Not at all- I'm pointing out that those are relatively modern military concepts when it's to the degree you're speaking of, and that old empires didn't really do that sort of thing. They came in with force and subdued locals through sheer might, and recon was pretty much limited to just outriders of the main army, just so they didn't get ambushed and could meet the enemy on a decent field of battle. To them, diplomats are things they send to a kingdom somewhere to force them to obey them, not intercountry communications. I'm also not depicting this as a good thing for these empires to do with regards to Japan, merely explaining why they do it- because that's how ancient empires ruled.
The USA is a modern empire de facto, and the US doctrine isn't "we don't know where they are, so we bombed everywhere we aren't", it's
"Bomb everything to hell and let God sort them out" (this is by no means an exhaustive list, but it's a constant thing). If they could actually deal with that mentality and rein it in, it'd be a hell of a lot better.