and their treatment of prisoners were one of history's most inhumane.  The Japanese warred with a samurai mindset along with the entitlements that went with that status, and despite Hollywood's glorified portrayal, it was a brutal display of savagery feuled by a xenophobic and superiority complex.  Grandparents had so much anger from their trauma that it migrated with them to these islands. That sentiment still seethes in parts of Asia.  The current oppression of Myanmar's province of Rohingya by the Buddhists majority has direct ties to the Japanese presence there back in WWII.  The Philippines is still waiting on Japan for reparations for their rape and abuse of Filipino women enslaved to be comfort women during the war.  The atrocities were numerous and impacted the civilian population as much as the soldiers and guerillas.  To recognize today after years of denial is more symbolic then substance given that the majority of that generation's Filipino war vets have long passed on.