Zen in War

The first casualty in any armed conflict is the truth, so in my book I have tried to avoid branding like aggressor, war criminal, savage, fanatic, fascistic, militaristic and imperialistic. I have tried to understand how and why a historically relatively peaceful (having not been at war for almost 300 years since 1603), progressive Japan, with no allies, (Germany actually being the ally of nationalist China,) ended up in one of history's bloodiest conflicts with such overwhelming, superior combined adversaries as USA, UK, Canada, Australia and China, later additionally the USSR.

Nevertheless it is now a matter of historical record that once the conflict between Japan and China escalated into a full fledged, total war with the USA and UK, the Japanese did not pull their punches and displayed a modern naval/aerial military excellence that forever put the western-christian superiority legend to rest. This later inspired other Asian and African nations to armed resistance against all forms of colonialism and foreign domination.