Moore, Ray A., and Donald L. Robinson. Partners for Democracy: Crafting the New Japanese State Under MacArthur.

• Author: Michelsen, Niall
• Position: Book Review

Moore, Ray A., and Donald L. Robinson. Partners for Democracy: Crafting the New Japanese State Under MacArthur. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. v + 409 pp. Cloth, $55.00; paper $24.95.

In some ways, the cover of this book is misleading. A picture of General Douglas MacArthur shares the front cover with a picture of the first Japanese post-war prime minister, Yoshida Shigeru, but in the interior pages of the book Yoshida occupies center stage more frequently than MacArthur. The authors provide an in-depth narrative of the constitutional debates held within Japan during the pivotal years 1945-46. While the United States made some errors and did some things right, ultimately the key to the endurance of this governing document is that the Japanese were ready for what the United States was offering.

While the authors clearly establish the American origins of the post-war Japanese Constitution, the most intriguing parts of the book (comprising about two-thirds of the text) explore the ways in which Japanese politicians responded to the constitution prior to its formal adoption. This book divides relatively nicely into two very different political stories. One is about power and how a victorious nation handled its post-war occupation responsibilities. The other is about political philosophy as it was debated within Japanese political circles. The events detailed in the book took place under the heavy hand of American power but, oddly enough, the fact that all power resided in the hands of the Americans meant that the Japanese were able to freely debate the proper shape of their new democracy and how it corresponded to their sense of national identity. MacArthur was in charge of the military occupation, but his most important source of political power came from the belief among Japanese elites that he was the only ally they had in their foremost goal of preserving the person and the office of the emperor. This belief served to constrain the terms and the extent of the intra-Japanese debates, as they knew that, if they did not accept MacArthur's constitution, he might no longer be willing or able to protect the emperor from being tried as a war criminal and possibly being executed.

The fate of the emperor was absolutely the central issue for Japanese politicians and led directly to a far-reaching discussion of Japanese national identity and the all-important question of where sovereignty would reside. This intriguing exploration of how the...