[s_wilwerding]

Watching all of these shows about WWII on TV lately, as well as the biography on Truman running on PBS last night and tonight, it reminded that, after WWII, we were the only country probably in the history of the world that instead of taking over and looting the people we defeated, we let them run their own governments, elect their own leaders, and run their countries as they saw fit. We also provided aid via the Marshall Plan to all of the defeated territories in Europe, which many consider to be the greatest humanitarian triumph in history.

We did it in Germany partly to shore up Europe against the Russians, but the really interesting one was Japan. Every American hated the Japanese during the war, yet afterwards, we didn't punish them, we didn't loot their country. Instead, we set them up with a democracy and let them run their own show.

I'm proud of my country for plenty of other reasons, but I thought this was a unique one, as I'm not sure anyone else, had they been in the position we were in at the end of WWII (including having the bomb), would have acted as humanely as we did.