Only after the Americans arrived did the Japanese learn that they would be required to pay a major portion of the costs of housing and supporting the gigantic army of occupation. As it turned out, these latter expenditures amounted to a staggering one-third of the regular budget at the beginning of the occupation. Nor was this a one-time burden. Although outlays directly supporting the American presence declined as a percentage of the annual budget, they remained one of the government’s single largest expenditures in the years that followed. As a budget line, they were euphemistically
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