Seventy years ago today, Japan’s foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, penned his nation’s unconditional surrender. Thus ended a war that had taken upwards of 80 million lives. But even now, the memory of World War II reverberates. As it should be. After all, those who lived through the war and those who won it — men like my grandfathers Jim Rogan and Harry Kerr — liberated the world from tyranny.

Yet 70 years on, America’s exceptionalism in World War II shouldn’t only be commemorated for the liberty it won. It should also be remembered for the fruits of victory in post-war Germany and Japan: prosperity.

Postwar Germany was destitute, ruined by war, and in despair. As the Soviet Union’s domination grew in Eastern Europe, those hardships increased. But America resisted the Iron Curtain. Between 1948 and 1949, free Berlin was saved from starvation by the courage and resourcefulness of American and British/Commonwealth aircrews.

Read the full article at Opportunity Lives: 70 Years After World War II, American Exceptionalism Illuminated