Pardon my English. So, I've heard many things about Japanese post-WWII but mostly mentioned the trials, the US occupation, the political consequences, the economy, and Japanese view about the war. But how was really the Japanese nationalism after the war? Did they still take pride of the Land of the Rising Sun over other nations? And how about other Japanese views on other things, not necessarily about the war? Did their view about traditional values or other old values change assuming their national pride were low after losing the war and it's influencing that?
I'm assuming this particularly after watching a Japanese animated movie set in the 1960 (during the months before 1960 Tokyo Olympics), in which the character said, "It seems that after the war, people are trying to get rid of the old and make way for the new."
Their nationalistic views basically did a complete 180. Where during the Imperial period they were all about Japanese being superior warriors (descended from gods) who were destined to conquer the weaker peoples of the world, after the war they shifted towards taking pride in Japan being the first nation in the world to truly dedicate itself to peace.
Post-war Japanese saw the fact that they were the only country to ever experience atomic bombing as giving them special insight into the horrors of modern warfare and the urgent need for peace in the world. They were able to take the events and make them a reason why they, the Japanese, were the most dedicated to future world peace.
The fact that the new Japanese constitution (written by the US) included an article explicitly forbidding war added to this idea of the new Japan as the first truly peaceful nation. No other nation had such a provision in its constitution, making Japanese able to point to their country as the only one to have literally banned war.
-- Source: Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, John W. Dower