Praying for Democracy: Christianity and Democratization in Occupied Japan, 1945-1952

FAIN: FO-309206-26

Chad Richard Diehl
Unaffiliated Independent Scholar (Charlottesville, VA 22911-3549)

Research and writing leading to a book on the impact of American culture and Christian religion during the Allied occupation of Japan (1945-1952).

My project measures the impact of American culture and ideals, especially that of Christianity, and their integration into social and political reconstruction during the Allied occupation of Japan. I argue that even though American leaders never implemented an official Christianization policy, there was in fact such a program in practice, one that shaped democratization in direct and indirect ways. I focus my study on five groups who shaped the contours of a democratized Japan: American politicians and military personnel; Christian missionaries and Japanese parishes; members of the Civil Censorship Detachment, which included Japanese and Japanese American personnel; Japanese writers, filmmakers, and publishers; and Japanese politicians. Each navigated competing visions of democracy, communism, and Christianity by forging complex and often counterintuitive allegiances, revealing the intentional and subconscious work of social, political, and religious ideologies in shaping a democracy.