Compare the mode of the America in helping the economy recovery of British and Japan during the postwar period? After the Second World War, many of European and Asian countries lay in ruins and they faced giant difficulties in recovering their economies. Fortunately, the U.S and the USSR, which the superpowers contributed and inserted their influence into their respective blocs. The U.S played a special role in the postwar economic reconstruction and development West European countries such as Britain, and the Asian countries like Japan during the Cold War 1. Today, let s compare the mode of the America in helping the economy recovery of British and Japan during the postwar period by the follow paragraphs. First of all, the Second World War caused the biggest human loss and material destruction in Britain and Japan. Both countries suffered the heaviest causalities because many people died in the war so the labors dropped rapidly. In addition, many industries and production facilities were destroyed; the roads, houses, railways and bridge as well as ports were damaged. Lots of cities in Britain such as London and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, were devastated duo to severe bombing so the industrial production fell greatly and the communication networks were nearly completely destroyed. Foreign trade was also badly affected since the consequent stop in production so the import or export were discontinued In addition, the decline of the industrial and the agricultural production led to the serious shortage of the supplies of food, raw material and fossil fuel. In Japan, the rice production was only a 2/3 o the prewar level while the production of coal dropped to half of that before the war so such poor supplies hindered industrial production and thus the economic recovery. Even worse, the inflation kept high in both countries due to the shortage of materials, which made the people s life become harder and their living standard were much lower and lower. Furthermore, the returns of the ex-soldiers worsen the unemployment problem because many of them were unable to find jobs in the late 1940s due to the poor economy and the giant destruction of both countries. Therefore, many people were out of jobs, e.g 7.6 million people came back to Japan and floods agricultural sector. Thus they became the bandits and chaoses were so often. The unstable society caused hindered the economy recovery and the political stability in the postwar period. Moreover, Britain and Japan spent lots of resource on wars for purchasing weapons, 1 The term was to describe the tension and hostility which developed between the capitalist bloc(led by the US) and the Communist bloc(led by the USSR) from 1945-89.the war is cold because both the US and the USSR did not engage directly in war.
gunboats and so on, together with the destruction by the wars so both countries suffered from the great amount of debts and required lots of capital to re-construction. Although Britain was one of the victors in the WW2, he was deeply in debt as he took large amount of foreign loans (from the U.S). Japan not only had the similar situation as Britain, but also needed to pay indemnity ($ 4xx millions) to the Allied powers. As a result, both economies became an extremely difficult task for them. Due to their lack of capital and their heavy debts Britain and Japan owned to the US, both countries had great difficulties in recovering their economies after WW2. However, the US not only didn t force them to repay the debts, but also carried numerous of polices to recovery the postwar economic reconstruction and development. In helping Japan s economy, Masaru Yoshitomi 2 said "In the last half century, Japan and the U.S. have nurtured economic ties, sometimes with friction and sometimes benefiting from each other," From the beginning of the Occupation in September 1945, The Chief General of the US, Douglas McArthur, marched into Japan and established the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Tokyo which it directly helped provide Japan with a stable political environment by adopting the constitution, which changed Japan into a liberal and democratic government so contributed the economic growth a lot. First of all, the SCAP government carried out the Farm Land Reform Law and introduced new farming techniques, chemical fertilizer and so on in the agricultural aspect. Then, it adopted Deconcentraion Law 3 to attack the Zaibatsus around 1950.Furthermore, the US provided a stable supply of raw material in 1947 so Japan imported a large amount of oil and cotton from the US. After 1948, she also imported iron ores and coke. In the two years 1947 and 1948, material supplies from the US respectively accounted for 77% and 67% of Japan s gross import. As a result, the material shortage was gradually eased and the production was increased. In order to cure inflation and the stabilize the exchanging rate, Joseph Dodge set out Nine Economic Principles in1948 and the Dodge Plan in 1949, which included the implementation of a single currency, which fixed the exchange rate between Japanese Yan and the US dollars at about 360 to 1.A stable exchange rate helped to encourage domestic and foreign investment in Japan. Lastly, U.S. provided a large sum of loans of about US$2 billion for rebuilding Japan. This laid the good foundations for Japan s future economic recovery. Soon after the WWⅡ, the US didn t have much direct aid in the political condition but it helped to restore the European economic order throughout the different organizations such as the UNRRA 4, the IMF 5, and the World Bank, which these became 2 The dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute -- ADB's think tank 3 This policy carried out in the previous years had already succeeded in encouraging more investment and economic activitives. 4 The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration(UNRRA) was set up to provide victims of the war with humanitarian
parts of the UN later. In 1948, the US Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act, which the Marshall Plan was set up to provide financial aid with total sum of $13 billion to help the Europe to reconstruct and recovery economy, together with the OEEC 6. Therefore, the US mainly focused on the economic aids to Britain as Britain (before the Second World War) was one of the powerful countries in the world. So, the U.S. in the post-wwii economic recovery, U.S. assisted Britain in the recovery in order to achieve the global economic recovery and restore the trade relationship. For example, U.S. provided technical support and professional people to help in the reconstruction works especially the heavy industries so sonly after the aid Britain industrial production produced 40% more before the war. Similar to Japan, the US provided some farming techniques and material supplies to British so their agricultural production also recovered gradually, and so there was enough food to meet the needs of growing population. The economic activities were back to normal and the rate of unemployment decreased in general. 7 In the post SCAP period (after 1952), Japan still kept the SCAP policies of democratization and demilitarization, and the US continued to insert great influence into Japan s diplomatic and military affairs as well as restored her economy. The U.S. provided military assistance to Japan in order to reduce Japan s military expense.before the US troops officially withdrew from Japan in 1952, the US had signed the Mutual Security Pact with Japan. Thereafter, the US army continued to station in Japan to defend her as well as acted like the support and assisting point for the US army in the Asian battlefields. Therefore, Japan only had to maintain a small force of Self-Defense Army 8. She saved a lot of military expenses, and could spend more resources on her economic development and rapidly the economic development got more capital from the Japanese government. On the other hand, the US, the UK and different European countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington in 1949, which the military alliance originally was led by the US and Britain to countered the influence of communism. However, the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO)had eased the military burden of Britain in maintaining the satiability of Europe. Therefore, the Britain fellow the US on participate the international affairs. By the cooperation of military of post-wwⅡ, Britain got more money into growing their economy and reconstruction of the social infrastructure of the country. supplies and the financial allowances. 5 The International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank helped to stabilize different currencies. 6 The Organization for European Economic Cooperation set up by the European countries. 7 The situation was same in the European countries. 8 Originally, it was called National Police Reserve in 1950 and changed into National Self-Defense Force in 1954 by te Japanese government.
Even more, the US helped to restore the Japanese economy by arranging the Treaty of San Francisco 9, between the Allied Powers and Japan, which in 1950s and 1960s, she follow the US foreign policy and his officially ended their hostility in the war period. The Treaty stated that Japan should pay an indemnity of US$1 billion to Burma, the Philippines, Indonesia and South Vietnam. But Japan could choose to pay in kind and labor. Therefore, the Japanese government could buy manpower and products from the Japanese enterprises and gave them, to get into the Southeast Asian countries. In the way, the US not only helped Japan to get into the Southeast Asian market, but she acted as a bridge to repair the worse relationship between Japan and the Asian countries such as Burma, Vietnam, and Malaysia and so on. Therefore, the Japan gradually got to Asian markets afterwards. Furthermore, after supporting the technology techniques, the development of Japanese iron and steel, electricity, railway and chemical industries were encouraged. Also, the US gave her greatest hand on purchasing 25% of Japan export in 1950s so as helped Japan s industries development. On contrast, in Britain, she cooperated with the European countries to carry out the Marshall Plan. After the launch of the it, Britain, France and other European countries encouraged Britain and the other European countries to cooperate among themselves and to gave up the prewar practice f the protectionism so as to increase the international trade and the good flow, and reduced tariff barriers among themselves. Thus, both U.S. and Britain cooperated fully with Britain can receive aid from the U.S.The end of Marshall Plan in 1951, the US didn t continue her aid on reestablishing the European countries economy as what she did to Japan. Instead, she changed her role from the aid provider to both a trader partner and competitor. Due to the technology innovation in the U.S., they successfully discovered many new technologies that can be used in the military and production aspects. Like in military aspect, it discovered the atomic bomb. On the other hand, the production aspect, it founded the massive production and other scientific innovations to limit the release of toxic pollutants. There were also some domestic products like cookers, refrigerators, TVs, and computer s production technologies were exporting to Britain( and also Japan). Thus, Britain(Japan) not only could enjoy a higher standard of living, but also could use the technology to discover more diversified products to export to other countries so as to earn the income. With the continuously trading activities and no tariff barriers, both of them can enjoy a high return at all. U.S. helped Japan to change the living style with more modern technology were imported. Both countries economy could be thrived again. 9 According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the Allied would withdraw from Japan and restore Japan s sovereignity. However, the United States would continue to administer Okinaawa as her mandated territory. Japan also agreed to give up all claimed territories including Korean, Taiwan, Kuril islands South Sakhahlin and the mandated territories in the Pacific It was only in 1972 that Okinawa reverted to Japanese administration.
External economy condition of Japan, the US brought numerous of Special procurements. Because of extreme domestic shortages, exports did not begin to recover until the Korean War (1950-53), when special procurement by United States armed forces created boom conditions in indigenous industries. Besides, the Vietnam War( 1961-75) the US spent even more resources this time and once again, Japan played the role of providing military bases to the US asrmy and earned a lot of the foreign exchange. And Japanese enterprises also took the opportunity to penetrate into the Southeast Asian economy by setting companies there. Starting from 1970s, Japan became the second largest economic power after the US so she was no longer t be a politically weak country. Thus, she wanted to stop following the footsteps of the US and to achieve diplomatic autonomy and her influence on both economy and culture was gradually influencing Asian countries onwards 1980s. External economy condition of Britain, as the capitalist bloc led by the US and the communist bloc led by Russia, the relationship between Britain and the US was closer and were willing to cooperate with each other to re covering the economy and establish the economic order in European countries. For example, in the Berlin Crisis, the US and Britain had combined their occupation zones in order to recovery the German economy and keep the European economy system in 1948 and so on. However, after the 1860s, Britain formed other economic organization and became economy independence so she didn t follow the diplomatist. After 1960s, the Britain and other European countries continued to cooperated on recovering the economy system in the West so after the ECSC came into a remarkable results, retain set up the European Free Trade Association 10 ( EFTA) and the establishment of European Community 11 (EC,1967) and the establishment of the European Union(EU, 1993) Although the aid of the US provided great efforts on reconstructing the both Japanese and Britain economy, the contributions of themselves on the economy couldn t be ignored. In Japan, Japanese were more concerned with the development of education, which they believed the knowledge could change the fate in the future. Therefore, with the government s affords, together with Japanese affirmative attitude towards learning, they widely known as hard working and willing to acquire new knowledge. They had been keen on absorbing foreign cultures and new knowledge. For example, they used the 10 Set up in the Convention of Stockholm in 1959 11 Sep up in the Treaty of Brussels
knowledge in order to develop the industries of chemical products, cars, motor and television. The increased amount of literate Japanese brought Japan s industry into a new era. Besides, they had a own style of management that a life long employment system. The employees were more willing to work and increased the work efficiency. Last, they adopted the Five Year Plan of Economic Independence and the Income Doubling Plan, So the economy grow rapidly. In Britain, After 1960s, the Britain and other European countries continued to cooperated on recovering the economy system in the West so after the ECSC came into a remarkable results, retain set up the European Free Trade Association 12 ( EFTA) and the establishment of European Community 13 (EC,1967) and the establishment of the European Union(EU, 1993) to cooperate with the European countries to build up a strong and wealthy Europe and improved their international status. So, Britain would cooperate with other countries to counterbalance the domination of the US and the USSR during the Cold War. To conclude, as a result of this American aids, Britain and Japanese economy were stabilized at once. These countries that received the aids were soon producing more industrial products and agriculture products than they had done before the war, therefore, their economy was gradually recovered and so there was enough food to meet the needs of growing population. In addition, economic activities of different countries under the economic cooperation were back to normal and even much better than before and the rate of unemployment decreased in general. Bibliography Robert O. Paxton Europe in the Twentieth Century 4 th Edition Reiscgauer. Craig Japan Tradition and Transformation Revised Edition Allen&Unwin Australia Pty.Ltd. W.F.Wong K.P. Leung New Essential Certificate History Theme A Hong Kong Educational Co. W.F.Wong K.P. Leung New Essential Certificate History Theme B Hong Kong Educational Co. Cheung Shing Kit Exploring World History 4 Ling Kee Publishing Co. Cheung Shing Kit Exploring World History 5 Ling Kee Publishing Co. 松田智雄, イギリス資本と東洋: 東洋貿易の前期性と近代性, 東京 : 日本評論社,1950 年黃元淵著 近代日本的崛起 Oxford University Press 12 Set up in the Convention of Stockholm in 1959 13 Sep up in the Treaty of Brussels
http://bernard.pitzer.edu/~lyamane/sept29.pdf http://www.ny.us.emb-japan.go.jp/en/c/vol_11-6/title_01.html http://www.ny.us.emb-japan.go.jp/150th/html/contributione.htm Comment: Able to make point-to-point comparisons, and the facts are overall relevant and accurate. However, performance was seriously marred by the lack of attention to the key word role. 評語 : 能作出點對點比較, 史實大致準確及關乎題旨 然而, 報告沒有處理關鍵詞 角色, 表現大受 影響 評級 Level: 3 評分 Marks: 9