Quote:
Originally Posted by microbet
Occupation is different than colonization. And it shouldn't be cast as anything other than immensely beneficial to West Germany and Japan.
You are correct that occupation and colonization are different things. One can have either without the other. Being a colony does not have to be unbeneficial.
Colonization is an economic relationship. The way to determine the extent of colonization is to look at trade patterns. In the case of Japan, which you raised, there is a good argument that the pattern of Japans' trade 1945-1970 compared to 1905-1930 showed it to to have become a de-facto American colony. There is a similar argument along the same lines WRT West Germany's and East Germany's trade patterns 1945-1970, with West Germany being a joint US/British/French colony and East Germany being a Soviet colony.