It is shocking to see that the Japanese government tries hard to cover up what creulty they brought upon the Chinese.
That is what I think is the most confounding about this whole episode. Not only has Germany gone to great lengths to apologize for what they did, but NAZI related things of all sorts are banned in the country. Prefect? No, but getting there. Japan, on the other hand, has completely chosen to ignore and deny by omission its sordid history. I would love to see what the average Japanese high school graduate knows about their actions during WWII.
I have been reading a text for my Pacific War class that details what led to the war with Japan and it basically comes down to a conflict of economic interests. Whereas the US, British, and other European powers attempted to gain a foothold in the Chinese markets, the Japanese began to insert troops to "secure" their interests. The presence grew and grew until there was full scale war (although it was still called an incident.) The rest, of course, is brutal history.