japan and Germany were doing, in response to the question “Do you think we have done a good job or a poor job in handling our occupation of Japan (Germany?)”, 60% thought the USA was doing a good job in Japan versus 31% in Germany; 15% versus 24% thought it was fair, and and just 4% and 2% thought the troops were doing a poor job. The main reason given for Japan getting a good rating was the excellent leadership of General MacArthur, others included the lack of trouble in Japan, successful efforts for re-introducing democracy (eg, votes for women), and the fact that Japan had a unified command structure rather than Germany being split into four parts. By 1949, 81% approved of General MacArthur, and only 5% disapproved.

In the first half of this article, we saw the extreme hostility towards Japan in the war years. However, by 1949 attitudes had softened considerably; 34% felt friendly towards the Japanese people, 30% neutral, and 29% unfriendly. College-educated people were distictly more favourable, with half of them feeling friendly. Somewhat surprising, perhaps, was that war veterans had very similar positive attitudes to the Japanese.

In addition, when the same sample was asked “Do you think the United States should or should not do more to help Japan get back on her feet?”, 31% favoured more help, 57% opposed more, and 12% had no opinion. For those who expressed friendliness towards the Japanese people in the previous question, 49% supported more help whilst 80% of those unfriendly opposed further aid. College-level respondents voted 43% in favour and 48% opposed to more aid whilst those who only finished grammar school were at 25% and 62% respectively.

Finally, when asked what they liked most and least about the Japanese, the popular virtues identified included “industrious”, hardworking”, “cooperating with the authorities”, “great manufacturing skill”, “clever” and “smart. The key vices were “sneaky”, “treacherous”, “cruel”, “barbaric”, and “cannot understand or appreciate democracy because they are too deeply imbued with Emperor-worship”.