The korean war was a war of sorts. It might not have been an official war but there was front line combat involving US and South Korean allies against the North. Not exactly signifying a war but neither is it just a moment.
As for the Japanese success. I think it would be best to review the fact that aside from routine trade. The US never really had any potential interest in Japan before the war, for those at the time it was just a far off place where the people dressed funny. What I'm getting at here is that unlike Japan, we have had previous dealings with middle eastern leaders, some of whom weren't exactly the greatest but we kept them on call. After those that were on top got ousted. Those that did the uprising looked at their allies as enemies. While with Japan, we never really did any of that. This is not to say that cooperation with the allies after the war wasn't a focal point. I'm just making a statement as to why it hasn't exactly been as easy to get countries in the middle east to cooperate as easily.
I doubt we would ever reach a total conflict the likes of which a Third World War would be seen. Atleast any time in the future. Now once the world's major oil reserves start running dry, then we got a problem. Although I could be wrong and tomorrow morning one of the big leaders wakes up and snaps. I hope not.
Even if oil reserves run low and countries do enter conflict, eventually a victor will come about and the loser(s) will either succumb to the rule of the victor or die out. Much like Japan did back in World War 2. They had lost long before we dropped the bomb. They ran out of oil among other things and their war machine stopped dead.
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