in these two countries.  First, they were both devastated by the war and would have to spend a fairly long time rebuilding.  Second, they were both occupied by the militaries of one or more of the powers that defeated them in the war.  Third, they both (at least in the case of West Germany) soon became allies of the powers that defeated them.

The major difference between the two is that Germany was divided as a country while Japan remained whole.  A second important difference is that the US did much more to completely remake the Japanese system of government than it did in Germany.  The US occupation of Japan was run by one person (Douglas MacArthur) who undertook the project of giving Japan a new constitution with provisions like land reform, women's rights, and pacifism that would completely change Japan.  A smaller difference is that the pre-war "leader" of Japan, Emperor Hirohito, was retained as a figurehead so there was some greater continuity (at least on a cosmetic level) than there was in Germany.

I would say that one of the most divergent elements of the aftermath that was seen in Japan and Europe was related to the manner of destruction.  The aftermath seen in Europe had taken time and, to a great extent, once the war was over, the rebuilding was understood as a process that would take time.  No one left unscathed, and all nations understood that reconstruction and rebuilding would be an arduous process.  I think that this was different in Japan.  The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made the aftermath of the war far more gruesome.  The "newness" of nuclear technology applied to war created scenes that no one anticipated nor could be prepared to witness.  The burning of human flesh, the smell of charred human beings, and the overall crater-like destruction of Japan was something that Europe, itself, had not seen.  Indeed, the bombings in Europe and the war landscape was intensely horrific.  Yet, I could not help but feel that what was seen in Japan in the wake of the atomic bomb droppings changed and altered this landscape more than what was present in Europe, which was destroyed through more conventional means.  At the same time, the presence of radioactive waste in the atmosphere and all over Japan due to the bombing made this aftermath uniquely different from what was experienced in Europe.