eli5: How Did Japan and America Go From Enemies to Allies So Quickly?

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I’m trying to wrap my head around how the USA and Japan shifted from being fierce enemies during World War II to becoming close allies in just a few decades. It seems like a huge turnaround in international relations from an American perspective. What happened and why this dramatic change?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It also needs to be mentioned that the US and Japan were not traditional enemies.  

Yes, the Pacific War was awful, but it was more ‘wrong place, wrong time’ than a desire to exterminate each other after a long history of conflict. 

After the conflict, they had no historic reasons to hate so the relationship was much easier to build. 

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