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It was also a different time in geopolitical affairs. Since the advent of the nation-state (and even earlier but less systematically) colonialism was a major party of international political regimes. Japan, being an empire, had its share of foreign occupiers as well as major political upheaval. More importantly, we went into Japan as occupiers. In Iraq we half-assed it. There we were nation building which is fraught with different problems. We likely would have been much better off if we went in specifically to occupy the country, however we didn't have the clout to pull that off. Instead, we went in knowing we were going to have to essentially occupy the country to succeed, but lying to the Iraqi people, the international community, and our own citizens about what it was going to take to accomplish our goals (and even what those goals were).
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"The courts that first rode the warhorse of virtual representation into battle on the res judicata front invested their steed with near-magical properties." ~27 F.3d 751
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