Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

by John W. Dower

During this same period, the Bank of Japan turned its energies to extending massive loans to erstwhile war contractors for the ostensible purpose of facilitating conversion to “peaceful” production. The impression one gains from later investigations into these activities is that during the turbulent two weeks following the emperor’s broadcast, a great many men of influence spent most of their waking hours looting military storehouses, arranging hasty payments from the military budget or from the Bank of Japan to contractors and cronies, and destroying documents. In the greatest moment of crisis in Japanese history, it was a rare officer, official, or executive who devoted himself with sincerity and foresight to serving the well-being of the general populace. No wise men or heroes, no commendable statesmen, emerged from among the old elites.