The Power of Constructive Work

observer called a humiliating surrender (Time, April 13, 1987, p. 15). At that moment, Japan chose realism. On August 14, 1945, Emperor Hirohito, the ruler of Japan at the time, delivered a radio broadcast to the nation. He said: We must bear the unbearable and endure the unendurable in order to pave the way for peace for all future generations. (The New York Times, August 15, 1945) In line with this decision, Japan signed the surrender documents on September 2, 1945, accepting America’s dominance. For Japan, this was no ordinary decision. Until then, the nation had been driven by a sense of superiority. Now it had to stand on the ground of realism. Until then, it had lived with anti-foreign emotions; now it had to turn inward, practicing self-reflection to discover the secret of life. Japan’s condition at the time was grim. Its industries lay in ruins. The “war criminal” General MacArthur was imposed on the country. Besides losing Korea, Burma, Singapore, Taiwan, and other occupied territories, Japan also lost parts of its own land, such as Karafuto Island and Okinawa. In 1946, the “MacArthur Constitution” was enforced, designed to keep a defeated nation completely under foreign control. All this was truly “enduring the unendurable.” Many