The very fact that the ordinary people were voiceless subjects "educated" by totalitarians, deceived by pervasive propaganda and coerced by a police state, means that they were not exactly the ones who had a "choice." The ordinary people were not primary predators so much as primary victims. You keep telling yourself that, if it comforts you. But it's not true. Japanese soldiers, drawn from the "ordinary people", showed a very high degree of sadism and a lack of common humanity that defies one's imagination. What kind of people could do THIS?
That's Japanese soldiers, with blank faces and dead eyes, driving a bayonet through a Chinese baby.
Baby-killing is a hideous crime.
Whether done by a bomb, abortion or a bayonet.