Tim May wrote:
When we smashed Germany and Japan, those nations didn't burn and loot every major building, store, factory, etc. There may have been several reasons for this. For example, we accepted the formal surrender of both nations, leaving their "management" in place for at least the transition period (more so in Japan than in Germany, for various reasons).
A quick google search seems to show that there *was* looting in both Germany and Japan as those countries collapsed much as you would expect in a power vacuum. In the German case much of the looting and rape in Berlin (of around 100,000 German women) was committed by invading Soviet troops in early May 1945. There was German civilian looting in Frankfurt, at least, and probably everywhere. "Battered in Allied advance on Berlin, Frankfurt, the third largest city in Germany, becomes a city in ruins - German civilians go on an orgy of looting, pillaging freight cards and coal yards" <http://www.footagefinders.com/wwii(2).htm#Mass%20Arny%20maneuvers> As for Japan:- The diversion of military funds and supplies into private hands actually began the day before the emperors broadcast [of surrender] and unfolded in several distinct phases. It was later estimated that approximately 70% of all army and navy stocks in Japan were disbursed in this first frenzy of lootingand this for a force of some 5 million men at home, over 3 million overseas. further He clears up the mystery, once and for all, about what happened to the untold billions of dollars worth of war materiel, supplies, and goods that vanished immediately after the surrender; it was stolen by Japanese men of position and privilege, as Dower calls them, with the help of Japanese authorities. http://www.jetro.org/inside/io9910.html -- Steve