The Allied occupation of Japan at the end of World War II was led by Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, with support from the British Commonwealth. Unlike the occupation of Germany, MacArthur offered the Soviet Union little to no influence over Japan.[1] It transformed the country into a democracy that recalled 1930s American "New Deal" politics. The occupation, codenamed Operation Blacklist,[2] was ended by the San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed on September 8, 1951 and effective from April 28, 1952, after which Japan's independence – with the exception, until 1972, of the Ryukyu Islands – was restored.
