From demilitarization to democratization: Demobilized soldiers between the American occupation and the German and Japanese states, 1945-1955

Abstract

The demilitarization of Germany and Japan constituted one of the most important goals of the Allies during and after the end of the Second World War and caused the abolishment of the German Wehrmacht and the Imperial Japanese Army. This article focuses on the return of demobilized German and Japanese soldiers during the first postwar decade and examines the policies that the American occupation and the German and Japanese administrations implemented with regard to them. It seeks to shed light on how demobilized soldiers, after they had participated in their countries' aggressive and ultimately genocidal wars, found their way back into civilian life and civil society without becoming the subversive force that the Allies had feared they would become. Embodying the contradictions of war and defeat, demobilized soldiers greatly benefited from economic reconstruction and from the Cold War, and contributed to the construction of national postwar identities.