We needed them in the fight against Communism and US leaders did their job in cutting off lingering bitterness for the sake of progress.
Another US success story.
Saw the movie. Liked the first half. The second half devolved into some kind of blurry message...still don't know what it is.
You saw the Japanese version? It is a different movie.
And in Germany, too. MacArthur gets -- and deserves -- full credit for the reconstruction (in every sense) of Japan, but Clay is too often forgotten.
Clay was from Marietta, Georgia, and was raised on stories of Reconstruction. Some historians believe, and I am inclined to degree, that he had a clear and vivid blueprint for how not to run an occupation. The idiocy of the Soviets' Berlin blockade helped his position, and he and his troops went from being oppressors to protectors in the Germans' hearts in a few short years.
In both Germany and Japan, the American leadership learned the lessons of Reconstruction in the South and of the Versailles treaty -- they took punitive actions against leaders, but not the population as a whole, and didn't saddle the new governments with the misdeeds of the old. and they got a much better outcome.