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Comment by chmod600 | Hacker News Reader

WW2 was ended quickly and our two primary enemies became not just our allies, they also joined us as top-5 economic powerhouses. That's really something to be proud of on many levels.

The bombs were horrific but also seem likely to have contributed to that outcome.

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I think about that quite a lot. It's strange how friendly Japan and Germany are considering how terrible WW2 was.

I still don't really understand how such a large shift could occur in such a small amount of time.

Japan and Germany were two of the best foreign policy outcomes in the history of humanity. They were defeated decisively but not destroyed and they people were not subjugated for any long period of time (except East Germany). They recovered peacefully and their people are free and prosperous.

It's hard to think about for much time without coming to the conclusion that America did some important things right. But it's really out of fashion to say so nowadays.

Not at all, it's entirely ok to say that the USofA did the right thing by post war Germany and Japan while still acknowledging that its work with banana republics, coups in Iran, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq Invasion, Afghanistan, etc. was pretty much a total shit show.

We might also ask whether the false flag(??!!) invasion of the Phillipines was entirely justified, and question the policy approaches that lead to the pre war bunker oil blockading of Japan were the best line to take .. but these are matters for history classes at this point in time.

It's pretty interesting and anomalous. IMO, its a testament to the strength of their cultures and societies. Things like the Marshal Plan helped Europe.

Would be interested to know if there are any books or articles specifically discussing this. Worth asking r/askhistorians

One of my college professors said his mother described the day the American's showed up at the end of WWII. The German soldiers cleared out and word spread that the Americans were coming up the road. There was a sense of hopeless fear and dread. And she eventually could hear them marching down the street and unable to help herself she peeked through the curtains and saw the most sad sack disheveled soldiers walking in the rain. Fear was replaced by disbelief and then anger at having had to go through all that.

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