At the end of World War II, Japan was defeated, its market was fragmented and the Japanese had experienced unthinkable destruction. How in the world did Japan manage to become one of the greatest economic powers on the planet in such a short time?

Japan was an industrialized and literate country, having escaped both Western Colonialization and West-backed Internal strife purely by virtue of Balance of Powers. For the same reason, they had high assabiyya and multiple internal power locii.

India hasn't had either of the latter two since the late 1800s. China only managed to repair their's in the 1950s-60s as the CPC consolidated.

So the basics were already in place.

What remained was funding, which was provided by the Amrikans, because they soon realised that they didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of recouping the USD 700+ million in cash and goods they'd demanded off Tokyo as reparations otherwise, following the War. As the 50s progressed, pouring Amrikan money into the Japanese “unsinkable Aircraft Carrier” also became essential for countering Soviet influence.

That's why so many Japanese movies set in urban settings circa 1970s or 80s seem oddly reminiscent of the Amrikan Golden Age, or as is often remarked today- modern Corporate Japan resembles Mad Max style Amrikan Corporate culture. It's all been adapted, along with the money.

South Korea and China, much as they'd hate to admit it, have used the EXACT same model- only this time, it were the Japanese funding them instead. This is a vital point so many Indian Nationalists and even Dharmic NrXs like myself often forget while discussing late 20th Century economic trends. Power had to come from somewhere; those who don't feed on or are fed by others have to eat themselves, like Stalin's USSR did.

Anyway that's another story.

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Comments

Shrinivas S

The start of the cold war led to relaxed policies, the Korean war led to a huge boom due to the UN (mostly murican) soldiers going on holidays/RnR to Japan. Vietnam war solidified it permanently.

Moreover the twin Oil shocks of the 1970s helped the Japanese consolidation in the US markets esp for automobiles.

Cat

Golden Age Amrika was a dream for the World. But we were saddled with traitors and morons.