Research American history...the wholesale slaughter of Native Americans is/was nothing new. The Mexican-American war, aka the US invasion of Mexican land, is also commonplace knowledge. We slaughtered our way to expansion. We also went and killed 250,000 in the Phillippines in the name of civilization.
The United States, in the name of creating a trade route through Japan, impressed its military might on it and forced it to open up to the outside world. Japan wished to be left alone, but the United States rode into Japan in the 1800s with gunships, telling them they could basically do what they pleased. After being told to leave the nation of Japan alone, and that sailing gunships into Japanese harbor was unlawful, this was our official statement; Commander Buchanan, "The United States Navy operates under American Law wherever we go."
The Japanese were a peaceful society, but they learned a lesson from us - he with the biggest guns wins. On January 17, 1862, Japan claimed its first island outside of Japan in a defensive act of expansion.
Through Commodore Perry and the United States, Japan learned that the outside world was primarily a place of military threat. China was being sucked dry by Western merchants who actually fought a war in order to stop the supply of opium into their country (the Opium wars), which they lost. The Dutch had conquered Indonesia, the French ruled Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, the British held colonies in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, Burma, and India. Across the pacific, Americans had slaves and Mexicans working their land, they were plundering the spoils of the Mexican invasion, and continuing our campaign of death against Native Americans.
And on November 15, 1884, Germany opened a grand international conference in Berlin to carve up Africa. So who did Japan get the idea of military aggression from? Japan started ressing their women in Western-style dresses, giving their commanders Western-style uniforms, and started embarking on a quest "to bring peace and order to Asia".
As the Japanes estudied the ways of the westerners, they saw that successful nations were rich ones. And it was clear that part of conquering was claiming your enemy was backwards and pagan. They did exactly what the US did. They claimed the Chinese and Korea were heathen unbelievers (an important part of Western military conquering), and they began to grab up land in Korea and China. When Japan invaded China in 1894, the Japanese press called the war a "religious war" fought between " a country that is trying to develop civilization" and a "country that inhibits civilization". Japan won and in 1895, China ceded Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula in southern Manchuria.
But a month later, they recieved a message from Russia telling them to "give the land back to China". Japanese leaders could hardly believe it. They played the imperialism game fair and square. Tokyo appealed to the British and the Americans. Surely they would be on their side after what they had done. But pity for them, the British and the USA told Japan not to rock the boat, not to cause trouble.
Obviously expanding your empire was a white man's game Japan could not play. They called the outrage "the shame of Liaodong", and they decided that to prove their worth to the world, their next target would be a western nation, the USA.
A little history for you.
