In the late nineteenth centuris of bicycles, bacilli and spheres of influence. The japanese extra traditional culture gets to have all thi stuff happen in like ten years. We're modernizing now, and we're doing it quickly for our own sake.
The Asia-Pacific War of 1937-1945 has deep roots. It also involves a Japanese society that's been called one of the most distinctive on Earth. If there were a Japanese version of Captain America, this would be his origin story.