Snow Du

Japan and the US

Overview

In order to step into east Asia,  the U.S. government chose Japan as its first goal to reform and was ambitious to step on East Asian land. Meyer mentions in his book that the U.S. had drafted the Post-Surrender Policy for Japan, with the following goals: demilitarization and democratization, and completely eliminating fascism. It was well-planned with the ambition and determination of making Japan a second America in Asia. ^[1]

Politics

Politically, the promulgation of the constitution of 1947 was significant.^[2]

• • The emperor was no longer in charge of the country, and rather just a symbol of the state;
    • prewar elites no longer had more power than the cabinet;
    • it established the Supreme Court and claimed to be independent, also strengthened the local government and weakened the power of the central.

Economics

The political change also had an effect on its economic growth. When the Liberal Democratic Party dominated the country, its priority was to develop the economy, because the close relationship with the U.S.. During the Korean War, the country received a huge amount of demand, and Japan had its first economic recovery. The Korean war forced them to develop Japan’s strategy of export and ability of electronics, auto parts, chemicals, and machinery.

Education

Educationally, due to the cooperation of Japan, the country became more democratic and liberal. The “Fundamental Law of Education” was then enacted in 1947. “New Education” then became prevalent, schools encouraged more developing liberal and free minds and extended the compulsory education time from six to nine years.^[3]

South Korea and the U.S.

Overview

1945-1948: After being dominated by other countries for over thirty years, South Koreans finally decided to stand up for themselves and claimed independence. After WWII followed by a few conferences, the U.S. military reconsidered the geological advantage of Korea and decided to move troops into Korea. North and South were divided by the 38th parallel, and the two coexisting parties in South Korea before the U.S. troop arrived were the Korean People’s Republic led by Lyuh Woon-Hyung and the Korean Provisional Government which was still in China.

With the arrival of the U.S.military, the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) was officially established. ^[4]With the goal of liberating the South, the USAMGIK soon formed an alliance with the Korean Democratic Party, because, at that time, the U.S. lacked workable plans for South Korea, and they required a Korean party with a similar belief. Therefore, they selected the leaders of the Democratic Party to be in charge of the bureaucracy.

Following the failure of agreeing on the trusteeship with the Koreans, the USAMGIK decided to sign an agreement with the Soviet Union about Korean trusteeship to help South Korea to be independent and develop, yet South Korean parties had different attitudes to this trusteeship.^[5] Eventually, with a piece of advice from the American representatives that South Koreans should make their own decision, the two sides agreed to discuss but never came out with a satisfying answer, thereby the Joint Commission was dismissed. Instead, the American Military Government helped South Korea to build up their own government with both leftists and rightists in it as the foundation of a democratic society. With the interference from USAMGIK, the leftists were dramatically weakened. As a result of the General Assembly, all troops should be withdrawn from both North and South Korea. In 1948, Syngman Rhee was officially elected as the first President of South Korea.

Politics

Politically, compared to Japan, Koreans were more eager to be independent after multiple decades of occupancy. Also, the emotion of being back to unified with the North was also one of the biggest obstacles of the U.S. to liberate the country. Japan has a unique enduring personality, especially after WWII, the whole country was covered with a devastating atmosphere which made them more vulnerable and easy to be manipulated. On the other hand, South Korea finally got rid of the period of being oppressed by Japan, the enthusiasm of getting their country back and back to unification was unimaginable. Therefore, when multiple regimes coexisted in the same state, the lack of unifying and instability would lead to the extremely slow development of the country.

Education

USAMGIK had an extraordinary impact on South Korea’s education system. After being under imperial Japan for over three decades, the U.S. decided to purge all the fascist, militarist, and totalitarian nature from the Korean school system. Since the goal of USAMGIK was to liberate the country, they focused more on developing democratic and liberal thought for the youth, which was similar to Japan’s school system.^[6] Ironically, due to the lack of preparation, the process was not as smooth as the U.S. thought. The New Education Movement was established to educate the youth that there were no absolute black or white in the world to encourage them to develop critical thinking and individual differences.^[7] In other words, the purpose of this kind of education system was to weaken the influence of the government along with the development of the young generation.

In addition to developing the kids themselves in a liberal way, the U.S. professionals also educated and corrected the mindset of the teachers so they can pass it on. However, the situation was totally different than it was in Japan, where the U.S. brought both American influential educators and language experts who could practice the reformation according to its plans. In South Korea, American educators heavily relied on English-speaking Korean educators, who were not the majority. Therefore, the plan failed miserably.^[8]

Conclusion

When comparing Japan and South Korea, both of the countries were temporarily governed by the United States, during the period 1945-1948 but the outcomes were extremely different.

The first reason was from the perspective of the United States, back to the beginning of January of 1945, the country already started their planning on how to liberate Japan and have a foothold in East Asia. In contrast, for South Korea, the U.S.still  did not make decisions whether they were going to move the troops to South Korea until August of 1945, not to mention making a plan for democratization. The second reason from the U.S.’s point of view was the lack of understanding about the current situation of South Korea. South Korea was the weakest one among China, Japan, and the Soviet Union, so the U.S. had never paid attention to South Korea because they never really saw Korea as a country rather than a territory. Thus, the lack of developing experts on Korean language or Korean study would cause more instability in politics and the delay of educational reform. The U.S. was definitely not ready for taking over the country. The reason behind this lack of preparation can also indicate that in order to successfully govern a country, it is critical to learn its history path and make plans off the understanding of this path such as the society that South Korean people used to live in and the beliefs that they believed in the past.

By comparing the differences between South Korea and Japan, the outcomes can also be explained. First, the stability of political parties. In Japan, imperialism was the only political system that existed in the country from 1877. Especially after being defeated in the war, their people were “like the pig on the chopping board”, the lack of rebellion, and absolute obedience to the U.S., made everything seem too easy on Japan. On the other hand, Korean people were in a situation to be freed from this endless invasion and bullying, their wish of being an independent country was the fuel that drove them every day, the rebelliousness was shown when the U.S. military arrived. In addition, the complexity of the parties was another factor that caused this bad outcome. The instability can be seen from the three major groups of people: 1) the rightist- pursuing liberal and free; 2) moderate: Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea; and 3) the leftist: the communists who were eager for unification with the North. There could be a fight anytime between the three different groups, and the U.S. had no effective plans to solve the problems and even if they came up with an idea, the idea would not be approved or followed by all people which left a huge potential for rebellion.

Bibliography

Kim, Hakjoon. “The American Military Government in South Korea, 1945-1948: Its Formation, Policies, and Legacies.” Asian Perspective 12, no. 1 (1988): 51–83.

Meyer, Milton Walter. Japan: A Concise History, 4th ed. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.

Nomura, Kazuyuki. “Project-Based Learning in Post-Wwii Japanese School Curriculum: An Analysis Via Curriculum Orientations.” The Curriculum Journal 28, no. 4 (2017): 626–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2017.1340170.

Seth, Michael J. Education Fever : Society, Politics, and the Pursuit of Schooling in South Korea. Hawaiʻi Studies on Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press and Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawaiʻi, 2002. https://doi.org/10.21313/9780824862305.

Stalker, Nancy K. Japan : History and Culture from Classical to Cool. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018.