Japan's Economic Growth example essay topic

The Economic Effect on Japan during Post World War IIJapan's economy was greatly affected by the atomic bombs dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan's economic recovery as a result of this incident transformed Japan's economic growth which has become known as the " Economic Miracle". The bombs caused Japan to reconstruct many more facilities in which the economy moved forward. The Economic Planning Agency, which used to be known as the Economic Stabilization Board, helped Japan to become one of the leading economic nations.

The United States also contributed to much of Japan's recovery by occupying it from 1945-1951. After the bombs shattered the cities on August 6 and August 9 in 1945 the war was concluded. Japan had many parts to pickup such as the deaths of innocent citizens and the dilapidation of their major cities. Peter Tasker (40) mouthed " When the casualties were counted they calculated to more than three million people and left more than ten million people lacking housing". The war forced the economy to be cut off from its normal flow of trade.

That was hurtful because Japan needed to trade with other nations to receive money to rebuild their damaged cites. Many Japanese people suffered severely because they were forced to live on the black market to stay alive which helped them in someways because they could purchase goods for a much cheaper price. Even though the black market is illegal, Japan stayed on it to survive the post war age. Edwin Reischauer (103) uttered that "The unfortunate circumstance about the tragedy was that the hearts of many civilians had been burned out as well as their cities". What Reischauer said is probably correct because many Japanese civilians were presumably so shocked at what surrounded them that they did not know what to do in this astonishing situation. Because of the war Japan experienced shortages of food, clothing and other goods and services.

This was very harmful because many people had lost all their food and clothing during the explosions and they needed to change their lives drastically. The only fortunate thing about the bombs was that they did in fact leave the railways and electric power with little damage. That was very positive for Japan because they still had power to the factories where people could go to work and get money to reconstruct their lives. In Paul Langer's book, Japan Yesterday and Today (135) he said", The bombs left the prices to rise 10 per cent a month in which the civilians had to pay because of the United States " destruction to Japan". The ruins that were leftover from the attack left Japan in a time for a major recovery.

The destruction from the war is one of major items that will godown in Japanese history forever. The United States, the nation which caused this frightful and fatal period, engaged in Japan from the day after the releasing of the bomb until 1951 when a treaty was signed forcing the United States to leave Japan. General Douglas Mac Arthur led the American army into Japan to give them help. The United States helped Japan by bringing in food and in the year of 1946,800,000 tons of American food was rushed into Japan.

Paul Langer (136) mouthed, "From the damages done the United State shad to pay about one million dollars per day which included the bill for food, fertilizer and other major essentials". The United States had to pay this enormous amount of money because they were forced to help Japan recover both physically and economically. Japan, a nation that was in great need of aid, accepted the United States's support but tried to pretend that they did not need them. While the Americans stayed in Japan they wanted to destroy the power, privileges and wealth of Japanese ruling classes who were blamed for Japanese militarism. The United States occupation of Japan led to the distribution of many of the American ideas and practices into the Japanese culture.

This was a negative aspect because Japan and the United States are two different countries who have different ideas and practices. So, in fact the American occupation of Japan tore away from the Japanese culture and filled it with American culture and traditions which was harmful to the Japanese civilized life. Besides destroying Japan, the United States introduced many new reforms. One of the improvement programs that was broken up was called the Zaibatsu which was a land-reform program that required landlords to sell land cheaply to their tenants.

This was broken up because after the war the land was destroyed and many of the landlord's tenants wanted to buy the land cheaply to begin anew life. While the United States was in Japan, they wanted to turn it into a military power and help to get them out of the depressing time they were in. The Japanese people did not really have a choice but to listen to the Americans because they did not have enough money and they still needed support from the Americans. The United States continued to help Japan in its defense so Japan used a lot of its money to rebuild their country's industries. William L. Neuman (296) stated, "What was good for the United States must be good for Japan". The United States helped Japan both positively and negatively throughout their occupation.

The war caused many disasters in which new facilities were needed to be built. Some of the facilities that were damaged had to be completely rebuilt in newer and more advanced models which helped Japan to become more powerful. The newer machinery was more updated compared to the old machinery. After World War II ended over thirty million people made up the working population. That shows how many people were ready to rebuild their lives and to forget the past.

Of the thirty million people that worked about half were involved in agriculture and farming. Interesting enough, 3/4 of the Japanese farmers either rented the land they cultivated or rented some land to supplement their own poor holdings. That means that some Japanese farmers grew their crops from someone else's fields and paid to rent the land. The manufacturing industry in Japan expanded after the 1950's because of the serious emphasis on export items. Due to the many unemployed Japanese, the government worked to raise the level of technology and production capacity in the heavy industry and steel machinery. The new machinery was very helpful to the Japanese because they were more advanced and the Japanese had to do less work because of the well-developed machinery.

With the new materials, the local government was strengthened and farmers were given the opportunity to own their own land. Many labor unions were encouraged which helped the people of Japan have better working conditions. Also around the post war period, which was from 1945 to about 1955, many educational changes came about which had a positive affect on Japan because the more children that got educated in school, the better for Japan. As education became popular Social Studies was emphasized so the students could learn about the history of Japan and other nations.

As the new programs and facilities came about Japan advanced itself and helped itself economically at the same time. The Economic Planning Agency played a very important role during Japan's post World War II period. The Economic Planning Agency had a lot of different names before it became known as the EPA. The EPA was once known as The Economic Stabilization Board and was founded in 1946. When the ESB was founded in 1946 it suddenly began to take Japan on the road to recovery.

Under the Economic Stabilization Board the economy was able to recover by the end of the 1940's and transformed from a controlled system to a free market system. In 1952 the EDB took over the Economic Stabilization Board. The nin 1955 the Economic Deliberation Board changed its name to the Economic Planning Agency. The EPA drew a five year plan for the economic self-support and it was Japan's first post war economic plan. In Roy Thomas' book, Japan: The Blighted Blossom, (177) Hiroshi Kishida voiced that " Japan has grown into an economic power. But we do not feel that our country is an economic power...

You must understand that we live in small homes called "rabbit hutches", work hard all year long and still worry about life in old age". In that quotation Kishida is saying that Japan did recover from the bombs but they still are not a very powerful economic nation. The Economic Planning Agency said, "Thesis no longer the post war period. The high growth unfolding before us is supported by modernization and technological innovation". The Economic Planning Agency launched many plans such as the Doubling National Income Plan of 1960, and the Comprehensive National Development Plan of 1962. The Economic Planning Agency helped to get Japan out of the post war period and helped them through what is known as the "Economic Miracle".

Japan suffered many hardships from the time the bomb was dropped and for many years later. Japan recovered from the deaths and destruction and started to build again with the help of the Economic Planning Agency and the United States. With all this aid Japan recovered so quickly from the slump that it became known as the, "Economic Miracle" and to this day its still known as that. Japan's recovery became known as the "economic miracle" because it recovered so quickly after war. Much of Japan's recovery was because of the help from other nations such as the United States.

Bibliography

Page: Economic Planning Agency. web Infoseek Corporation. 1995-1996.
Langer, Paul F. Japan Yesterday and Today. New York: Praeger, 1970.
Neumann, William. America encounters Japan From Perry to Mac Arthur. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1963 Reading, Brian.
The Coming Collapse. New York: Harper Business, 1992.
Reischauer, Edwin O. The Japanese Today: Change and Continuity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995.
Tasker, Peter. The Japanese: A major exploration of Modern Japan. New York: Dutton, 1987.