Paper short abstract:

This paper will demonstrate in what way interested groups within the Japanese society—political parties, the financial community, labor unions, academic circles or civil societies—fought the war to win hearts and minds of the Japanese people in such a turbulent period.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will present the Cold War in Japan in the 1950s, focusing on conflicts over culture, norm, and ideology. Although Japan restored its independence with a strong connection with the West by the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in 1951, its orientation toward the Free Nations was not necessarily stable: there were considerable people who aspired for neutralization of Japan or held anti-American feelings rooted in the Occupation and unequal security relationship with the United States; Japanese conservatives as well as the U.S. government were concerned about Communist infiltration into Japan's society from inside. Thus both outside powers, namely the United States, the Soviet Union and the Communist China, and the Japanese government developed their Cold War strategies targeting the Japanese, which have been relatively studied in particular in the fields of U.S. diplomatic history. This paper, in contrast, will demonstrate in what way interested groups within the Japanese society—political parties, the financial community, labor unions, academic circles or civil societies—fought the war to win hearts and minds of the Japanese people in such a turbulent period. It is indispensable to argue not only state-society relations but also multi-layered interactions among people or groups of people within the society in order to understand Japanese sense on the Cold War. Through examining psychological warfare by means of propaganda, covert operations, cultural and educational activities and publications conducted by various actors, and mutual interaction among those activities, I will show a new aspect of the cultural Cold War in Japan in the 1950s. This paper will also try to explain the process through which the norms in postwar Japan—liberal democracy, anti-militarism or pacifism—were established throughout the 1950s, going hand-in-hand with the cultural Cold War.