Why does Japan have such a good relationship with the country that humiliated them on a global scale and neutered them...

Why does Japan have such a good relationship with the country that humiliated them on a global scale and neutered them culturally? (USA)

Precisely because of that.

We freed them from their god emperor and taught them how to be salarymen.

they broke it they bought it, and buying and body guarding is what america does for japan now.

What's the alternative?

Because by destroying them and rebuilding them, we've made them more culturally and politically relevant than they'd ever be if they were the guys who conquered the Philippines.

because america eats up a lot of its exports and in the end a lot of things are about money

The US pushed propaganda hard in post-war Japan censoring any criticism while essentially neutering the nation.

The Japanese right was much more comfortable with American suzerainty than Russia and China.

In fact America only punished the most extreme elements of the Japanese right, many found a very comfortable place in the new democratic system

Unlike most countries taken over by other countries America actually left Japan BETTER then when they got into it.

Japan's like an abused girlfriend. The more you manhandle it the more they love you. Considering that it's a country that's imported all of their cultural practices of note, this is no surprise.

well considering teh united states literally put together the postwar democratic system and promised to protect them its no surprise they saw them as an obvious ally, especially with the developing cold war.

and also international relations nowdays are far more shaped by expediency and rational thinking nowdays, at least in comparison ot the past. holding grudges against people simply hasnt tended to work out well for anyone in teh 20th century.

Would it surprise you to know that vietnam and the USA are now on very friendly terms and closely politically allied against china? it sounds crazy but it simply make lots of geopolitical sense than being enemies, especially from the Vietnamese perspective, faced as they are with an ascendant and somewhat imperialist neighbour

Japanese are cucks who bend over and mimic the perceived superpower of each era.

Japan blames its military's foolish ambition for wrecking and embarrassing the country, not the United States. They see the United States' patrimonialism as providing a way out of militarism.

Meant to say paternalism. Patrimonialism is something else.

The communists were worse and on their doorstep in east Asia.
>neutered them culturally
You mean enriched.

because sovereignty is a great ideal when you're safe, but after hundreds of thousands of your people have died as a series of consequences beginning with your own aggression and you're being offered a free restart, especially when there's almost no catch other than simple quid pro quo, you care more about continued survival than "muh freedom."

We rebuilt after.

>but after hundreds of thousands of your people

Try 3 million

>that humiliated them on a global scale and neutered them culturally?

>have like zero input on how the country is run
>keep an armed force whose goal is protecting them against russians than actually policing the populace
>pump money into them and turn them into 3rd biggest economy

They didn't even sentence Hirohito, just made him say he wasn't a god in human form in an rather ambiguous archaic japanese that might as well be construed as "no, I'm not the christian god;^)" The american occupation was one of the most benign occupations in history.

US occupation actually worked. We created a Japanese equivalent of the New Deal and tore down the old aristocracy, improving the lives of most citizens in the process. And even the old elites, bitter though they might have been, liked us because we kept the commies out.

Imperial Japan might have had a traditional government but it was a shit place to live.

Probably because they blame their own retarded government more than the U.S.

If they had not joined Hitler but instead fought for the Allies again, they would've gotten away with everything, Manchuria included.

1932-1945 was a miner interruption in the process going on sense the Meiji Restoration in 1868 of japan adopting Anglo tech and ideas. Even in the 2 years leading up to Pearl Harbor, a lot of the government wanted to be Anglo (US & British) allies, but they also wanted china, and that caused problems. Couple that with Woodrow Willsons reversal to accept the japanese government draft in 1919 to add to the League of Nations carter a universal racial equality clause, made the people of age to be in 1930s japanese cabinet worry the anglos would always treat them as inferior.
But really the war was the exception, not their genreral wish over time