SNA (Tokyo) — English-speaking diplomat Kijuro Shidehara served as prime minister in 1945-1946, corresponding with the most progressive phase of a US military occupation which was initially guided by the principles of the New Deal and the American concern that Japan never again pose a military challenge to US hegemony in the Pacific. Shidehara’s lack of a popular domestic political base, however, limited his ability to remain in power for too many months.

Transcript

On October 9, 1945, Kijuro Shidehara became prime minister of Japan. While he had long been in semi-retirement, he was an experienced diplomat and former foreign minister who had been well known in the prewar era for his conciliatory stance towards the Western powers.

With such a reputation, and speaking fluent English, Shidehara was an ideal choice to help guide the nation through the early period of Allied military occupation and its liberalizing reforms.

As he came into authority, Japan was a broken nation facing hunger and cold in its first winter since the defeat of war.

The Shidehara Cabinet also had to cope with the most progressive phase of the administration of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers—called SCAP for short—in which the main US objectives were to demilitarize and democratize Japan, while also holding some officials directly accountable for launching the war.

A “purge” was instituted by the Occupation at this time. Those deemed guilty of contributing to Japanese militarism were banned from holding positions of public service. At first, the purge focused more narrowly on the police and on public education, but it would expand into the political world as well. Over 200,000 people would ultimately be purged.

Among those seen as having contributed to war were major industrialists, and in November the order came down that the zaibatsu—major industrial and financial conglomerates—must be dissolved. Many of the leading US military policymakers were progressive New Dealers who were also concerned with the economic structures which had promoted authoritarianism. They backed the establishment of labor unions and the right to strike.

The following month—December—was most dramatic. SCAP ordered that suffrage be extended to all adult women, and that all political parties, including the Japan Communist Party, be legalized. The same month witnessed the legal dissolution of the ministries of the Army and Navy, and arrests of alleged war criminals.

At the beginning of the next year, 1946, Emperor Hirohito officially rejected what he called “the false conception that the Emperor is divine.” SCAP was satisfied that this declaration had helped clear the path toward democratization.

As these profound changes were occurring, it was obvious that Shidehara was not driving the political agenda. He was the prime minister of an occupied nation. He possessed some ability to negotiate the terms of implementation, which was carried out by Japanese officials in most cases, but for the most part he could only go along with Occupation policy whether he fully agreed with it or not. For the most part, however, Shidehara supported the demilitarization of Japan, and he tried to play a constructive role within the scope of his limited authority.

As for a constitution for the new regime, SCAP rejected an initial Japanese draft as being too conservative; it presented its own much more radical draft to the Shidehara Cabinet in February. This document even included the abolition of war as a sovereign right of the nation, the eventual Article Nine.

Some members of the Cabinet were deeply uncomfortable at how thoroughly progressive the new constitution was, but when SCAP hinted that a refusal to cooperate might provoke a reevaluation of the future role of the Emperor, the draft imposed by SCAP was quickly accepted.

It would later be suggested that the basic idea for Article Nine had actually come from Shidehara himself, but it remains a matter of debate whether this was the historical reality or simply an effort to ease political acceptance of the new constitution.

While deliberations on the national charter went forward, a final general election under the Meiji Constitution was conducted in order to strengthen popular sovereignty.

The April 10 general election was Japan’s first with women’s suffrage, and the minimum voting age was lowered to 20. However, it was also shaped by wide-ranging purges of established politicians by the Occupation authorities.

The results of the 1946 general election were not decisive. No party gained more than 25% of the popular vote. The top two performers were veteran politician Ichiro Hatoyama’s Liberal Party and the Japan Progressive Party. Despite their party names, these were both conservative organizations. Running a close third, however, with almost 18% of the popular vote, was the Japan Socialist Party.

39 women candidates were also elected, but this turned out to be the highest number through the end of the 20th century.

It was not immediately clear what these results signified for Shidehara’s leadership. On April 23 he was appointed head of Japan Progressive Party, which had come in second, but the other parties rejected the formation of a governing coalition with him.

On May 2, Hatoyama succeeded in coalition negotiations, but just before he could take office, SCAP decided that he was unacceptable and purged him from public service. The factor which sunk Hatoyama was probably not his prewar collaboration with the military, but his public statement the previous September that the dropping of the atomic bombs had constituted an American war crime.

Back to square one, coalition negotiations continued.

Hatoyama convinced the previously unaffiliated Foreign Minister Shigeru Yoshida to step in to become head of the Liberal Party and to form the next government.

Kijuro Shidehara thus resigned as prime minister on May 22, 1946. He had served for 226 days.

Though he never returned to the top office, Shidehara remained a senior politician and even served two years as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was still holding that office on March 10, 1951, when he suffered a heart attack and died.

Become a Shingetsu News supporter on Patreon.