Historian andrew gordon says the reaction to japan's victory over the russians runs the gamut from outrage to admiration. In fewer than forty years, he writes, the country had transformed itself from a weak, tottering polity into the pre eminent nation state of asia. But the bill for that transformation had not yet been paid in full.
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.