After serving as bulwark for 80 years, Japan's U.S. ties continue to evolve
In August 1945, Japan surrendered in the war following heavy casualties, including from U.S. air raids across the country and the U.S. atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Allied powers considered dividing Japan. But the United States, wary of the potential rise of the Soviet Union, wanted Japan to recover quickly as a capitalist country. Washington used Japan as a base for containing communism during the Cold War.
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