Comment by stoopkid13:
Two things I would point to. First, Japan was in shambles following World War II and the United States helped it recover. There was widespread poverty and famine as so many resources had been used up or destroyed during the war and Japan no longer had colonial holdings to support itself. Much of its infrastructure had also been destroyed. Many Japanese were scattered or displaced among Japan's colonial holdings, meaning separated families. And moreover (and this is Dower's thesis), the loss struck a huge psychic blow to the Japanese, creating an air of defeatism.
The Americans, though they were the enemy during the war, led reconstruction efforts in Japan and were essential in revitalizing the Japanese economy. General MacArthur, who lead the Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP), had a cult of personality in Japan; the Japanese for the most part adored MacArthur. SCAP did not prosecute the Emperor and a compromise was reached regarding the Emperor's inviolability. Essentially, the United States led a well-received reconstruction effort that helped Japan rise from the ashes.
Second, Japan and the United States grew close because of Cold War politics. Japan, threatened by communism from China and the USSR, needed a regional ally. The United States became that ally. The two countries fought together during the Korean War (which incidentally also did wonders for the Japanese economy, as Japanese manufacturing was essential to the war effort in Korea). Cold War politics also explains why the United States spent so much time and resources in rebuilding Japan.
thread:http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1v144a/how_did_japanese_and_us_relations_improve_so/
The best book on this topic is Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John Dower. Unfortunately, I can't find my copy, so I'm going to turn to my copy of Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. The latter book is more focused on the decision to drop the atomic bomb, but it has some good information on the question you've asked.
If you want a quick-and-dirty primer, here's a three-part History International video documentary. It's simplistic, but it answers the easy questions.
I'll answer the last question first: Was there any resistance?
Yes, but not in the way you're thinking. After the emperor decided to surrender, he remarked, "how difficult it will be for the officers and men of the army and navy to surrender their arms to the enemy and to see their homeland occupied." (Frank, p. 315)
This difficulty manifested itself on the night of Aug. 14 as field-grade officers attempted a coup d'etat by seizing the palace. This effort was led by Col. Okikatsu Arao but he was opposed by virtually every high-ranking officer in the Japanese Army. These generals rallied soldiers to fight the plotters and recaptured the palace. Many of the generals subsequently committed suicide.
Even after the coup failed, there were others who, independently, decided to resist. Out of fear that these fanatics would use suicide aircraft and attack the Allied fleet, generals ordered all planes defueled and their propellers removed.
At Atsugi airfield near Tokyo, Capt. Ammyo Kosono was one of the more notorious resisters. For several days, he defied authority, showering Tokyo with leaflets from the air, "calling for true patriots to revolt." (Frank, p. 321)
When peaceable methods failed to stop him, he and his men were subdued with clubs, pistols, and broken furniture. Kosono himself was taken away in a straitjacket.
The surrender was signed on Sept. 2, but the first American soldiers arrived in mainland Japan on Aug. 28, as an advance guard of 150 flew in to Atsugi. On Aug. 30, widespread landings took place as 10,000 American soldiers came ashore in landing craft.
In the weeks that followed, other Americans arrived by boat and plane. Some of the most remarkable surrenders took place in the Japanese north, where isolated planes of Americans took the surrender of entire airfields and thousands of men. There were occasional cases of accidental firing on American aircraft, but I haven't been able to find any cases of actual resistance beyond the infamous deep-jungle diehards.
For your first question: What was it like for US soldiers arriving and occupying (Japan)?
The emotion that comes across in memoirs is shock. They expected to invade Japan and face violent opposition every step of the way. Instead, when they came ashore, they were faced with starving civilians whose homes had been annihilated. Here's a famous map that shows the extent to which Japan was devastated. Each Japanese city bears the name of a comparable US city (in 1945) and the percentage of that city that was destroyed.
Instead of facing diehard soldiers, Americans found starving civilians. An early American occupation document suggests Japanese civilians eat acorns to avoid starvation.
One of the first missions of American soldiers was to liberate Allied POW camps. While some soldiers were no doubt hardened by the condition of those liberated from the camps, many more took the idea that Japan was to be pitied.
Speaking to the process of landing, here's a sailor (Leroy Nicholson) recounting his landing some weeks after the surrender:
We didn’t know what to expect, but it was logical to assume that the Japanese would feel very hostile, so we all went ashore armed with 45s. We were walking down the street when suddenly these little children came out, maybe half a dozen of them, six or seven years old. They were adorable and well-mannered—they bowed politely and held our hands and we walked around with them, gave them candy, and suddenly it was as if the blackness of the war had lifted from our minds.
At least, that's how he remembered it decades later.
First hand account: My grandfather was in the US Navy 7th Amphibious Force, Beach Party #5. Naval Beach Parties would go in with the first wave of a landing force. They used radios, lights, and semaphore (flag signaling) to direct the other ships coming in to land. (When he joined that unit he was stuck in the hell-hole that is Milne Bay, New Guinea. An officer came by looking for a radio man to join his "Beach Party". Gramps said he was always looking to party back then so he joined up).
When Japan surrendered he boarded the USS Appalachian in the Philippines and headed for Northern Japan. Along the way his convoy of 100+ ships got caught in a monsoon. The rough seas caused him and just about everyone else below deck to become seasick. He thought it was pretty awful at the time, but the monsoon caused a bunch of ships to beach or even sink so he came out of that one pretty well.
He made landings at Aomori, Ominato, and Otaru. Given how fierce the island hopping campaign had been I figured he'd have some reservations about civilian and / or military resistance, but he said that he wasn't worried. His reasoning was that Japan had been decimated, their people were starving, and it was almost a month after the formal surrender. The war was over, he was there to bring their people food. One of the things he distinctly remembers is a couple of Japanese kids around 8 years old watching the American ships land. When they saw a duck boat come ashore and then drive up the beach they went wide-eyed. A boat/truck hybrid blew their minds.
I feel compelled to point out: Okinawa was directly invaded and faced a brutal and horrific battle where 1/8 civilians died.
Before WWII, Okinawa as one of the 47 prefectures of the Japanese national government. When it was finally given back to Japan in 1972, it became Okinawa prefecture again. Although it has a distinct cultural identity, it is generally considered a part of Japan--at least, when it is convenient to the US and Japanese to consider it so, and forgotten when that is likewise convenient. Mainland Japanese considered the Battle of Okinawa to be a "sacrifice" so that the rest of the country could prepare for similar invasion. The forces garrisoned there were not expected to win. They were expected to hold out as long as possible and make things miserable for the invading forces. And tens of thousands of Okinawans died as a result.
So, depending who you ask, there WAS an invasion of "real" Japan. The US soldiers landed on a beach battlefield and fought for months (although, ironically, they managed to establish a beachhead with almost no pushback). The "resistance" was the actual Japanese soldiers who tended towards brazen suicide tactics.
It was a pretty bad time.
May I recommend a book?
"Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945." Hachiya M.D., Michihiko
Available on Kindle, it is a daily diary of a physician in Hiroshima on the day of the blast, and his account of the blast, and the aftermath for the next several months thereafter. It is fascinating to read, and includes a good deal about the invasion/occupation and the Japanese response to it. HIGHLY recommended.
