The world being full of assholes is not justification to become yourself an asshole.
The only thing different between the Western Powers the Japanese sought to defy and the Western Powers that be, was that the Japanese also happened to be Asian.
The Japanese had no different designs for their actions then the Western Powers did, and treated other Asian countries no different. Just because they invented their own version of the "White Mans Burdern" doesn't make it any better.