The politics of survival: Bureaucracy and democratization in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1945--1952

This dissertation explores the reconstruction of political authority in Japan in relation to one political institution, the Japanese bureaucracy. It also examines the administrative reform process during a democratic transition. Although a historical study set during the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945–1952), this work attempts to forge a larger social scientific understanding the democratic reform process and its relation to postwar Japan. The Japanese bureaucracy must be seen as an active participant in creating a postwar nation from the chaos of wartime.; Specifically, this dissertation seeks to contribute one's understanding of three aspects of the relationship between occupation, bureaucracy, and democracy: (1) the survival of authority patterns between pre- and post-war eras, (2) the full incorporation of the Japanese case into general social science discourse on democratizations, and (3) administrative reform as a political process. Special attention is given to explaining the politics of Japan's administrative reform process during a democratizing occupation. Therein, the focus is on the complexity of the process and the ongoing quality of political change. The concept of issue linkages is key to this process.; To recognize the complexity of the administrative reform process and the ongoing nature of political change, to understand that Japan is not an exception to this understanding, and to hope that others take this understanding, and apply it to the world of occupations and emerging democracy is this writer's underlying goal.