For anyone even remotely familiar with the political trends and messaging across Northeast Asia, repeated refrains expressing concern for a re-emergence of Japanese militancy have become a common theme.  These voices are strongest in China, but can be found everywhere, to some degree or another, that Imperial Japanese armies trod during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Yet what lies behind such fears is a more complicated history, one worth examining in order to better understand the social and political dynamics of this prosperous if potentially volatile region.