Editorial #2 Japan - Hero or Villain?

In the resolution of The Great War in 1918-19, Japan assumed a role of a League of Nations Crutch as it was more of a supporting role as opposed to a headlining role. It felt, as many nations felt after The Great War, that it had not received the appropriate amounts of compensation and reward from being on the side of the victors.
As new lands and boundaries were carved and as incredibly harsh punishments were dealt out to Germany, Japan continued to resign itself to a supportive role of a newly formed League of Nations. In the end, no country on the side of the victors, apart from America, felt satisfied with the results which have obviously brought new tensions throughout the Eurasian region in recent times.
Since, Japan has aggressively re-vamped her policy on military and imperialism. It seems that this small country has the sincere desire to sit at the “Big Dog” table with other major powers.
It is at this point that Japan’s most recent actions in the last 10 years must be examined. In 1931, Japan kicked away her ties to the League of Nation’s by doing nothing less than launching an aggressive invasion of Manchuria, a province of China. This invasion, obviously, did not have the approval of the League of Nations, but no action was taken. Now, Japan is invading China and committing atrocities to soldiers and citizens alike that are unmentionable in a public newspaper. Yet, people aligned with Japan sing her praises for now being among the new roundtable of dictators and military-driven heads of state. I ask you, my loyal readers, is Japan proving to be a hero or a villain in our world today?