Academic freedom and autonomy: Walter C. Eells and the Red Purge in universities during the Allied Occupation of Japan

This dissertation examines a challenging development of academic freedom and university autonomy during the Allied Occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952. Although both principles were promoted initially by the American occupational administration, subsequent policy to contain Communism seemed to conflict with the earlier policies that were embraced readily by the Japanese faculty. The Red Purge hysteria in higher education in the late phase of the Occupation was a critical test of university autonomy and academic freedom. The American educator Dr. Walter C. Eells, Advisor on Higher Education at the Occupation's General Headquarters (GHQ), was a central and controversial figure in the Red Purge in higher education.;During July 1949 and May 1950, GHQ's Civil Information and Education Section (CIE) of GHQ dispatched Eells to Japan's national universities to call for the ousting of Communist professors. He advocated that universities should dismiss Communist professors in order to protect academic freedom. His anti-Communist statement in the name of protecting academic freedom set off vigorous and sometimes violent debate among Japanese academics about the meaning of academic freedom. In this dissertation the controversy over the Eells statement is referred to as "the Eells case.";While scholars refer to the Eells case as being symbolic of the Red Purge and the first serious challenge to academic freedom and university autonomy in postwar Japan, there are very few comprehensive studies on the Eells case, and there is no analysis of how the Eells case specifically encroached on academic freedom and university autonomy. Moreover, what has been missing in the interpretation of the Eells case is the perspective within GHQ. This dissertation presents the previously under-represented views of SCAP, the CIE, and Eells in particular, and reveals complex internal tensions and discussions within the CIE regarding how to deal with Communist influence in Japanese universities.