A few weeks back there was a worst colonizers thread in which i was pitching the Dutch and the Belgians, and then someone mentioned the Japanese and i withdrew all consideration for European powers, as awful as they were
For obvious and indefensible reasons i wasn't thinking of them, but the worst
"Awesome. An Asian nation is kicking the European/American colonial powers out of Asia!"
"Oh, they're just taking over the colonies and being somehow even worse."
John Dower's "War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War" lays out the rationale for, and consequences of, their hierarchical view of East Asian societies (they rank *everything*!). It doesn't spare the US either.
