Empire of Japan

===End of the Empire of Japan===

====Occupation of Japan====
{{Main|Occupation of Japan}}
[[File:The Imperial Japanese Diet, Tokyo - the House of Representatives Art.IWMARTLD5841.jpg|thumb|A drawing depicting a speech in the [[National Diet|Imperial Japanese Diet]] on November 1, 1945, following the [[End of World War II in Asia|end of the Second World War]]. In the foreground are several Allied soldiers watching the proceedings from the back of the balcony.]]

A period known as [[occupied Japan]] followed after the war, largely spearheaded by US Army General Douglas MacArthur to revise the Japanese constitution and de-militarize the nation. The Allied occupation, including concurrent economic and political assistance, continued until 1952. Allied forces ordered Japan to abolish the Meiji Constitution and enforce the 1947 [[Constitution of Japan]]. This new constitution was imposed by the United States under the supervision of MacArthur. MacArthur included [[Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution|Article 9]] which changed Japan into a [[Pacifism|pacifist]] country.<ref>{{cite web |title=Resurgent Japan military 'can stand toe to toe with anybody |date=December 7, 2016 |publisher=CNN |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/06/asia/japan-military-pearl-harbor-anniversary/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204084031/https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/06/asia/japan-military-pearl-harbor-anniversary/ |archive-date=December 4, 2018}}</ref>

Upon adoption of the 1947 constitution, the Empire of Japan dissolved and became simply the state of [[Japan]], and all the territories such as Taiwan, Korea, Karafuto, and Kwantung were lost. Japan was reduced to the territories that were traditionally within the Japanese cultural sphere pre-1895: the four main islands ([[Honshu]], [[Hokkaido]], [[Kyushu]], and [[Shikoku]]), the [[Ryukyu Islands]], and the [[Nanpō Islands]]. The [[Kuril Islands]] also historically belonged to Japan<ref>{{cite book |last=Peattie |first=Mark R. |title=The Cambridge History of Japan Vol. 6 |chapter=Chapter 5 – The Japanese Colonial Empire 1895–1945 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1988 |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-22352-0}}</ref> and were first inhabited by the [[Ainu people]] before coming under the control of the [[Matsumae clan]] during the [[Edo Period]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Kuril Islands |first=John J |last=Stephan |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |year=1974 |pages=50–56}}</ref> However, the Kuril Islands were not included due to a [[Kuril islands dispute|dispute with the Soviet Union]].<ref name=ndlconstitution/>

Japan adopted a parliamentary-based political system, and the role of the Emperor became symbolic. The [[Occupation of Japan|US occupation forces]] were fully responsible for protecting Japan from external threats. Japan only had a minor police force for domestic security. Japan was under the sole control of the United States. This was the only time in [[Japanese history]] that it was occupied by a foreign power.<ref>{{cite web |last=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |title=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Japan, 1900 a.d.–present |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/11/eaj/ht11eaj.htm |access-date=February 1, 2009}}</ref>

General MacArthur later commended the new Japanese government that he helped establish and the new Japanese period when he was about to send the American forces to the [[Korean War]]:
<blockquote>The Japanese people, since the war, have undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history. With a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and marked capacity to understand, they have, from the ashes left in war's wake, erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty and personal dignity; and in the ensuing process there has been created a truly representative government committed to the advance of political morality, freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice. Politically, economically, and socially Japan is now abreast of many free nations of the earth and will not again fail the universal trust. ... I sent all four of our occupation divisions to the Korean battlefront without the slightest qualms as to the effect of the resulting power vacuum upon Japan. The results fully justified my faith. I know of no nation more serene, orderly, and industrious, nor in which higher hopes can be entertained for future constructive service in the advance of the human race.</blockquote>

For historian [[John W. Dower]]:
<blockquote>In retrospect, apart from the military officer corps, the purge of alleged militarists and ultranationalists that was conducted under the Occupation had relatively small impact on the long-term composition of men of influence in the public and private sectors. The purge initially brought new blood into the political parties, but this was offset by the return of huge numbers of formerly purged conservative politicians to national as well as local politics in the early 1950s. In the bureaucracy, the purge was negligible from the outset. ... In the economic sector, the purge similarly was only mildly disruptive, affecting less than sixteen hundred individuals spread among some four hundred companies. Everywhere one looks, the corridors of power in postwar Japan are crowded with men whose talents had already been recognized during the war years, and who found the same talents highly prized in the 'new' Japan.<ref>J. W. Dower, ''Japan in War & Peace'', New press, 1993, p. 11</ref></blockquote>