Novice Imperialist: Occupation Policies in Korea and Manchuria

Abstract

The Japanese empire before its utter collapse in 1945 was momentarily to cover much of East and Southeast Asia and extend deep into the Pacific. Its true origins, however, began with the Sino-Japanese war and the acquisition of Taiwan in 1895. During the war, Japan also took overriding political and military control of Korea and the occupied regions of Manchuria. It was these three territories, Taiwan, Korea and southern Manchuria, which were subsequently to develop longest under Japanese colonialism. Despite the relative brevity of Japan’s formal empire, roughly contemporary with that of the US, it continues to determine attitudes towards Japan throughout its region: these attitudes range from benevolent memories in Taiwan to undiluted hostility among the majority of Koreans. Recognising this lingering impact, one historiographical trend in Japan in the 1990s is to reinterpret the country’s modern history through its colonial relations. In so doing, one fact is inescapable; Japan was an anomaly among the late nineteenth-century imperial powers.