How World War II Changed Japan's National Identity

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After World War II, Japan underwent a tumultuous time of forming its national identity. New ideas and customs bombarded the old ways. The formidable legacy of Japanese military aggression and the formerly godlike figure of the emperor, devastating defeat by nuclear destruction, the challenges of post-war U.S. occupation, and post-war developments in China all played a huge role in changing and shaping Japan into the country it became. Very influential, too, was the shift away from seeing the emperor as divine. When the Japanese people lost faith in their leader, the entire way of life associated with that perspective fell into ruin. This cleared the way for a new identity to be built: one built primarily around the embracing of Western culture …show more content…

Traditionally, Japan had had some of the most powerful warriors in the world. These warriors, called samurai, conquered many places and were known for their intense aversion to surrender, preferring instead to die. To come back defeated was a great dishonor. As well, even after the samurai were a relic of the past, the Japanese army was a formidable aggressive force that took part in many conflicts such as the invasion of Manchuria, which was part of a series of Sino-Japanese wars that Japan dominated in the 1930’s. Also, WWII was a very difficult conflict for America because of how fiercely the The devastating nuclear havoc that resulted in the Japanese defeat made the desperate Japanese want the power that their conquerors had. The atomic bomb was the most powerful weapon and left the Japanese stunned. “Then a tremendous flash of light cut across the sky. Mr. Tanimoto has a distinct recollection that it travelled from east to west, from the city toward the hills. It seemed a sheet of sun. Both he and Mr. Matsuo reacted in terror....He heard no roar. (Almost no one in Hiroshima recalls hearing any noise of the bomb. But a fisherman .... saw the flash and heard a tremendous explosion; he was nearly twenty miles from Hiroshima, but the thunder was greater than when the B-29s hit Iwakuni, only five miles away,)” Because of this devastation, the Japanese became

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