アメリカ政府による日本近代史の認識
日清・日露戦争〜韓国併合
Wars With China and Russia
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4142.htm
Japanese leaders of the late 19th century regarded the Korean Peninsula as a potential threat to Japan. It was over Korea that Japan became involved in war with the Chinese Empire in 1894-95 and with Russia in 1904-05. The war with China established Japan's domination of Korea, while also giving it the Pescadores Islands and Formosa (now Taiwan). After Japan defeated Russia in 1905, the resulting Treaty of Portsmouth awarded Japan certain rights in Manchuria and in southern Sakhalin, which Russia had received in 1875 in exchange for the Kurile Islands. Both wars gave Japan a free hand in Korea, which it formally annexed in 1910.
朝鮮半島や満州の支配権・利権を巡って中国やロシアと戦い、その結果、朝鮮半島でのフリーハンドを得て、1910年に併合した、という一般的な認識です。
軍国主義の台頭〜満州侵略
During the 1920s, Japan progressed toward a democratic system of government. However, parliamentary government was not rooted deeply enough to withstand the economic and political pressures of the 1930s, during which military leaders became increasingly influential.
Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo. In 1933, Japan resigned from the League of Nations. The Japanese invasion of China in 1937 followed Japan's signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany the previous year and was part of a chain of developments culminating in the Japanese attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4142.htm
1931年の満州事変については明確に「日本による侵略」（Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931）と書いてます。満州国が傀儡国家であったこと（set up the puppet state of Manchukuo）も書いてあります。1937年からの日中戦争にしても「日本の中国侵略」（The Japanese invasion of China in 1937）と明言しています。
まあ、日本近代史としては一般的な理解ですが、日本右翼にとっては認めがたい内容です。
しかし中国や韓国に対しては「反日教育ガー」という人たちは、アメリカに対しては媚び諂って黙っています。寄らば大樹の陰、長い物には巻かれろ、的な「美しい」日本の伝統芸ですね。まあ、事大主義とも言いますが。
