I’ve been doing some writing recently about the difference in post-WWII America and today’s version, with an eye to contrasting the Marshall Plan to our more militant stance today. With that in mind, I point you to Joi Ito’s essay on the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima in the New York Times:

My mother used to talk about the American occupation of our hometown in northern Japan when she was a child. Our house, the largest in the area, was designated to be the Americans’ local headquarters. When the soldiers arrived, my great-grandmother, nearly blind at the time, was head of the household, my grandfather having died during the war.

My great-grandmother and my grandmother faced the occupiers alone, having ordered the children to hide. The Japanese had been warned that the invading barbarians would rape and pillage. My great-grandmother, a battle-scarred early feminist, hissed, “Get your filthy barbarian shoes off of my floor!” The interpreter refused to interpret. The officer in command insisted. Upon hearing the translation from the red-faced interpreter, the officer sat on the floor and removed his boots, instructing his men to do the same. He apologized to my great-grandmother and grandmother.

It was a startling tipping-point experience for them, as the last bit of brainwashing that began with “we won’t lose the war” and ended with “the barbarians will rape and kill you” collapsed.

What perhaps makes this more remarkable is that the Americans themselves had been brainwashed to believe the Japanese were warmongering subhumans, and yet somehow they retained the dignity to offer this courtesy. I have no doubt that many individuals in the military have the same inclination; would that our policies reflected such.