[Huskrrrr]

Considering the numerous “death marches” the Japanese forced on prisoners, the propaganda which caused Japanese civilians to commit suicide rather than face capture and the prolongation of a bloody war I thought MacArthur was extremely gracious with the Emperor and other war criminals.

[Ev Reeman]

Some great war films were made during WWII about Japanese treachery and imperialism.

PURPLE HEART
THE FLYING TIGERS
BATAAN
WING AND A PRAYER
GUADALCANAL DIARY
BLOOD ON THE SUN

[Frantzie]

Why they lost? US Navy. The same Navy who screwed up at Pearl Harbor because FDR was a devious commie rat who held back intel.

We also had a little luck at Midway. Midway was the tipping point of the Pacific War.

[Cheetahcat]

They should be riding horses and living in the 15th century for their actions during world war two.

[twister881]

The Japs are the most racist society on Earth, and they've never apologized sufficiently nor made adequate amends for their war crimes. Jap schoolbooks don't teach their 1930s or WWII atrocities.

Required reading, lest we forget:

[vetvetdoug]

They lost because the Emperor ran out of squinty eyed buck toothed soldiers. Ah so deska!!

[lefty-lie-spy]

Nice post. They lost because they had no chance of winning but thought they had a hand up due to the German propaganda when times were good for them in Europe.

[Wuli]

"With bigger budgets and slicker production values than the stark and repenting post-war movies, these films portray a more romantic view of the fight against the West where Japan is a victim,"

Here is the biggest problem that today's Japanese have if they put too much belief in that particular line of thinking. Much of Asia saw it as a battle against Japan, not "the west".

But, to look at it all with SOME (a little) Japanese perspective, place yourself as a young Japanese looking out at your neighborhood in Asia in 1900. What do you see? You know that China is a giant but you also see she is very weak, with Europeans carving up rights to her best trading ports, at will. You see Britain sits astride the Asian subcontinent (in what becomes India and Pakistan), Afghanistan, Burma, Singapore, Malaysia, and New Zealand in addition to its prime port of Hong Kong. You see the French rule in Indochina. You see the Dutch and Portugese rule over islands that we now call the nation of Indonesia. And even the Americans have their colony in the Philippines. You see an Asia dominated by non-Asians. And, unlike the rest of Asia YOU are modernizing and YOU do not feel weak.

Am I excusing the Japanese for starting WWII? No. But the world, particular the world of Asia was not viewed by the young Japanese of 1900 with the same perspective as it was by "the west" and the Japanese view was not entirely "wrong" in their perspective.

If only the history of Japan and the history of Asia could have found a way to the Asian economic cooperation and development of the last 30 years, in the early decades of the 1900s, and before WWI and WWII. I don't think the European empires were prepared to let them and I don't think the Japanese were resolved to try.