It was a war. The side your fighting is always the evil ones.
While that is often the claim, such as ISIS claiming the US is "the Great Satan", honest people know the difference between truth and bullshit.
The US was right to protest the "rape of Nanking" and right to worry about Japan's expansion into other nations just as the West was right to protest and fight the expansion of Saddam into Kuwait in 1990. When the US protested Japan's actions and refused to trade with them, Japan attacked us. Once attacked, anyone, be they a nation or an individual, has the right of self-defense.
Japan started the war and we finished it. People can claim both sides were evil or equate Japan's actions with those of the US, but I'll never agree on that part. Japan was truly a fascist, brutal power that needed to be stopped. They attacked and invaded several countries. They would have invaded Australia if we hadn't beaten them at the Battle of the Coral Sea and, later, the Battle of Midway.