I read a history about the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s, and there was an elaborate ritual for Japanese officers and young soldiers. You'd have the officers lay out the best teatime dishes and china, little dainty silver spoons, and then a Geisha would come in and daintily squat over a cup in the middle. Then they'd all partake. The officers would describe the various aromas and foods, and the young officers would wretch.
The whole point, of course, was that if you could aestheticize this and make it into a high-culture ritual, you were certainly capable of conducting yourself in many other contexts without losing your lunch. And that's a good ritual with which to kick off the Rape of Nanking. Not that this is what it's about with Rex and others, butt here's a long history of this stuff.