And your friend was sent there by Earl Warren, later to be the most liberal Supreme Court Justice we have ever experienced.  

HE eventually felt guilty; I never will because I have a 2nd cousin on the USS Arizona.  

 Too many liberals ignore too many atrocities against us and then demand political 'guilt' only for American misdeeds.

A  couple of years ago, our local National Guard Battalion went to Japan and trained with their military.  During WWII, that very unit was called part of the "Butchers or Biak" because of their reaction when they discovered that the Japanese were eating their American dead.  (The Japanese logistics system had failed and they were starving.) 

That is a positive change and requires no breast beating mea culpas by Americans.