Japanese Colonialism
Essay by review • September 21, 2010 • Essay • 599 Words (3 Pages) • 1,728 Views
It
is interesting to find that only some political
economists emphasize the fact that Japanese colonialism
in Korea played a large part in the development of a
high-growth economy. In both readings we get to see
that Japanese colonialism greatly differed from European
colonialism. In one way, this is because European
colonialism rarely introduced heavy industry into the
economy, or even pushed the economy with such a heavy
hand. As well, Japan left Korea with a relatively high
level of industrialization, not something we commonly
see with European colonialism. In Kohli's article we see
that Japan came into Korea at the very beginning of its
colonial rule and transformed the state, not just when
creating speedy economic growth. I liked this article
in that Kohli took a very systematic approach to writing
it, noting the many steps it took for Korea to
industrialize, as well as noting extensively the extent
to which Japan played a role. Bruce Cumings' article
was different in that it looked more towards Japan,
Taiwan, and Korea. In his article, he not only looks at
Japan as a colonizer, but also an industrializer. I
think that in both of the readings, it is amazing that
each of the countries examined were able to
industrialize so quickly. Northeast Asia industrialized
in only decades, whereas it's taken the rest of the
world centuries to do the same. In response to this, it
is important to note the argument around the state's
role in economic development, what Atul Kohli says is
"the extent to which state intervention was 'market
conforming' versus 'market distorting' or, to use a
related set of concepts, the extent to which the state
'led' rather than 'followed' the market." In each
article we see what factors went into each country's
economic development. It is interesting to note that
Japanese colonial governments were fairly harsh in
ruling its colonies, but despite this, its subjects
continued to work hard and obey. The stronghold Japan
have over Korea was immense. Even wealthy landowners,
the Yangban elite, were controlled by the state, and any
political organizations and national movements that
threatened the authoritarian state were squashed.
Possible the fact that both Korea and Taiwan, as well as
Japan, were fairly small countries amounted for
something when struggling to industrialize late. Kohli
suggests that land area might well be a factor in
successful colonization. This is, he
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