The British had engaged in limited war in China less than 100 years before because China had: (1) confiscated close to a billion pounds in today's money of British citizens' property; (2) illegally held British citizens hostage and forced them to sign agreements entitling the Chinese government to summarily execute them without trial if they violated Chinese laws; (3) after the British blockaded the Pearl River in response, the Chinese attacked British warships after those ships attempted to intercept a (non-Chinese) blockade runner.
A British force of less than 15,000 effectives then beat a 200,000 strong Chinese force and China signed a peace treaty giving the British access.
The British reacted to acts of war, fought a limited war, and did not keep conquered territory except for the tiny bits of land that they negotiated by treaty.
By contrast, Japan invaded China after a Japanese army lieutenant - disguised as a Chinese radical - set off a bomb on a Japanese-owned railway in China.
The Japanese then occupied Manchuria, claimed it as a Japanese territory, and set about murdering civilians by the tens of thousands, forcing women into prostitution, and looting any civilian property they could get their hands on.
I agree that the Opium Wars are not as fully examples of evil western aggression as widely believed.
In my remarks to which you replied, I was, however, not referring to China as such. I was referring to the Philippines, East Indies, Malaysia, Indochina, etc. All of which had (mostly) been conquered by European (or American) countries within the previous 50 to 100 years.
I also think you are glossing over the unequal treaties the Chinese were forced to sign with western powers when they were unable to defend themselves.
I have no particular desire to pretty up the appalling Japanese record in WWII. I was pointing out that if one looks simply at imperial expansion as such, the Japanese were doing much as the white nations had done in the previous century, except that they were attacking white people instead of the native states.
If it’s okay for France to conquer IndoChina, it’s difficult for me to see why it’s inherently unacceptable for the Japanese to take it away from the French.
The original conquest of these areas by the colonial powers also included a lot of mostly unrecorded atrocities.