“日本国憲法(The constitution of Japan)” is the constitution of Japan now.
But, in fact, it was made in 1946 and was begun to use in 1947. Then, how was before 1946?
First time start using the constitution was in 1889.
At that time, the name of constitution was “大日本帝国憲法(Constitution of The Empire of Japan)” and the Meiji Emperor gave it for the people.
But Japan has lost in the WWⅡ, and it approved “Potsdam Declaration” by the Allies such as USA, UK, China and the Soviet Union(present Russia) and so on.
So, Japan had to revise the constitution.
Potsdam Declaration disagreed with “Militarism”, which is the top of country is military, and tried to democratize, made Japan promise to write “Respect for fundamental human rights” in the constitution.
When Japan revise the constitution, there was a lot of discussions between Japan and USA.
At first, “Matsumoto plan” was made as a revising plan of Japan by the minister of state Mr. Matsumoto, but GHQ refused. In fact, the most of contents between Matsumoto plan and Constitution of The Empire of Japan weren’t changed. GHQ thought that Matsumoto plan cannot change Japan.
4 months after, General McArthur, who was General Headquarter of GHQ made “GHQ plan”, and he proposed it for Japan.
Japan side corrected it, and completed editing the constitution of Japan.
Constitution of The Empire of Japan, which was used before present constitution.
But it cannot stop starting war, and was revised as a result. Why?
There is a reason that the existence of the Emperor.
In present constitution, it is written “The sovereignty of the people”, but old constitution wasn’t. There was written in it “The sovereignty of the Emperor”.
Now, Japanese Emperor is “The symbol of Japan”. But old constitution said that “The Emperor is holiness and the people mustn’t trespass on him majesty(天皇は神聖にして侵すべからず)”.
And there weren’t written that “Pacifism” and “Respect for fundamental human rights” in old constitution, either.
このように、大日本帝国憲法は日本国憲法へと大きな変身を遂げ、今のわれわれ国民が主人公である日本という国ができたのです。
