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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It’s a mix of successful post-war reconstruction efforts, Japan’s willingness to demilitarize, and the building of strong economic relations between the two nations.
The U.S. needed an ally on the Eastern front given the impending Cold War against the USSR (or even a hot one at that point), and had significant incentive to rebuild Japan. The US wanted to introduce capitalism and democratic policies to help offset the eventual spread of communism by the USSR. It’s much easier to influence the policies of a broken nation than an established government, and the US held all the cards after Japan surrendered, making it a good option. Japan was open to these ideas, and the nations developed economic relations that stand to this day.
Not the best eli5, so to simplify it a bit:
The US needed help against Russia, so they put a lot of effort into getting Japan rebuilt, allowed them to avoid blame (very important in their culture at the time, probably still now, but I can’t speak to that), and basically said “let bygones be bygones we have bigger things to worry about – here, have some capitalism and democracy you will like it.” Japan agreed to become a peaceful nation with the promise that the US would help them out when needed. Turns out this was good for both countries, so over the decades, their relationship continued to improve.
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