Funny you mention my country. You know, back in the early 20th century, Japan had exactly the same attitude. It saw itself as the beacon of progress tasked wi

Funny you mention my country. You know, back in the early 20th century, Japan had exactly the same attitude. It saw itself as the beacon of progress tasked with leading the rest of Asia out of traditional misery and into the modern civilization. White men's burden, Asian edition. It went on to colonize Korea, to teach us what modern civilization is like, and of course went on to occupy other parts of Asia as well. Somewhere along the way they got overenthusiastic and declared themselves the protector of Asian people against roaring tides of Western colonialism. Well, we all know how that went. And yes, for all the supposedly good things Japan did for us (there are some), the colonial time was shitty days to live in. * And then America took up the mantle, decided to cut Korea in halves, and then propped up a pro-western dictator who went on to murder more than a hundred thousand people... (Well, to be fair, it's not like America picked him because he was murderous: America probably didn't think he would be that bad. But still, it was more shitty days to live in.)