I think you and I are pretty much on the same page on this. My guess is the Japanese (in the lump) are every bit as ethnocentric now as they were during WWII. I don't think you can turn away from eons of programming in just a generation or two. I also think that in combatant relations, the Japanese in WWII were about as evil as you can get.
I can say after years of sea stories that there is al least one American that hated the Japanese as much as they hated him. I simply don't think it would cause him to torture a Japanese soldier for fun.
I agree. I think it boils down to a difference in culture. Thanks for the post.