Like the hand of God reaching down from heaven, the United States, in another illustration, made a present to Japan of “the key to freedom” that unlocked restrictions on speech and expression. As if wielding giant scissors from the sky, America cut the chains that had bound ordinary Japanese and granted them civil liberties. With the arms of a great deity, MacArthur’s headquarters levered the crushing burden of the old zaibatsu—the gigantic financial and industrial oligopolies that dominated the presurrender economy—off the backs of the exploited people.
