>> the USA treated it with much more respect ... the looming threat of communism from Russia and China played an important role in US's post-war policy in Japa

>> the USA treated it with much more respect ... the looming threat of communism from Russia and China played an important role in US's post-war policy in Japan and Japan's immediate post war recovery. While Japan was allowed to stay united as one, the Korean peninsula was divided, though the territory was never part of the WW2 theater. The Korean civil war led by the communist North likewise boosted Japan's quick recovery.