Yumi commented on one of her latest posts, saying that it's true that the U.S. annihilated a major part of their country, dropping atomic bombs, but at the same time, it helped them to rebuild Japan. I believe that was similar to what happened with Germany in the aftermath of WWII. That made me wonder why that wasn’t the case in Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq. The U.S. destroyed all these countries, which didn’t break out a world war.
For instance, they tore down Iraq, claiming it had nuclear weapons, but it didn’t. They claimed they would bring Iraqis and Afghanis freedom and prosperity. Look at Iraq and Afghanistan now! No, they're not as advanced or prosperous as Japan or Germany. There’s no benchmark, actually, to compare based on.
Some would argue that the attempt to rebuild those countries failed because of Islam. Those are Islamic countries, drowned in ignorance, outdated cultures and traditions, and inhabited by narrow-minded Muslim people. I’d wonder what about Haiti and Vietnam? They have nothing to do with Islam, and still, they are far behind Japan and Germany.
Why did the U.S. succeed in rebuilding some countries but not others? I don’t claim I have the answer. This is actually something I’d like to delve into and learn about. I’m sharing my thoughts with you, and if you have recommendations for books and articles on this topic, feel free to add them in the comments.
The only thing I can find in between Japan and Germany is that both were colonizers. They benefited from colonizing other countries and that in some way or another, helped them to make it headway. Before the outbreak of WWII, they weren’t actually poor countries. Their people were educated, also. They had a kind of power and sought more power. It's a fact that Japan and Germany suffered a humiliating defeat and their countries were doomed, but as far as I’m concerned, they didn’t start from scratch.
Prior to WWII and/or WWI, Japan colonized Korea and China among many other Asian territories. Germany took over Namibia and Tanzania and other African colonies. They weren't there to lend a hand, pulling these countries from the dumps. They made sure to keep these countries in the dumps, exploiting their resources and creating more wealth and power for themselves.
And let me pause in Namibia for a while. That was where the first genocide of the 20th century was committed, unsurprisingly, by Germans. Why wasn’t, and still isn’t, this brought up in discussions? Why does no one talk about Namibia and the Herero and Namaqua genocide? Have reparations been paid to victims there as they did to the Holocaust survivors? No one cared? Why? Was it because they were black? I wonder what if the world didn’t stand silent on that horrific genocide and at least, slapped Germany on the wrist! Maybe Germany wouldn’t dare to go further and commit the Holocaust later!
Looking at WWII, and even WWI, almost both sides were colonizers. A conflict between those superpowers led to a world war. Both the Allies and the Axis wanted more and more and didn’t care about the price that the whole world was going to pay for their greed.
Headline image by jannerboy62 on Unsplash
Very interesting! Thank you for posting.
I just learned world history from the Japan side, so it might be wrong. I think Germany wasn't treated well after the WWI. They had to pay huge debts and it suffered citizens. They'd never forgot what their enemy countries did on them. They wanted to revenge. Then, they caused WWII. So, America learned how to treat losers. That's why after the WWII, they treated Japan and Germany well. I think it's much better that losers wouldn't be treated badly and educate to force them to have thoughts like America is great. The next generation won't have the revenge thought.
I think Japan is surrounded by three countries which have atomic bombs, Russia, China and North Korea. Russia took Sakhalin after the WWII, and it's very close to their territory. So, it's easy for them to invade us. For America, the location of Japan was great to watch these areas. This was one of the reasons they helped. For some reason, Japan was a useful country for them.
America is a super religious, still conservative country. They have two major political parties and they are conflicted each other. That means a president from republicans and a president from democrats have totally opposite opinions. For four to eight years, it's possible to keep the same policy, but after the president retires and having a new one, he or she might have totally different policy. That won't help Iraq or Afghanistan so much.
Thanks for reading and commenting, @Bennatan!
Thanks as usual, @Yumi! I agree with you that learning history from one side won't help! We have to "try" to understand the others' perspectives as well! The Republicans and Democrats have been changing all the time. This wasn't a problem to help Japan and Germany rebuild. I think Iraq and Afghanistan cases are more complicated than that.
@Double-Zee While learning history, we sometimes discover nasty things which connect strongly with economy or politics. Probably, the Japan and the German cases connect with those too.