Comment by mango7283
5 hours ago
The Americans had to occupy and place both Japan and West Germany under their military rule afterwards to make it stick, that's not a comparison
5 hours ago
The Americans had to occupy and place both Japan and West Germany under their military rule afterwards to make it stick, that's not a comparison
I disagree. After the bombing, the Emperor himself broadcasted a surrender message [0] to the people of Japan. The occupation was also for more lighter than in Germany. Japan had full control of its administration and its government continued to operate. In that context whether we like or not, it very much worked.
0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito_surrender_broadcast
Japanese army officers stormed the emperor's palace and placed him under house arrest in an attempt to prevent him from broadcasting that surrender message. This was after the second bomb, a whole lot of them still had fight left in them.
The American occupation of Japan may have been less punitive than Germany’s, but it was arguably more invasive: Japan’s postwar Constitution was largely drafted by Americans, with minimal Japanese input. By contrast, West Germany’s Basic Law was written by Germans themselves under Allied constraints.