What did MacArthur do in Japan?
The phenomenon of rural land annexation in Japan before the war was very serious, and the problem of landless peasants caused by it became an excuse for Japan's external expansion. In order to solve this problem, MacArthur had no qualms about grabbing land from Japanese landlords and distributing it to landless farmers to stabilize the rural situation. MacArthur established a new party politics by releasing political prisoners, holding democratic elections, encouraging the establishment of trade unions, promoting women's participation in politics, and popularizing the concept of American democracy and freedom in Japan. At the same time, he also took the method of expelling people related to the original regime from public office, which destroyed the original political structure. Although many of these practices were interrupted or changed because of the Korean peninsula war, the whole direction has not changed. There has always been an interesting conjecture in Japan, that is, what kind of country would MacArthur, who resolutely opposed * * * *, eventually turn Japan into if the Korean Peninsula War had not broken out? What does MacArthur intend to do with the bureaucracy of the Japanese Empire after the former military, chaebol, landlords, political parties, courts and other power groups all collapsed? Now this country is no longer the "emperor's kingdom". MacArthur taught the Japanese the slogan "Sovereignty lies with the people". However, just as emperors could not take power by themselves in the past, people could not directly use power by themselves, and they had to rely on bureaucrats to exercise state power on their behalf. But can the old civil servants who were originally called "officials of the emperor" and served the emperor continue to serve the people as "public servants" (this is also a new term brought by MacArthur)? If it can't continue to be used, where can MacArthur, who has set up the framework of "democratic Japan", find the administrative officials who actually operate this country? Let's take a look at GHQ's evaluation of the "Imperial Senior Civil Servant" at the headquarters of the occupying forces. GHQ commented on them like this: "These bureaucrats, that is, senior civil servants, are mostly from the Law Department of Imperial University in Tokyo. They received complete legal training in the university, they were taught to be loyal to the emperor and his colleagues, and they were even taught how to negotiate and bargain. However, in the course of the Faculty of Law of Imperial University of Tokyo, administration is an elective course, and almost no one takes this course, because there have never been any questions about administration in the senior civil service exam. " This is MacArthur's evaluation of them. MacArthur knew their loyal political inclination, but MacArthur didn't think it was a big problem. MacArthur said bluntly, "The instinct of the bureaucracy in any country in the world is to work for those who pay wages." It may be an ideological problem for a bureaucrat, but for the whole bureaucratic group, "having milk is a mother" is an instinct. Besides, MacArthur had no choice but to rely on this bureaucratic team. He can't find anyone else who can do administrative work in Japan. The consequence of elitism is that there are no qualified people except elites.