The common theme among Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, besides friendly relations with the US as GP mentioned, is that they are all within the cultural influence of "Confucianism".
Strong ties with the US is neutral. You can take advantage of it, or not. Egypt is a laggard, Greece is a laggard, Israel and Iceland aren't.
But I think you bolster my point, culture has to do a lot with how a people confront adversity and overcome it.
Both Korea ad Taiwan could have cried about being colonies of Japan whose resources and people were taken with no return. Japan could have succumbed to US defeat and felt sorry for itself too.
> Egypt is a laggard, Greece is a laggard, Israel and Iceland aren't.
To put numbers on it: Egypt is 38th in GDP, Greece 54th, Israel 29th and Iceland 111th. I have a hard time understanding who you call laggards and who aren't.
The impact of strong ties with the US is an opening on the US domestic market and not getting shut down internationally. China's position for instance is clearly impacted by that, regardless of how we morally view the CCP.
Korea ad Taiwan: they cried and asked for reparation from Japan, got some, and also further strong US support in face of the USSR and Chinese influence going in the region.
Japan: the US forgave most of their crimes, reforged their constitution and used it as US base soil to keep an eye on the whole region, while making sure it's economy doesn't end in rubbles and try to bring stronger ties to the neighboring red countries. Hell, Japan is still basically US's small puppy in so many ways (was fun to look at the US meat import ban from sanitary reason getting magically removed as the US threw a stern look at Japan)
