大東亜戦争

The "Greater East Asian War," or dai tôa sensô, is the Japanese term for World War II.

Despite Japan's alliance with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy as part of the so-called "Axis" powers, the Japanese tend to view the war they waged against China, the United States and Great Britain from 1937-1945 as entirely seperate from the European conflict that began in 1939. This allows the Japanese, whensoever they find it convenient, to distinguish between the war of madness and self-aggrandizement waged by Adolf Hitler and their own rational and reasonable war for national survival.

Please employ a large grain of salt.