that was only none part of a world war of aggression and expansion. I know there are complex motives to all of that, but to pretend this was just an exchange of blows to homelands is very silly. Even if this reductive argument were what we are discussing, forcing the surrender of an enemy that started a war against you is different than a sneak attack to initiate it.

But to your original point, here’s another way to look at it: if the treatment of conquered peoples and POWs during WWII is any indication, the Japanese would have treated us much worse if the roles had been reversed.