I was discussing the far-reaching effects of WW2 the other day, and my friend said something about how differently Germany and Japan were treated by the victorious Allies at the end of the War. I immediately assumed they meant the building up of Japan's economy, and replied "Well, they needed Japan strong to fight Communism." My friend replied that Japan was actually treated far worse!
Is this true? I was under the impression that, as I said, Japan was built up as a puppet for use against Communism in SE Asia. Of course West Germany was built up for a similar purpose in Europe. But Germany's entire system of government was dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up. I realise it's a superficial measure, but Japan got to keep their Emperor.
Who had it worse?
But Germany's entire system of government was dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up.
No, not really, West Germany went back to the pre-war system of a parliamentary government as under Wiemar Germany, with all of the parties, mostly renamed, coming back to power. Christian and Catholic center parties, Socialist and even communist parties came back to power. The only exception of course was the Nazi or any Fascist party. East Germany is a different story of course.
You might find the story of Konrad Adler, the first Chancellor of West Germany interesting.
As to which country was treated worse? I'd have to go with Germany as it was split into two different nations.
Germany got it worse, as it lost its lands east of the Oder and Neisse River line. In other words, Germany lost about 25% of its territory and Germans were expelled from those lands. These lost lands had been German for over five centuries.
Japan retained its four main and adjacent islands. Japan essentially lost no lands of the Japanese core territory.