Industrialization and Modernization doesn't necessarily rely on conquering other territories.
Are you not a Historian? If you read the History of European Industrial Revolution , the American Industrial Revolution-- is linked with Imperialist designs. In fact, it was the colonial empires of Britain, France, Spain and the like that transported goods, resources, that fueled their Industrial base.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries, a single movement would hit the Western World and change the way the world worked forever: Industrial Revolution. Through this socio-economic change, the powers of Western Europe and North America were able to expand their economies exponentially compared to before. No longer did sailing to foreign countries and continents take weeks and require the aid of manpower and sails, rather steam, and other forms of energy later on, would power these vessels. The invention of cars and trains made it possible for one to travel long distances in a fraction of the time it would have taken a decade earlier.
For the Europeans, they now had a means to get spices and other goods from abroad much more efficiently, not to mention quicker. This advancement led to a greater desire by the Western nations to expand their empires to relatively civilized areas outside of Europe, such as China, Africa, and Mexico, in order to gain access to the vast expanse of their natural resources that were now at the feet of the Europeans. China, the great Asian power, supplied an enormous market for sales of European goods, as well as spices. The African continent as a whole offered large quantities of untapped resources. Mexico, last but not least, could offer not only manpower to do hard labor, but also a vast amount of natural resources valuable to the Western industrial nations.
The United States had heralded its Manifest Destiny to control North America , and with that, used new territories incorporated into the Federal Government to fuel the American Industrial Powerhouse. Why, even when the Philippines , Cuba and Puerto Rico were taken during the Spanish American War, the coals in said territories helped to fuel the American industrial machine.
I'm afraid I'm not the one whitewashing or flat our distorting history.
No, it is apparent to me that you are either deliberately keeping one eye closed to European Colonialism in Asia, whilst keeping one open and targeting Japan's industrialization-based imperialism. It seems to me that Japan is of significant prejudice to you. Selective prejudice, i deign to say. Imperialism was a phenomena in that time period, Japan's imperialism was not a unique phenomena.