（下村修の持論）
「経済成長の目的は単に数字を追い求めてることではない。貧乏と失業の問題、そういう大きな重圧があるために、間違って大きな戦争に駆り立てられるような気持ちにみんながなってしまった。成長によって解決される、解消される問題がいくらでもある。」
その頃の日本経済は、連合国軍最高司令官ダグラス・マッカーサーの占領政策により、瀕死の状態に追い詰められていた。
*占領政策
１. 軍需産業の解体
２. 財閥/大企業の解体
(Shimomura’s Theory)
“The aim of economic growth is not just pursuing its figures. Due to the heavy pressure spurred by poverty and unemployment, people came to consider fighting the war in order to overcome hardship. Economic growth will be able to resolve as many issues as we want.”
Back then (When Japan was under the occupation of the U.S), Japan’s economy was dying due to an occupation policy implemented by the General Commander of the Allied Forces, Douglas MacArthur.
*Douglas MacArthur (1880 – 1964) was an American five-star general and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the US Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during WW2.
The Occupation Policy
１. 軍需産業の解体
最大の産業だったが粉々に破壊される。
1. The disbandment of the munitions industry
The munitions were Japan’s largest industry in those days. Therefore, even women were required to work in munitions factories during the war.
Photo: Mainichi Newspapers Company
２. 財閥/大企業の解体
表向き経済の民主化実現のため、財閥のみならずあらゆる大企業の解体の準備を進めていた。
→工業生産は戦前の４割にまで落ち込む
２. The disbandment of *‘Zaibatsu’ and big enterprises
The photo is “Seizure of the Zaibatsu families’ assets, 1946” “Showa History Vol.13: Ruins and Lack” published by Mainichi Newspapers Company.
Due to the disbandment, it resulted in a 60% decline in the industrial production.
* ’Zaibatsu’: Multilateral management form conservatively united within one’s capitalistic family, which was the managerial form developed in Japan before WW2
闇市での発見
A black market just after the war was lost/ Photo: Shinjuku Nakamuraya
この容赦ない占領政策に対し「待った」をかける人物がアメリカ本国に現れる。
アメリカ陸軍次官ウィリアム・ドレイパー（ウォール街の投資銀行の経営者の出身）
「私は現状を把握するために日本に行く必要が出てきました。やるべき仕事ができたのです。」
関心事は日本の民主化よりビジネスだった。アメリカの投資銀行や大企業は戦前、日本に巨額の投資を行っていた。
鉄道や電力などのインフラ建設や、関東大震災の復興資金。その額５億ドル。現在の価値で８０億ドル。
However, one American man trying to stop this merciless policy showed up in the U.S.
The Undersecretary of War, William Henry Draper Jr.
‘I need to know the status quo in Japan.’
Draper used to be the CEO of an investment bank on Wall Street and his interest in Japan was not democratization but business.
Before WW2, American investment banks and big companies invested tons of money in Japan’s building of infrastructures like railroads and electric power, and in the restoration of the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923).
Its amount was $500 million (the current value of this = $8 billion)
