Ten years before this broadcast of Youth Wants To Know in 1957, the fate of Japan was unsure. Having weathered two Atomic Bombings, hundreds of air raids, destroying infrastructure and manufacturing – turning once thriving cities into heaps of burning rubble, the outlook wasn’t particularly good. Under U.S. Occupation Japan underwent a series of drastic changes – turning a monarchy into a democracy – it’s entire economy and educational systems being rebuilt. It’s military disarmed and reformed. A changed and reborn society.
But 10 years later, Japan became a close ally with former enemy America and turned devastated cities into thriving centers for electronics and consumer devices – Japan was rapidly becoming the center for revolutionary changes – changes that would influence the world in a short period of time.
In 1957 America was just beginning to realize things were changing rapidly in Japan – we had a lot of questions with regards to the economy, trade and this newly reorganized democratic government.
This episode of Youth Wants To Know – which, for those of you not familiar, was a radio and eventually TV series where the interviewers were High School Civics and Journalism majors. It was based roughly on Meet The Press as a platform to ask pressing questions. Being questioned is Koichiro Asaki, a member of the Japanese government who had recently met with President Eisenhower to discuss the future of trade.
Anyone who thinks these 17 year-old kids were going ask softball questions had another thing coming. These kids were tough and they asked pertinent and probing questions with regards to Japan’s policy of Foreign Trade – it’s relationship with Communist China – it’s future and its exploding population.
It makes for an interesting half-hour and practically no stone is left unturned. Japan was just getting started and the future was full of hope and optimism. There were still the issues of unrest and the influence of the Communist Party – there was also the issue of growing pains, the transformation from Monarchy to Democracy and there was a lot of work left to do. But this panel discussion covers most of those bases.
Here is that half-hour episode, from October 20, 1957 of Youth Wants To Know from NBC Radio, part of their Monitor weekend programming service.
