- Published: September 30, 2022
- Updated: September 30, 2022
- University / College: Georgetown University
- Level: Doctor of Philosophy
- Language: English
- Downloads: 32
College: Japanese Colonialism as an Anomaly Colonization is and has in most cases been associated with western countriescolonizing other countries (Peattie 6). However, Japan happen to be the only non-Western imperium of recent time to impose its colonial rule to some of its colonies among them Taiwan. Unlike western colonizers, Japanese colonialism is termed as anomaly. This is because; Japanese typically avoided suppressing its colonies and instead initiated a close cultural relationship with them.
Different authors approach the anomaly in Japanese way of taking control of it colonies from different perspectives. Ching focus on the anomaly from the point of view of the struggle Japanese colonies endured in changing their identity to become Japanese, hence the book title “ becoming Japanese.” The book reveals the much tension and challenges involved in the formation and shift of colonial identities (Ching 19). For instance, Japanese colony, Taiwan, expresses multiple forms of national and cultural identifications; Chinese nationalist, Japanese culture, as well as, its own heterogeneous political and cultural practices. Becoming Japanese is a bridge of history and literature that brings out the anomaly in Japanese colonialism.
On the other hand, Peattie focus on Japanese colonialism anomaly in their book, The Japanese Colonial Empire, as the source and evolution of the modern empire. In this book, Japanese colonies such as Korea, Karafuto, and Taiwan are termed as an empire that is governed collectively (Peattie 51). It goes further to illustrate the policies and systems that governed it, as well as, the economic dynamics that encouraged it. According to Peattie, Japanese colonialism in context of modern empire that runs from 1895 to 1945 is by itself an anomaly in colonialism (23).
In conclusion, it is clear that Japanese way of colonizing is different and exceedingly unique in comparison to western colonialism. Either from ching’s way of thinking or Peattie’s, Japanese colonialism is a global phenomenon, hence colonialism anomaly.
Work cited
Ching, Leo. Becoming ” japanese”: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2001. Internet resource
Peattie, Mark. The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895-1945. Princeton, N. J: Princeton Univ. Press, 1984. Print.