At the end of World War II, the Japanese economy had been devastated. The economic infrastructure of the country was destroyed; the government was discredited and under the control of foreign military leaders; and two cities had been reduced completely to rubble by the atomic bomb, Japan being the only nation ever to face the consequences of a nuclear attack. Today, Japan is one of the leading industrialized nations in the world, and in high-technology it is probably the leading country in the international marketplace. The foundation for the Japanese economic miracle was laid in the period after World War II when there was a transition of power from the Allied troops and military commanders who ruled the country as an occupation force until convinced that Japan had a viable government committed to democratic principles and prepared to work to create a strong economic base for the rebuilding of the country.
In order to comprehend the change that the Japanese have wrought in the years after World War II, it is necessary to understand the nature of this people and their economy in the years prior to that war, and indeed stretching back to the era when Japan was first opened to the West. Japan was opened to the West in 1853 when Admiral Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and found a country still in a feudal stage of development. This was a country that had isolated itself rigorously from the rest of the world, but Perry issued an order that Japan would have to open her markets or face the consequences. The change wrought in Japan as a result was of a different order than had been intended by the West. The Japanese culture found a way to satisfy the West while retaining its own style, a style still based on holding back from the rest of the world for self-protection. The Japanese announced that they would indeed open their market, but they also stated that it could not be done all at once and would have to be a gradual process. For...