~Well no one thought the Germans and Japanese would ever become democratic either.~
Well, German tradition of representative small government dates back to thousand years ago and the Japanese are famous for rationalism and adopting successful models from someone else.
Considering that Germany was not a nation "thousand year ago" I don't know what you mean. It'd probably come as a surprise to all the Kaisers, the princes, and various other petty autocrats that the Germans had a tradition of small government. And as for Japan and rationalism, there wasn't a hint of democracy in their willingness to adopt successful model for their government form anyone else until GEN MacArthur whipped out a new constitution for them to live under at the end of WWII.
I still maintain that the path for democracy in either country was not inevitable and not one most people would have thought likely in 1940.