The highest purpose for Americans fighting in World War II having been for the dignity of people, the dignity of the Japanese was to be considered as much as any other people. Too bad the victors of World War I did not leave the defeated Germans with more dignity. I am sorry that the United States saw fit to hang Tojo and Yamashita. I am sorry that some victors gloat and some victors lust for revenge and blood. In the year 2000 I favor punishing war criminals.
War criminals exist, but it is a label that can be applied too widely.
I found Bix's book a good read. Bix is an well established scholar, currently a professor in the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. His book is endorsed by able people such as Andrew Gordon of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Chalmers Johnson. It covers Japan from 1901 into the 1990s.