*Sfdebris.net

Maybe we could say the discovery of the Sakuradite is what made the Japanese move away from old-school military imperialism and instead become more...economically manipulative? According to the Code Geass wikia, this is more or less was happened, with Japan selling sakuradite to conflicting faction...

On the topic of Japan and the downplaying their history: If the USA was never formed in this show, and thus Commodore Perry never forced Japan to open up economically at cannonpoint, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that Japan would still have been isolationist and thus not imperialistic before b...