[ReignOfError]

The US did a remarkable thing in changing the Japan from what it was pre-WWII to what it is today.

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.

[ReignOfError]

Oops. I should have given the full name on first reference. That's Gen. Lucius Clay.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

MacArthur was a canny administrator who understood the Japanese mindset and how to treat their culture (and their emperor) with respect. Bush could have learned a thing or two from MacArthur.

As for the Japanese themselves, they can be anal, frustrating, conformist and still make great allies. Maybe it's a generational thing but I can't hate today's Japanese for what their grandparents did.