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Comparative Insights: Marshall Plan, Japan, and Iraq

John W. Dower Charles S. Maier: March 7, 2005; Running Time: 1:56:56

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

John Dower sees a world of difference between a shattered Japan that accepted U.S. occupation, and fractious Iraq, which continues to buck under American leadership. The U.S. did succeed in Japan, in ways that seem improbable in Iraq. For instance, an intact Japanese government surrendered unconditionally to America, lending legitimacy to the occupiers. The Japanese had suffered war since 1937, and were “liberated from death.” Going in, says Dower, the U.S. clearly explained its goals of demilitarization and democratization, and changed national laws within two years. Plus, there was no appearance or reality of profiteering by Americans. The Japanese were expected to pick themselves up by their bootstraps. Human resources once directed against the enemy were redirected toward industrial and commercial ends, such that “Japan emerges as a sophisticated country technologically and technocratically.”

Charles Maier describes how the Marshall Plan arose as a way of dealing with the threat of Communism in Western Europe: “It was a battle for the hearts, minds and votes of the European working class.” With America’s peace dividend, the Marshall Plan helped 16 countries emerge from war debt, and rebuild their economies. “We did no carpet bagging in the Marshall Plan,” says Maier. “There was no Bechtel or Halliburton.” The notion was that “healthy economies will resist Communism.” Unlike contemporary Iraq, Europe did not suffer from religious or cultural divisions, but from class and party conflict. There was also little energy left for “polarizing violence.” Says Maier, “Prosperity has its virtues and can dissolve a lot.” He’s not sure whether Iraq, or an entire Middle East made prosperous, can smooth over “age-old hatreds.”

Lecture Details

Location: 3-270

“(About the U.S. occupation of Japan)
You don’t find too much in history that gives hope, but the fact that two peoples who had been ferociously and viciously killing each other and with enormous hatred and with racial dimensions – and when the war was over, worked and lived together was stunning! It says a lot about indoctrination.”

John W. Dower

About the Speakers

John W. Dower

Ford International Professor of History, MIT

John Dower's interests lie in modern Japanese history and US-Japan relations. His publications have received numerous awards. His most recent book, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (1999), won numerous honors, including the Pulitzer Prize in Letters for General Nonfiction, National Book Award in Nonfiction, Bancroft Prize in American History, John K. Fairbank Prize in Asian History, Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History, Mark Lynton History Prize, and L. L. Winship/PEN New England Prize. Other books include Empire and Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese Experience (1979); War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War, (1986); and collected essays under the title Japan in War and Peace (1994). Dower was also the executive producer of a documentary film entitled Hellfire -- A Journey from Hiroshima, which was nominated in 1988 for an Academy Award.

Dower received his Ph.D. in 1972 in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University.

Charles S. Maier

Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University

Charles Maier also served as the Director of Harvard's Center for European Studies from 1994 to 2001. He is currently at work on two main projects, a history of the world in the 20th century, and a book on the subject of America’s place in the world, entitled Among Empires: American Ascendency and Its Predecessors. His many academic interests include the question of territoriality as a factor in 20th century history, political trials, the two World Wars and their aftermath, modern social and economic history, and world history especially since 1945. Among his many publications are Recasting Bourgeois Europe: Stabilization in France, Germany and Italy in the Decade after World War I (Princeton University Press, 1975), and The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity (Harvard University Press, 1988).

About the Host

About the Host

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) is a department within the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT. It is comprised of four specialization areas (also referred to as Program Groups): City Design and Development; Environmental Policy and Planning; Housing, Community and Economic Development; and the International Development Group. There are also three cross-cutting areas of study: Transportation Planning and Policy, Urban Information Systems (UIS), and Regional Planning.