In the early 1980s I was stationed at our U.S. Navy Base in Sasebo, Japan — a city that was heavily hit with firebombs toward the end of the war — and is merely a 1.5 hour drive to Nagasaki city where the second bomb was dropped.
I befriended a guy by the name of Benny Toda, a 40ish heavy set guy who was competent and smart, though a misfit in Japanese society. He spent a couple years in America and he worked in his family’s business at a pre-Home Depot era hardware store.
He hated his job and told people what he really thought so he was not well-liked by the Japanese people who expected greater adherence to politeness.
But I struck up a little friendship with Toda-san. And he was a very funny guy. He spoke enough English that I was entertained and learned a lot from him.
When it came to discussing World War II one time, he flat out told me: “If you’re going to conquered by a foreign nation, it’s best to get beat by the Americans!”
I read an excellent book titled: "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of World War II", and I must say, the qualities that made Japan a most formidable and tenacious enemy in wartime were turned in on themselves in a postwar Japan to make them a most formidable and tenacious economic opponent.
In the book, it covered end-to-end just what your friend Toda-san meant when he said: "If you’re going to conquered by a foreign nation, it’s best to get beat by the Americans!"
To me, that reflects on why I love my country so much, and feel such great pain and anger to see it dragged down by its own people...and also, Toda-san's sentiment reflects (in my mind) most favorably on the Japanese themselves.
After such a war, I have always felt as if we were a most generous victor, and have always been impressed that honest Japanese, even if in only guarded and private moments, often seem to recognize that truth.
There was a movie - a comedy - made in the late 1950's based on that idea called 'The Mouse That Roared'. A small country decides to declare war on the US so they can reap the benefits of losing to the US...At the time lots of people thought it was too close to the truth to be funny.