Historian Tadatoshi Fujii has one main worry about today's Japanese: their ignorance of the basic facts about the Imperial armed forces and the nature of the wars they waged.
He fears this prevents a full understanding of how Japan's military affected the lives of both the people where it fought and the Japanese.
"Some younger generation researchers have emerged, taking up the study of the Imperial Japanese armed forces. But they do not understand the most basic thing about Japan's modern armed forces (after the Meiji Restoration) -- conscription. This is really annoying, " Fujii, 70, said in an interview.