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Probably not nuclear, but how do you propose to keep the west out of it?
A topic for another thread, so I concede.
What about the diplomats who died, or escaped death through luck? To the trigger-happy set, diplomacy was just another word for capitulation.
The western colonial powers, in earlier times, mostly didn't do their empire building under the guise of "liberating victims of tyranny", with the notable exception of the US in the Philippines. They acted openly in out-and-out exploitation, but by the middle stretch of the 20th century attitudes were starting to change about the propriety of that approach, and Japan was late to the table in the "Great Empire Race". The low hanging fruit had already been claimed, and any gains for them would be at the expense of other powers. Enter the Japanese warrior culture, as perpetrated by the IJA with its bastardized version of Bushido ethics, its doctrine of racial superiority, and its brutality-conditioned internal structure condoning and even requiring brutal treatment of "inferior", "dishonored", and "craven" conquered peoples. No wonder said peoples weren't very enthusiastic allies. The behavior of the troops on the ground shot the Co-Prosperity Sphere in the foot. And officers who tried to treat their occupied people like future allies got reprimanded by GHQ Tokyo.
Japan got its ass kicked by the USSR in the 1930s. Now, in Spring 1942 Japan's embassy in Moscow will be reporting that a seemingly endless supply of combat troops, fearsome artillery and Katyusha rocket launchers, high performance aircraft and superlative tanks have demonstrably stopped the Germans....arguably the best army in the world. No way Japan is going to voluntarily kick that bees nest, especially as there are no resources to be hand in that direction.
This made me think of Britain's surrender at Singapore. The Japanese didn't leave an escape (anyone who surrenders will be murdered, or enslaved and worked to death), but the British thought there was one, surrender. Had the British known there was no escape they might have fought on.
US public opinion was still too depression shaped and "America first" driven to be bolting stable doors on the far side of the world in 1937. "Let the yellow hordes fight it out themselves."
Historical term or not, Shinpachi San, what happened in Nanjing was no secret at the time. It got plenty of play in the media of the day. My family was in touch with many friends they had left behind in Japan, as well as Nisei and Isei here in the states, and all were appalled and disappointed. I personally feel that many of the executions after the war were misguided and misinformed and based on western misunderstanding of what actually occurred on the ground. Case in point: General Yamashita was executed for atrocities in the Philippines committed by subordinates who violated his specific orders, then framed him and escaped postwar punishment. He was victim of a personal vendetta by Douglas MacArthur because he was in charge of the Philippines which was MacArthur's private fiefdom, and MacArthur feared his influence on the Japanese people in occupied Japan. He suppressed exonerating evidence, conducted a "special trial" and expedited Yamashita's execution.
