I didn't mention any specifics at all in my response to you, so that must have been where the disconnect came.

In the subsequent post titled "Context" (which I assume you read, since it's the only post I made that used that word), I mentioned how I had an improved view of the way nationalism absolutely corrupted Japanese society and culture, and drove seemingly normal people to do fairly outrageous things. But that's not an excuse or a change in characterization of the actions.

As for how modern Japan tip-toes around WW2 history, I think a lot of it has to do with ongoing diplomatic and propaganda battles with communist China, similar to what Japan Coug posted above. I'm not smart enough when it comes to Asian diplomacy to speak all that much about it, but that's my general impression. At any rate, that's an entirely different topic that probably deserves its own thread sometime.