The United States attitude to Empire is the same as the British model. Conquer very few nations wholly, but use its influence to FORCE the sovereign government to do as instructed.
In 1854 the US Navy and Marine Corps, arrived off of Tokyo Bay (Edo) and declared that unless Japan opened up their ports to trade with the United States, the USA would declare war, invade Japan, remove the Emperor and the Shogunate and FORCE Japan to agree to conditions of trade and sovereignty dictated by the USA.
My point is, how is Japan and the USA different?
I think the 1854 expedition is the seeding of Japan's leadership adopting their ill-fated "what we want, we'll take" mentality with expansionism less than a century later. To a degree we wrote their first book with them on how to compromise and get what you need/want.
However, their fanaticism and belief that the only wrong was to disgrace or disobey their living god (the Emperor), their unquestioning devotion to their Emperor and the leaders he deligated roles to and assigned to lead his people - to put it mildly, were wrong (they were definitely selfish, perverse and even barbaric).
The case can be clearly settled with the Japanese and their own word "Kamikaze" and what the word was defined (and changed) in their culture pre-1850 to post-1945 - here's a hint, the US didn't (nor did any other country) influence the Japanese definition of a word within their own language and culture.
If one thinks of that word and has the vision pop into mind of a pilot sacrificing himself in an aircraft for something greater than themselves - then the perverse and barbaric nature of that empire and it's leaders, and the decisions they made, is evident (and this debate is over).
Irony: a series of typhoons that saved their island nation in the 12th century from the fleets of
barbaric Mongolian raiders (thus it's translation into "god/devine-wind") is now used today to underscore the barbaric nature of Imperial Japan and its leaders during the 19th century.
