What led to Imperial Japan's transformation from a WW2 threat to a ally of the United States and a democratic government in the post-WW2 period of Japan?

by philliplennon

I became curious after watching this video from AltHistoryHub on a "what if" theory on if Japan was invaded during WW2 in which the code-name for it was Operation: Downfall.

The narrator mentions "And if there was one thing the Communists didn't like, it was a religiously divine autocratic leader" meaning the Emperor of Japan.

Why is that?

What also drew me to this is the comparisons one can make between Avatar characters Fire Lord Oazi and ironically, his only son, Fire Lord Zuko.

As leaders, one led The Fire Nation as a warmongering dictatorial tyrant and the other led his nation though a period of re-birth and re-growth with the help of The Avatar eventually turning & leading his nation into a new era of peace as shown in the sequel series with the concept of Republic City.

towedcart

Modern Japan had already started democracy before world war 2. National Diet was founded in 1890 and the universal suffrage only for male was enforced in 1928. Two parties construct Cabinets and social democrats also won the seat in the 1930's. Even though the democracy in Japan was incomplete and suspended by war, but there was certainly potentials. When occupation force purged militarism, the Japanese democratic tradition revived and started progress again.