What were the benefits of rebuilding japan and europe after WWII? -

After WWII, what were the benefits of rebuilding Japan and Europe?

Don t really know ask us when they start to pay us back the war reforations they all still owe us from World war one (not Japan they were our ally in the first world war) but hope you get the point. We pay for everyone else but our own people. So there is not point. Someday there will be when enough people get fed up and over-through the government. So there is not point we are the only country to go to war blast another country and pay out of own pockets to rebuilt it.

Benefit was instead of maintaining enemies that would slowly rebuild themselves, we helped rebuild them , establish democratic forms of government, and made allies.

There are still many people who question if there was any benefit. Or if there is any benefit today in how foreign subsidies and moneys get spent inother countries when we have such economic issues here at home. Global Economy, what is it, how was it made, who is or is not part of it? These all play a role. k

The best way to see the advantage is to compare the outcome of WWI with that of WW2. After WW1, the industrial infrastructure of Germany was more or less intact, although the society was in pretty bad shape. But the punitive terms imposed upon Germany in the Treaty of Versailles led to poverty and inflation, and another aggressive war by Germany in about twenty years. After WW2, Germany and Japan were basically destroyed--their industrial bases bombed out of existence, their political systems shattered. It s been more than sixty years now and neither shows any indication of wanting to launch another war, and both have become among the most prosperous countries in the world.

Gosh, my parents didn t tell me anything about the Yanks helping us to rebuild the damage to our country. Most scooted off back home the minuite the war ended and couldn t care less about what happened to the rest of us.

Excepting the first answer, the other two contain elements of the thinking at the time. The fact that reparations after WW1 directly led to the rise of Hitler and hence WW2 was one factor, i.e. no punitive war reparations were assessed after the 2nd WW. Germany and Japan were forbidden to maintain armed forces. But the longer term idea was that rebuilding would afford American influence, leading to democratic governments which would be allies (as mentioned by someone else) AND productive trading partners. Which all did more or less happen.

I believe that by rebuilding our enemies countries after the war, it was a cheap and phony way of establishing relations and gaining financial benefits from those countries down the road. If you look at Germany and Japan now, they are two of the most economically successful nations, and considered to be great allies.

Ok, hmm. Japan is now exporting cars and technology to the USA and American suppliers are losing market share quickly because their products are usually inferior.