In the second world war and afterwards, the japanese public knew very little of this stuff. Some of the stuff that they did know and sort of celebrate is a little weird by western standards. For example, there's a famous incident in nanking where two soldiers were having 'a head-chopping contest' But historians suggest it was just a figment of the press's desire to whip up an interesting story which got people reading.
Deep themes run through this show, with allegations of Japanese war crimes and atrocities in China at the start leading to eerily familiar, almost modern questions over how the world should respond. And then Dec 7, 1941 arrives...