Japanese colonial empire
Japanese colonial empire | |
---|---|
1895–1945 | |
Status | Colonial empire |
Capital | Tokyo City (1895–1943) Tokyo (1943–) |
Common languages | Japanese Local: |
History | |
• Established | 1855 |
• Disestablished | 1945[1] |
Currency |
The territorial conquests of the Empire of Japan in the Western
Including Mainland Japan, colonies, occupied territories, and puppet states, the Empire of Japan at its apex was one of the largest empires in history. The total amount of land under Japanese sovereignty reached 8,510,000 km2 (3,300,000 sq mi) in 1942.[2] By 1943, it accounted for more than 20% of the world's population at the time with 463 million people in its occupied regions and territories.[3][4]
After Japan was defeated by the
The territorial expansion of the Japanese colonial empire was marked by aggression towards other nations, with the Japanese committing numerous atrocities and war crimes, killing millions.[5]
Pre-1895
The first overseas territories that Japan acquired were the islands of its surrounding seas. During the early
Acquisition of colonies
At the start of the twentieth century the rate of population increase in Japan was seen as a potential problem for the Japanese government, and colonial expansion into Korea and Manchuria was seen as a possible solution.[7]
Taiwan
Between 1895 and 1945,
Since Taiwan was Japan's first overseas colony, the central and colonial governments turned their efforts into making the island a "model colony".[8] These resulted in the modernization of the island's economy, infrastructure, industry, public works, and assimilation of its population.
In 1945, after the defeat of the
Korea
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, various Western countries competed for influence, trade, and territory in
In January 1876, Japan employed
Korea was occupied and declared a Japanese protectorate following the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905; it was annexed in 1910 through the annexation treaty. Korea was renamed Chōsen and remained a part of the Empire of Japan for 35 years; from August 22, 1910, until August 15, 1945, upon the surrender of Japan in the Pacific War. The 1905 and 1910 treaties were officially declared "null and void" by both Japan and South Korea in 1965.
South Sakhalin
During the 19th century, Russia and Japan vied for control of
Japanese and Korean migrants to the colony developed the fishing, forestry and mining industries. Taking advantage of the
The Soviet Union invaded and annexed Karafuto at the end of World War II.[14]
South Seas Mandate
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Empire of Japan declared war on the German Empire and quickly seized the possessions of the German colonial empire in the Pacific Ocean (the Northern Mariana Islands, the Caroline Islands and the Marshall Islands) with virtually no resistance. After the end of the war the Treaty of Versailles formally recognized the Japanese occupation of former German colonies in Micronesia north of the equator. A League of Nations mandate put them under the Japanese administration known as the Nan'yō Agency or South Seas Agency (南洋廳, Nan'yō Chō) and the post of Governor of the South Seas Mandate was created.[15]
The main significance of the South Seas Mandate to Japan was its strategic location, which dominated the sea lanes across the Pacific Ocean and provided convenient provisioning locations for ships. During the 1930s, the Imperial Japanese Navy began construction of airfields, fortifications, ports, and other military projects on the South Seas Mandate islands, viewing them as "unsinkable aircraft carriers" with a critical role to play in the defense of the Japanese home islands against potential invasion by the United States. The islands became important staging grounds for Japanese air and naval offensives during the Pacific War but were lost to American military action between 1943 and 1945. The League of Nations mandate was formally revoked by the United Nations on July 18, 1947, according to Security Council Resolution 21, making the United States responsible for administration of the islands under the terms of a United Nations trusteeship agreement which established the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
Manchuria
After emerging victorious against
As a result of Russia's defeat, it also lost influence in
The
During the 1930s the Japanese colonized Manchukuo. With Japanese investment and rich natural resources, the economy of Manchukuo experienced rapid economic growth. Manchukuo's industrial system became one of the most advanced, making it one of the industrial powerhouses in the region.[20] Manchukuo's steel production exceeded Japan's in the late 1930s. The Japanese Army initially sponsored a policy of forced industrialization modeled after the Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union[21] but subsequently private capital was used in a very strongly state-directed economy. There was progress in the area's social systems and many Manchurian cities were modernized. Manchukuo issued banknotes and postal stamps, and several independent banks were founded. The Chinese Eastern Railway was bought from the Soviet Union In 1935. Traditional lands were taken and redistributed to Japanese farmers with local farmers relocated and forced into collective farming units over smaller areas of land.
During this period Manchukuo was used as a base from which to invade China. In the summer of 1939, a border dispute between Manchukuo and the
World War II
Territory | Japanese name | Date | Population est.(1943) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Japan | Naichi (內地) | 1868-1945 | 72,000,000 | Present-day Japan, South Sakhalin, Kuril, and Ryukyu Islands |
Karafuto/South Sakhalin | Karafuto-chō (樺太廳) | 1905-1943 | 406,000 | Ceded by the Russian Empire to Japan |
Korea | Chōsen (朝鮮) | 1910-1945 | 25,500,000 | |
Taiwan | Taiwan (臺灣) | 1895-1945 | 6,586,000 | Ceded by Qing China to Japan |
Mainland China | Shina (支那) | 1931–1945 | 200,000,000 (est.) | Manchukuo 50 million (1940), Rehe, Kwantung Leased Territory, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shandong, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, plus parts of : Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Fujian, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia |
Hong Kong | Honkon (香港) | December 12, 1941 – August 15, 1945 | 1,400,000 | Hong Kong |
East Asia (subtotal) | Higashi ajia (東亞細亞) or Tō-a (東亞) | – | 306,792,000 | |
Vietnam | An'nan (安南) | July 15, 1940 – August 29, 1945 | 22,122,000 | As French Indochina |
Cambodia | Kambojia (カンボジア) | July 15, 1940 – August 29, 1945 | 3,100,000 | As French Indochina, Japanese occupation of Cambodia |
Laos | Raosu (ラオス) | July 15, 1940 – August 29, 1945 | 1,400,000 | As Japanese occupation of Laos
|
Thailand | Tai (泰/タイ) | December 8, 1941 – August 15, 1945 | 16,216,000 | Independent state, but allied with Japan |
Malaysia | Maraya (マラヤ) or Marē (マレー), Kita Boruneo (北ボルネオ) | March 27, 1942 – September 6, 1945 (Malaya), March 29, 1942 – September 9, 1945 (Sarawak, Brunei, Labuan, North Borneo) | 4,938,000 plus 39,000 (Brunei) | As Malaya, British Borneo, Brunei |
Philippines | Firipin (比律賓/フィリピン) or Hitō (比島) | May 8, 1942 – July 5, 1945 | 17,419,000 | Philippines |
Dutch East Indies | Higashi indo (東印度) | January 18, 1942 – October 21, 1945 | 72,146,000 | Dutch East Indies |
Singapore | Shōnan-tō (昭南島) | February 15, 1942 – September 9, 1945 | 795,000 | Singapore |
Burma | Biruma (ビルマ) | 1942–1945 | 16,800,000 | Burma |
East Timor | Higashi chimōru (東チモール) | February 19, 1942 – September 2, 1945 | 450,000 | Portuguese Timor |
Southeast Asia (subtotal) | Tō-nan ajia (東南亞細亞) | – | 155,452,000 | |
New Guinea | Nyūginea (ニューギニア) | December 27, 1941 – September 15, 1945 | 1,400,000 | As Papua and New Guinea |
Guam | Ōmiya Island (大宮島) | January 6, 1942 – October 24, 1945 | from Guam | |
South Seas Mandate | Nan'yō guntō (南洋群島) | 1919–1945 | 129,000 | from German Empire |
Nauru | Nauru (ナウル) | August 26, 1942 – September 13, 1945 | 3,000 | from United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand |
Wake Island, US | Ōtori Island (大鳥島) | December 27, 1941 – September 4, 1945 | nil | USA |
Kiribati | Kiribasu (キリバス) | December 1941 – January 22, 1944 | 28,000 | from Gilbert Islands |
Pacific Islands (subtotal) | – | – | 1,433,000 | |
Total Population | – | – | 463,677,000 |
Disclaimer: Not all areas were considered part of the Empire of Japan, but within its sphere of influence, included separately for demographic purposes. Sources: POPULSTAT Asia[3] Oceania[4]
Other islands occupied by Japan during World War II:
- Andaman Islands (India) – March 29, 1942 – September 9, 1945
- Christmas Island (Australia) – March 1942 – October 1945
- Attu and Kiska (Alaska, United States) – June 3, 1942 – August 15, 1943
Areas attacked but not conquered
- Kohima and Manipur (India)
- Dornod (Khalkhin Gol, Mongolia)
- Midway Atoll (United States)
Raided without immediate intent of occupation
- Air raids
- Pearl Harbor (Hawai'i, United States)
- Colombo and Trincomalee (Sri Lanka)
- Kolkata(India)
- Air raids on Australia, including:
- Broome (Western Australia, Australia)
- Darwin (Northern Territory, Australia)
- Townsville (Queensland, Australia)
- Dutch Harbor (Alaska, United States)
- Lookout Air Raids (Oregon, United States)
- Naval bombardment by submarine
- British Columbia (Canada)
- Santa Barbara (California, United States)
- Fort Stevens (Oregon, United States)
- Newcastle (New South Wales, Australia)
- Gregory (Western Australia, Australia)
- Midget sub attack
- Sydney (New South Wales, Australia)
- Diego Suarez (Madagascar)
Administration
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2010) |
A shortage of Japanese administrators led to the establishment of colonial puppet states and the promotion of indigenous elites in the territories which came under Japanese control in the 1940s.[22]
Economic development
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2012) |
According to Atul Kohli, the David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton, "the Japanese made extensive use of state power for their own economic development and then used the same state power to pry open and transform Korea in a relatively short period of time".[23] Japan was "decisive in altering both the nature of the Korean state and the relationship of this state to various social classes."[24] How the Japanese centralized bureaucratic style of government was transferred to Korea; how they developed Korean human capital by a considerable expansion of education; how the Japanese invested heavily in infrastructure. Kohli's conclusion is that "the highly cohesive and disciplining state that the Japanese helped to construct in colonial Korea turned out to be an efficacious economic actor. The state utilized its bureaucratic capacities to undertake numerous economic tasks: collecting more taxes, building infrastructure, and undertaking production directly. More important, this highly purposive state made increasing production one of its priorities and incorporated property-owning classes into production-oriented alliances".[25] This sprawling bureaucratic state continued post-World War II and after the Korean War. Japan's early colonial industrialisation of Korea also made it easier to rebuild after the Korean War, because there was no need to begin industrialisation ab initio. Examining Korea's policies and achievements in the 1960s and 1970s, Kohli states that during this period the country was firmly heading towards "cohesive-capitalist development, mainly by re-creating an efficacious but brutal state that intervened extensively in the economy".[26] South Korean economic development was not market-driven—rather the "state intervened heavily to promote exports, using both market and non-market tools to achieve its goals".[27]
See also
- List of territories acquired by the Empire of Japan
- Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901)
- Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China (1940–1945)
- Japanese occupation of Indonesia (1942–1945)
- Caroline Islands
- Japanese occupation of Cambodia
- Thailand in World War II
- Greater Germanic Reich
- Italian imperialism under fascism
Footnotes
- ^ a b Peattie 1988, p. 217.
- ISBN 978-1-136-92546-7. Archivedfrom the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
by 1942, this 'Empire' covered about 3,285,000 square miles
- ^ a b http://www.populstat.info/Asia/asia.html Archived 2020-02-23 at the Wayback Machine Populstat ASIA
- ^ a b http://www.populstat.info/Oceania/oceania.html Archived 2020-02-25 at the Wayback Machine Populstat OCEANIA
- ISBN 9781637586884.
- ^ Peattie 1988, p. 224.
- ^ "The Nation, Volume 74". The Nation. Vol. LXXIV. New York: New York Evening Post Company. 1902. p. 187. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
In all the ameliorating conditions every one must rejoice; but when these are coupled with the old-time lack of self-control leading to universal early marriages, a problem is rolling up before which Japanese statesmen are appalled. At the present rate of increase, there will, before the middle of this century, be a hundred million people to provide for. It is this prospect that is leading Japanese statesmen to make such frantic efforts to secure opportunity for colonization. Being practically shut off from going to other foreign countries, and Formosa being already largely occupied, Japan would naturally look to Korea and Manchuria; but of these places, Korea would afford only partial relief, both because of its limited area and of its present population. The northern region of Manchuria, however, is still almost as much in a state of nature as were the prairies of the Mississippi valley when the Indians roamed freely over them.
- ^ Pastreich, Emanuel. "Sovereignty, Wealth, Culture, and Technology: Mainland China and Taiwan Grapple with the Parameters of "Nation-State" in the 21st Century". ResearchGate.
- ^ Chen, C. Peter. "Japan's Surrender". World War II Database. Lava Development, LLC. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-520-21361-6.
- ^ a b A reckless adventure in Taiwan amid Meiji Restoration turmoil, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, Retrieved on July 22, 2007.
- ISBN 978-0-521-23636-2.
- ISBN 978-1-317-61889-8.
- ISBN 978-3-11-081972-4.
- ^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard (1962). Sovereign and Subject. Ponsonby Memorial Society. pp. 346–353.
- ISBN 978-0-521-22357-7
- ISBN 978-0-674-01941-6; Harvard University Press
- ISBN 978-0-520-04557-6
- ISBN 978-0-8122-3912-6.
- ^ Prasenjit Duara. "The New Imperialism and the Post-Colonial Developmental State: Manchukuo in comparative perspective". Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ^ Maiolo, Joseph Cry Havoc How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931-1941, New York: Basic Books, 2010 page 30
- ^
Plowright, John (2007). The causes, course and outcomes of World War Two. Histories and Controversies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 167. éliteswhom the former colonial powers had hitherto systematically kept in lower grade jobs[...]
- ^ Kohli 2004, p. 27.
- ^ Kohli 2004, p. 31.
- ^ Kohli 2004, p. 56.
- ^ Kohli 2004, p. 84.
- ^ Kohli 2004, p. 119.
Bibliography
- " Fallacies in the Allied Nations' Historical Perception as Observed by a British Journalist " by Henry Scott Stokes
- Chen, C. Peter. "Japan's Surrender". World War II Database. Lava Development, LLC.
- Duus, Peter; Hall, John Whitney (1989). The Cambridge History of Japan: The twentieth century, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22357-7
- Duus, Peter (1995). The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910. Berkeley: University of California Press
- Hunter, Janet (1984). Concise dictionary of modern Japanese history, University of California Press: 1984, ISBN 978-0-520-04557-6
- Kohli, Atul (2004). State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery. Cambridge: ISBN 978-0-521-54525-9.
- Maiolo, Joseph (2010). Cry Havoc How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931–1941, New York: Basic Books.
- Myers, Ramon Hawley; Peattie, Mark R. (1984). The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895-1945. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-521-22352-0.
- Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko (1981). Illness and Healing Among the Sakhalin Ainu: A Symbolic Interpretation. CUP Archive. ISBN 978-0-521-23636-2
- Paichadze, Svetlana; Seaton, Philip A. (2015). Voices from the Shifting Russo-Japanese Border: Karafuto / Sakhalin. Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-61889-8
- Pastreich, Emanuel (2003). "Sovereignty, Wealth, Culture, and Technology: Mainland China and Taiwan Grapple with the Parameters of "Nation State" in the 21st Century". Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- Peattie, Mark R. (1988). "Chapter 5 - The Japanese Colonial Empire 1895-1945". The Cambridge History of Japan Vol. 6. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22352-0.
- Peattie, Mark (1992). Nan'Yo: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese in Micronesia, 1885-1945. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1480-0.
- Plowright, John (2007). The causes, course and outcomes of World War Two. Histories and Controversies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-79345-9
- Ponsonby-Fane, Richard (1962). Sovereign and Subject. Ponsonby Memorial Society.
- Spiller, Roger J. (2007) An instinct for war: scenes from the battlefields of history, Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01941-6
- Wurm, Stephen A.; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tryon, Darrell T., ed. (1996). Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas. Trends in Linguistics. Documentation. Volume 13. Walter de Gruyter.
- Yamamuro, Shin·ichi (2006). Manchuria under Japanese domination. Translated by Fogel, Joshua A. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania
- Ziomek, Kirsten L. Lost Histories: Recovering the Lives of Japan's Colonial Peoples (Harvard University Asia Center, 2019) 406 pp. online review