I recall that event well. I thought it was rather brave of A-1 to take on a story about the Japanese occupation of China until I started watching it. It avoids all the politics and focuses on a group of spies with super powers whose affiliations with the Japanese military were left somewhat murky. As you say, the most controversial episode could not even be carried on television.
Thanks for reminding me about
Senkou no Night Raid because it illustrates my point exactly even though it's not a satire.
In a famous
classification of political cultures by Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, Japan would fall at the "subject" end of the "subject-participant" dimension. US attitudes are more "participant," while the British lie somewhere in between.