>>17770766 (OP)
Japan judged that aggressive action in China was necessary to resist the inevitable spread of imperial Soviet communism without submitting to western imperialism and they were right.
What sunk them was the Army being forced into an alliance with industry and this leading to divisions in the Japanese deep state.
The army was traditionally allied with the rural “left” and this put pressure on the industrialists and the communists. It stabilized the Japanese state and allowed it to transition to modern industry without reverted to revolution, socialism, or kike capitalism.
However, rural reform wasn’t happening fast enough and the army needed modern weapons. Although, Japan was going in the right direction in both cases.
Ultimately, Japanese national socialist industrialism under a foreign hegemon’s foreign policy provided stability.
It’s too bad. Japan also has leadership issues in its culture. It’s less psychopathic than you think, it’s more a matter of being stagnant and bad at addressing issues openly so it allows a lot of power abuse to go under the radar.
Japanese living in Korea became actually surprised when told the Koreans resented them. They were literally like “wait what did we do?”
That part of their culture was a problem.
Also, Japan was told they would not be permitted to keep their empire during the lead up to WWII which correctly convinced Japan that the US was unwilling to negotiate and war would be inevitable.
