"Nobody could conceivably claim the same after WWII. And nobody has."
Beg to differ. There are a lot of Japanse who maintain that the Emperor merely called a temporary halt to hostilities so that Japan could recover for its next try.
One of those was former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who was said to be so tight with Ronaldus Magnus. He wore funeral garb every day for ten years after the war ended, and has never admitted that Japan was defeated. The problem, according to him, was that the people failed to support the Emperor with adequate fanaticism.
My post was referring specifically to Germany, not Japan.
However, I propose that even in Japan such claims have little credibility.
Anybody can claim anything. Such claims only become important on a society-wide scale when enough people believe and act on them.
This happened, with disastrous results, in Germany after WWI. It has not happened, in either Germany or Japan, since WWII. I contend this is precisely because those countries were so thoroughly defeated and destroyed.
That's interesting. What's your source for that?