How to write about Japan

[Labster]

A friend is of the opinion that [they are] the first post-apocalyptic
culture on Earth. ...  [they] had never experienced true defeat prior,
was swatted aside in two definitive shows of force..., that left two metropolitan areas destroyed ... Shortly after that, core tenets of [their] culture and religion were systematically dismantled, but they
were not completely rewritten. As a result, the people ... have had
to fill in the blank spots left, as well as figure out how to survive
in the post-war world. They didn't have a slow decline, like the British
Empire, but rather a short and fast removal. ...

I think you just described the birth of the Jewish culture in Babylon.
-- ∇×V