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I could argue with some of what you have said. all sides had their publications that made fun of the other side.
I have traveled that area of the world specifically looking at the areas where my family died. I've seen the fields of crosses in the PI and even the ones that represent my uncles who died there. I hired a driver to take me for a ride over the route of the march of Bataan.
I've also talked to the Koreans about how they were treated during WWII by the Japanese. I've seen it, I've listened and comprehended the total.
The Japanese murdered somewhere between 6 and 10 million unarmed innocent people during WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_war_atrocities

War is always hell. I've personally been there. The entire purpose of fighting a way is to kill the enemy. Those that tell you anything different are lying to you. The purpose of a war is not to kill civilians or helpless prisoners. The Japanese refused to surrender so they were killed. We did not round up Japanese civilians and kill them but the Japanese did exactly that in many different countries.
I do now know how anyone can make the claim that we treated them badly as compared to the way that they treated every perceived enemy.
There is a word that applies, the word is “present-ism” it is when you look at history through today's glasses. It doesn't work. After seeing what I have seen, listening to the stories from survivors, after reading about the tens of thousands of women who were forced into sex slavery I'm not inclined to feel sorry for any Japanese troops during WWII. Read my tag line. I do wish that those who went before me had their hands on some of the weapons systems I have enjoyed. I wish I had been there to operate a few of them. Soldiers are trained to kill their enemies. This is how one lives through the experience. (don't be too shocked dead people can't kill you) Most of us take it as a point of pride to be very good at our jobs. Maybe Tom Hanks needs to go on a speaking tour to China. There are a few million people over there who have some memories of the war. As to our view of present day terrorists. You can't change them. If you catch them and put them in prison sooner or later they get out and they are still terrorists who want to kill you. Sooner or later you will have to kill them to stop them. This is just a very simple fact. Where the media gets this all messed up is that they try to make everyone we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan out to be terrorists. They aren't. Many of these folks can be defeated and reeducated or turned and payed off. BUT a true terrorist must be killed. That is the only effective way of handling them. The realities of war are never pretty. I have family in the big sand box of war right now. Some of our guys are dieing to give the civilians the benefit of doubt. WAR=DEATH. Nothing anyone can do about it.

Historians like Dower put their research and fact gathering out for anyone to challenge.
Another excellent review of the subject is available in the 2007 book by historian Ronald Spector titled, “In the Ruins of Empire, The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia.”
This tome shows that while the war ended on September 2nd, it more or less continued in Asia and set up China and the USSR to assert what they believed were historic rights and interests, which brought the US and UK to establish order through the policies established by the Allies when Japan surrendered.
You might guess that I have collected a number of histories on the era but by no means consider myself more than an amateur. My reading is buttressed by having lived in Asia 1951-1961. My dad was a Hump pilot in the CBI and had been a pilot for CNAC pre-war.