How reciprocal misperception turned decisions into escalation

The passage rejects describing Japanese or American leaders collectively as psychopaths or sociopaths. Escalation is presented as a reciprocal process in which each government interpreted the other's actions through its own assumptions, then responded in ways that confirmed the first side's suspicions. Because neither side understood the other's reasons, the decision chain moved toward war even though the participants remained capable of choice. States commonly make harsh decisions in the name of their interests, including countries later remembered as comparatively benign. Ordinary human institutions can therefore produce disastrous outcomes without a clinical diagnosis. The same caution applies to individual leaders such as Tōjō, who cannot be responsibly diagnosed here without the relevant expertise or direct examination.