My husband’s dad spent 3 years in the Solomon Islands. He died in 1966. My husband says his dad would be spinning in his grave if he could see how the Japanese are viewed today as our “friends”.
Notice that the countries we spent our blood and treasure on during WWII are now doing better than we are.
There should be a lesson in there somewhere.
The lesson was that our investment in rebuilding them with the newest factory designs paid off, and that Japan and Germany both ended up with what they fought for anyway. Japan has lost some of its gains to Red China, but Germany has kept her place at the head of the European Union.