US policy of ‘nation building’ had succeeded in Japan by 1954.
In my opinion, the US succeeded in rebuilding Japan in their image and for their benefit. Sources A, B and D believe that the US succeeded in their ‘nation building’, whereas sources C and E disagree with and say that the US failed in this area.
I believe that source A agrees with the statement the most but I also believe it to be the most unreliable source. We can see that the source agrees with the statement, from when it says “Greatest reformation recorded in modern history” and also when he states “they have done this with commendable will, eagerness to learn, and marked capacity to understand.” This could show what was actually happening in Japan or it could just have been positive propaganda, so the US congress does not feel as though all of their money has gone to waste. But we can also say that MacArthur could have been lying to congress because we know that when he says that “a truly representative government has been created”, we know that this is not true because in the first democratic election in Japan the US just rigged the election so that someone they could control was in power, so we can say that he only said some of these things to make sure that congress kept providing money. I believe that this source supports the statement the most but also could be assumed as the most unreliable.
Source B also supports the statement but it also states what the Japanese people want from their new rulers as it is from a Japanese people themselves. From this source we can compare what the Japanese people they want and what the USA actually did, for example when the people ask for the US to “establish a popular government, based on the true will of the people never to break the peace of the world again.” We know this is not true because as I said earlier in the first democratic election the US rigged the election so that their wanted candidate got into power. But they do succeed in one of the points, to “achieve political and economic and social conditions which will not jeopardize the livelihood of the people.”, we know this to be true because it is one of the main points that the US set out to do, so that they had a major trade partner in the Pacific. From the text we may also be able to assume that the person writing is attempting to get onto the good side of the US, from when he says “We express our sincerest appreciation for the measures taken by the allied powers”, this may have been a lie because we can assume that the Japanese people were not very happy that the USA had atom bombed 2 of their cities killing millions of people, so we can presume that he is just saying this, so that his ideas could be thought about by the General. This source does support the statement but it also, in a way, tells the USA what the Japanese really want them to do with their country.
Source D in my opinion agrees with the statement. Source D in, I believe, is the least biased in its thought that the US succeeded in Japan, and it seems to focus more on the industry and the economic successes, for example “In 1947 the Americans improved the economic situation by relaxing their policy on the control of Japanese industry.” Which shows that the US succeeded in improving the Japanese economy, which was one of the points noted in source B as what the Japanese people want from the US policies. But he does also say that progress in this area was slow and that one of the only reasons the Japanese and Americans worked together was so that Japan did not fall to communism. In my opinion this source definitely supports the statement and he seems to quite a trustworthy source although it was written in 2001, 60 years after these events, so he may not have got all of these facts correct.
Source C I believe