Ronald H. Spector (George Washington University) will speak on the topic:

“After Hiroshima: Allied Military Occupations and the Fate of Japan's Asian Empire, 1945–47”

Most Americans think of World War II as having ended with Japan’s formal surrender in the wake of the two atomic bombs and the Soviet entry into the war. But what about Japan’s vast empire in “Greater East Asia” stretching in a great arc from Manchuria to Burma? At the time of the surrender there were about six million Japanese soldiers and civilians on the mainland of Asia, most of them in territory that had never been touched by Allied military forces. This lecture will deal with the military occupation of these areas by Allied troops immediately after the Japanese surrender. The British, American, Indian, and Australian forces responsible for the occupations confronted diverse problems, demands, and expectations but they shared a common characteristic, one only too familiar to Americans now wrestling with Iraq: they didn’t know anything about the places they were going and they didn’t have enough troops.

The lecture is sponsored by the Society for Military History and the George C. Marshall Foundation.

Presiding: Larry Bland, George C. Marshall Foundation, and Timothy K. Nenninger, Society for Military History

Please note: You do not need to register for the American Historical Association’s annual meeting to attend this lecture. However, if you are interested in attending other events during the 4–day meeting, you can register onsite at the Sheraton Seattle beginning Thursday, January 6, 2005. For more information, please visit the AHA’s web site at http://www.historians.org/annual.