The Japan Times, the only newspaper in Japan meant primarily for a foreign readership, and therefore freer to be bluntly critical of the establishment, has printed a few good articles recently. (It would be a mistake to believe that the news in the JT is reported in the same way, or has the same contents, as news meant for Japanese readers.)

One, which discusses the real results of blind "bushidoism" (like ol' Barcode Fujiwara goes orgasmic over" is When the way of the samurai was pointless self-anniliation. by Philip Brasor.

He discusses a few instances---of which there are many more---of this wonderful disregard of the value of life (which Fujiwara considers beautiful thing) during WW2 and how the government would exaggerate incidents for propaganda purposes.

Another, which would not be a big surprise to find in a normal Japanese newspaper concerns Akira Kimura's theory---based on research and evidence, unlike a lot of the nihonjinron nonsense---that the US obstructed Japan's surrender in WW2 to enable it to use nuclear bombs before the war ended as a way to put the USSR on notice. Kimura is not some sort of "Japan was an innocent victim" nut either, as he acknowledges that Japan was trying to develop a nuclear bomb during the war and would likely have used it had they been successful. (Few I have spoken to know, or believe that fact. I doubt many non-Japanese know it either. I read a book by one of the Japanese scientists involved over 15 years ago, but can no longer find the book in print.) You can read this article at The U.S. obstructed Japan's surrender to test nukes: claim by Michael Hoffman.