The president ial libraries. It is a nice little walk. To kind of stretch our legs and come back here. And remember president and mrs. Bush. They were so much part of the library and museum and community. You can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at east end. Org flash city tour cspan. Org citiestour. Over years ago victory japan day, august 15, 1945, marked the end of world war ii. Next on our weekly reel america series, three felt about the state of affairs immediately after the war. The to democracy documents first three years of reforming and rebuilding japanese society. Here is germany forces that takes a harsh look at the countrys history and explores how a civilized people could launch war and murder millions of civilians. Finally a ceiling on your home is a short film talking about price controls should continue for returning veterans amid a housing shortage. In the years before 1941, japan built a great war machine and prepared for a mad gamble with the rest of the world. Finally, it played its hand. And lost. This was hiroshima immediately after the atomic bomb. A lifeless, hopeless city. But time passes. And in the desolation of defeat, people stir and strive for the normal living they once knew. Hiroshima is a symbol of a new beginning of a defeated country. Slowly, very slowly, something is coming out of the wreckage. Not merely new buildings, but in the minds of a defeated people, a growing new idea. The idea of democracy. There is hope in the air. Perhaps the past from defeat will lead to a better way of living than they have ever known before. In the old days, the victor took the spoils, sacked the conquered country, carried off the jewels and kidnapped women. Today the victor takes responsibilities. In his hands is the power to mold the future and the possibility of peace. Between the supreme allied commander and the japanese people, between conqueror and conquered, there is an understanding unmatched in all history. Planning the work of the Occupation Forces began in 1945 out of the meeting of the allied powers in pot stem. Potsdam. And later, from our own post surrender policy, came to general objectives for the occupation of japan. The first objective was the smashing of the jap war machine. The men behind the japanese war machine have been brought to trial for crimes of violence, cruelty and murder. Trials have been carried out thoroughly and methodically. Not in a spirit of punishment, but with the hope that a world court will deal with future International Criminals the same way National Courts deal with local criminals. The minds that put in operation of the japanese war machinery were being reckoned with. The machines themselves had to be destroyed. To the scrap heap went the guns, the ships, the submarines, the tanks, the planes, and other military equipment. For months jap furnaces blazed, melting down instruments of war. A nation was beating its swords into the necessities of life. Items scarce during the years of war appeared suddenly in startling splendor. Here and there a toy signaled better days to come. Our second general objective is the establishment of a peaceful, responsible government. Because of its willingness to take the idea of democracy, japan already has a working constitution. By the constitution the emperor is no longer absolute and divine, but is a constitutional monarch, similar to englands king. He is now a figurehead, a symbol of unity. By his own declaration he is no longer a god, but many still believe he is divine and the japanese are the only race on earth descended from the gods. For the first time, the people are exercising their constitutional right to electioneer and vote for those who will truly support them. Electioneering is becoming as lively with Political Parties in the states. They are usually friends or relatives of the candidate for office. By the new constitution, women are voting for the first time. Formally the country was ruled from the top. A few people made the decisions. Now everybody is in on the act. The election returns are followed with interest. Some of these people have never heard the word democracy. Yet gradually they are learning the democratic way of life. As a result of its first free election, japan chose a moderate course for its future. These are new members of the national assembly, the highest governing body in the land. Previously the japanese congress, called the diet, was nothing more than a rubberstamp of the rulers of the empire. These men faced two major jobs. Overcoming the economic crisis and making preparations for concluding the peace treaty. American advice is given when needed. Members of the house of representatives wear a button in their lapels, the chrysanthemum, todaylem of old japan, symbolizes the holding power. In the old days the diet was an organization without much power. Acting on the advice of his ministers. The building that once housed the old diet and now the Meeting Place of the elected assembly is a new symbol of freedom in japan. In the years before the occupation, a man with socalled dangerous thoughts could be thrown into jail by the secret police or the thought police. A citizen today no longer lives under this. He has the same freedom of speech that exists in the united states. In the shadow of the imperial palace, the people take pride in celebrations of new civil rights. Today the japanese have the right to join unions and bargain collectively. At the end of the war there was no general labor unions in japan. Prewar labor unions were in prison or silenced by the military. The right to organize had been denied. Now there are 20,000 unions and 5 Million Union members in japan. Although the new constitution provides for trial by jury, the system is not yet practiced, and the courts are still conducted in the traditions of the past. Three judges sit in this district court. Two must concur in the decision. In addition to a jury trial, the japanese citizen now is now guaranteed the right to be defended by counsel. The shinto religion sponsored by the imperial government, and preaching that japan was divine and superior, has been disassembled as a state religion. Under the constitution, a religious organization may not receive any privileges from the state nor exercise any , political authority. Today each japanese is guaranteed to freedom to worship in any way he pleases. Reforming the japanese educational system has been one of the toughest jobs of the occupation. Deeply rooted in japanese teaching was the idea of blind obedience. We have insisted upon one change, that the Teaching Program be free of militarism. We have recommended another, that the japanese reorganize their School System along democratic lines. New teachers are being taught and old teachers are being retrained. Textbooks are being rewritten. Patience is needed. We are trying to do in a few years what it has taken other democracies many years to achieve. Japanese newspapers are back in full stride. Editors are becoming freer about writing as they think. While freedom of the press is many centuries old in other countries, the idea only began to be practiced here in 1945. Newspapers sell quickly in a country where daily reforms and changes vitally affect the lives of the people. The new japan has many problems. We are anxious to assist wherever we can. Expert knowledge on such a subject as Public Health is a vital on putting japan on its own feet. Under american supervision, a typical case of typhoid fever is cared for. The home is disinfected with ddt. The patient is removed to a City Hospital for contagious diseases. Large numbers of people are being introduced to methods of preventing disease. In the past, the government of japan had neglected most standard inoculations. There is great faith in ddt. Many japanese call it a skin tonic. These thorough methods of control are setting a pattern for the future of health and welfare of japans average citizen. What is most noticeable in japan today are the simple necessities of life shortages. The housewife must wait. Food is scare, a basic ration is barely enough to provide the working members of the family with enough food to keep going. A considerable supply of food has come from america. The government is trying to find methods of distribution to prevent food from being hoarded, and to prevent its flow into the black markets. Since the rationing system was put in operation, there has been improvement. But high prices still prevail. There is an even greater shortage of clothing and food. Prices for what is available are sky high. The cost of living for a family of five is 20 times above prewar level. Although hats and childrens apparel are plentiful, adults wear, particularly mens clothing, is scarce. Almost wherever one goes in japan there are signs of destruction. Although rebuilding is going on, it will take many years before japans battered factories will turn out enough products for normal needs. Production goes while walls and roofs are made solid. Repairs to homes are considered secondary. And as a result, Housing Conditions are often inadequate and makeshift. In the rebuilding, a church is not forgotten. A major change has taken place in the status of the japanese farmer. By the reform act of december 1946, two million tenant farmers have been able to purchase the land they work. Large farms have been divided and the great landlords no longer dominate the many farmers who used to work their land. While the landlords controlled farming in imperial japan, the control of industry and government was in the hands of a group of families known as the zaibutsu. In the oil and other large industries, all stock owned by them is being sold in small shares. And the average worker is being given a chance to participate in the industry in which hes employed. Japan needs needs Raw Materials to rebuild. And because of war damage, is using even the most primitive machinery to increase production. Even the forests of japan show the effects of war. Mostly thin trees are felled now. Japans military machine took the best lumber and the heaviest trees. Thick logs are relatively scarce. The rebuilding depends on the trees, so time is one other factor in the rebuilding of the nation. To assist in its reconstruction, japan must trade with the rest of the world. It needs ships. In the mitsubishi shipyards, formally controlled by the daibutsu shipbuilding goes on , slowly. Steel is scarcer than lumber. Many of the wooden ships are used for fishing, which is one of japans major industries. Whaling, although not one of japans major industries, has been an Emergency Industry during this postwar period of extreme shortage. Japan was given permission to send two fleets of 21 ships into the antarctic. The expedition brought back almost 1000 whales, providing japan with such whale products as protein foods, fats and oils. Certain industries in which japan excels are slowly returning to normal. From the large oyster beds on this pearl farm divers obtain a , product very much desired by the rest of the world. The pearls in these oysters are carefully cultivated. It has taken many years to develop techniques of sorting, grading and polishing. Japan needs raw material. She hopes to get them from other countries by exporting such products as pearls and silk. Silk was japans great prewar export. Mulberry fields supplying the leaves on which silk worms feed have been converted into rice paddies. They have been converted again with the increase in demand for silk. At present there is a shortage of good cocoons. Also the quality of the cocoon is not up to prewar standards. Silk warms are bred to pedigree. Just like good cattle. During the war, silk warms grew poorer in quality because of inbreeding. Today, the average warm produces about 650 yards of usable silk thread against the 1000 yards his ancestors produced in 1940. Japan is trying very hard to attract attention to the products it is manufacturing for export. Trade is improving. Foreign businessmen have been allowed to come to japan in limited numbers for direct trade negotiation. This american businessman signed the first contract. A 62,000 purchase of china ware. The occupation is continuing in a friendly atmosphere. The japanese are becoming less strange to us, and we are being better understood by them. Americans are taking an interest in japanese life. The customs of this country seem very different from our own and worth investigating. During their free time, gis are visiting centuryold religious shrines, and finding out about the religions of the east. In spite of many differences, we have much in common. American entertainment, for example, is very much favored in japan. The average japanese shares this interest with us enthusiastically. He wants to get away from it all just as much as the average american. In previous years he was allowed to purchase seats only in certain sections of the theater. Now, no seats are reserved. The japanese have been interested in baseball. This is in the bigleague stuff that is not the