Oh yeah

This is what I was thinking of first.
I remember when I was first learning about the "Age of Imperialism" (like it ever stopped) in school and thinking that it must have been scary at that time because everyone was trying to grab land and take over different countries and even if you didn't want to you almost had to to keep up with everyone else and not get taken over yourself. Now, I am capable of understanding there is the possibility of protecting yourself without being forced to attack others. Maybe Japan's leaders from the late 1800s on did not.
Was World War II the horrible stage in which Westerners made it clear that only they had the "right" to colonize other people, which they continued to (try to) do from then on?
Did Japan not develop its appreciation (?) for its own culture and history until recently, after being defeated in war they had preceded with massive disposal of old culture for a flashy new Western life? Or had it been there since before?

And is there something that Western nations, such as the U.S., fear still in this retention of non-Westernized identity?