With Japan, the militarists and the divinity of the Emperor under the Meiji constitution were the primary social structures that needed removing.
Japan post-1947 - throughout the 1950s and 1960s - was not the same as what Japan had became before, be that post-Meiji restoration or that in 1904/05.
The industrial traits may have remained, however with State Shinto gone and the Meiji constitution reshaped the key barriers to change were pulled away.
This allowed the necessary changes change to society including education, introducing democratic principles and a rapid push to remove the old hierarchies.
Without unconditional surrender, would this have occurred? That was the key point.
