In 1945 Japan lay flattened and starving, yet within a single generation its economy had climbed to second-largest on Earth, overtaking West Germany by 1968 — barely 23 years after total defeat had left its cities in ash and its people near famine

Instead, 23 years later, its gross national product passed West Germany’s to become the second-largest in the capitalist world. Initial American occupation policy did not commit the United States to rebuilding Japan’s economy. The official directive to MacArthur stated, “You will not assume any responsibility for the economic rehabilitation of Japan or the strengthening of the Japanese economy.” Aid kept people alive, and occupation policy later shifted toward economic recovery, but Washington did not arrive in 1945 with a blueprint for the world’s second-largest capitalist economy. Under MacArthur, Japan carried out sweeping land reform.