TOKYO: When Emperor Hirohito spoke like a mortal for the first time and announced surrender, Hitoshi Omachi felt nothing but relief. The Japanese could now get back to work, this time building a peaceful nation.

“Honestly, I was only relieved that the war was over. We no longer had to live in fear of air raids. Everybody else felt the same way,” said Omachi, now 70, recalling the emperor’s radio broadcast on August 15, 1945.

“After the war, we didn’t really feel hatred for Americans. People focused on rebuilding their lives,” said Omachi, who would go on to become a banker.

“We avoided looking back at the bad memories of the war. We worked, and things got better. And so we worked even more.”

After its determination in war ended in humiliating defeat, Japan used the same spirit of resilience to turn a nation in ruins into an economic titan.

Experts say the phoenix-like rise was possible in part due to a particular element of the Japanese psyche that allowed people suddenly to become friendly to the United States, the enemy that had dropped two nuclear bombs on them.

“After the war, Japan submitted to the new occupation force as a substitute for the older government. That happened because Japanese people like to show deference to authorities,” said Osamu Ishii, a renowned political scientist and professor at Teikyo University.

“A pacifist Japan came to be, thanks to the deterrence provided by the continued presence of the US military,” he said.

The change in how Japan saw the United States was symbolized in Douglas MacArthur, the charismatic general who turned from commander of the US war in the Pacific into the widely admired head of the occupation.

The Korean War also expanded the Japanese economy, creating opportunities to supply the US war effort.

With defence in the hands of the United States, the constitution imposed in 1947 turned militarist Japan into a pacifist democracy — and in the process let it focus on its economic rebirth.

A nation deeply impoverished at the end of the war shifted from light industries such as cotton production to quality labour-intensive goods.

However dramatic Japan’s makeover, one thing it did not do was make a “180-degree turn” from its war-time structure.—AFP