Sean, that was well said, and I agree absolutely.
The Japanese empire of the 1930s and early 1940s was quite a different place from the current nation of Japan, inhabited by different people, in a very different world. I don't excuse its many crimes, any more than I excuse past crimes committed by any country, including my own (USA). But beyond satisfying a certain historical curiosity, I don't see the value in raising this issue as some sort of corollary to the Ehime Maru tragedy.