Beneficiary of a War

A couple of years back, I wrote a blog on why it is difficult to end a war. Why wars start is a much easier question (obviously). We know of wars benefiting the economy of the country going to war. Provided they win, of course!

But what if you were not even a combatant nation and yet reaped the benefits of a war between other nations? Michael Schaller points out such an example in his book, Altered States. Between 1945 and 1950, the US had been unable to get the Japanese economy going. And then the Korean war broke out. Suddenly:
“Toyota received a military order for 1,000 trucks. Within a year it had sold 5,000 vehicles to U.S. forces and boosted monthly production to over 2,000 units. Workers' annual wages doubled.”
Years later, President Kamiya described those orders as “Toyota's salvation” because the company used its profits from the sales and technology transfers to modernize its operations and began passenger car production.

Other Japanese companies benefited too. Like Higashi Nippon Heavy Industries (later part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), which got the orders to repair jeeps and other vehicles used in the Korean war. So too did the Nippon Matai Company which eventually sold 200 million sacks for use as combat sandbags.

Schaller summarizes the overall impact of the Korean war on Japan’s economy:
“At the peak of the Korean conflict, nearly 3,000 Japanese firms held war-related contracts while many others arranged with U.S. companies and the Defense Department to acquire new technology. During the first year of the Korean War, procurements totaled some $329 million, about 40 percent of the value of Japan's total exports in 1950. During 1952, procurement and other forms of military spending reached $800 million. The index of industrial production finally surpassed the pre-World War II level in October 1950, rose to 131 percent in May 1951, and kept climbing. By 1954, Japan earned over $3 billion in defense expenditures, initiating a two-decade period of 10 percent annual growth in the GNP.”

Remember that song by Edwin Starr which goes:
“War, huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing”
I am guessing Japan would disagree.

The world is a complicated place. The morality that feels right for individuals doesn’t necessarily apply to nations. Sad but true.

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarOctober 4, 2018 at 3:29 PM

    I am aware some of the technologies that leaped only because of war. Leave the making of atom and hydrogen bombs - they are directly for war. I am discussing the many issues that go into new technologies.

    One example is that RADAR was growing full swing because it was needed for war planes. Another example is aircrafts themselves. Also, when it stared, rockets were all about hitting enemies. But today it serves civilians and sciences in addition to defense/offense. Last but not the least, message coding is a technology need demanded by the military primarily, but in the end it has much need for civil use.

    Having said that, instead of discussing morality, I would like to say this: just because some technologies leap, we don't have to go to war! Honestly, is "not wanting wars" is some kind of religious morality - could it have something directly humanitarian? I suppose God knows, but mention of God may bring religion into this again! :-)

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