The term imperialism refers to an action that involves a specific government, or an empire tries to encompass its supremacy by the acquisition of territories. It may also include other means of exploitation to acquire more areas. The Japanese arose from self-imposed non-violent isolation to a colonizing government. This form of separation had lasted for many years. Later on, the Japan leaders passed a policy of aggressive border expansion. It had known the art of colonization from European countries like Britain, Germany, Italy, and France. The western nations established the settlement in African countries(Mangan et al., Japanese Imperialism:p. 9). Hence, it motivated Japan to adopt the same criteria of colonization to extend its boundaries to the border of the surrounding nations which was the only solution could have helped Japan to solve of the problems that it had encountered. In this essay, am going to discuss some of the factors that facilitated Japan to establish imperialism, the effects of Japan imperialism and Japan government after post World War II.
First, Japan had a good number of private firms which dealt with industrial sector and banking. The private companies and industries made Japan to produce more regarding profits. Japan had gone for industrial revolution for many years, and this implies that it had gained more from such sectors. So it had to apply imperialism to secure space for her investments. The various markets that it had were not enough for their investments. Hence they had to look ways where to investments for their products from their industries.
Second, Japan had the desire to obtain capitals from the colonised state. This implies that the key objective to why Japan conquered in China was merely to upturn the investment in various savings in China (Morrell: p.34). In these periods, Japan had incurred a lot of wealthy during the persistent wars with other countries like China and Russia. During the war, Japan had borrowed a lot of money to cater for the war from the United States of America. This forced her to demand cash to expand her industrialization. The continuous borrowing of cash Japan experienced a significant amount of debts. To meet the expenses that it had borrowed, Japan was forced to colonize other countries like China to offset her deficits.
Third, the issue of nationalism made Japan to be motivated in extending her territories like China. It had a great concern for the security of the country, the culture and the political philosophy to her emulation of other European countries in taking the territory of other nations. This was highly motivated her to conquer other areas.
Fourth, the Japanese government had a goodwill, with that the party of China that signaled the issue of trade between the two countries. However, the good will never be succeeded for an extended period because Japan developed a desire to be economically known and her mighty army. This motivated her to establish a passion for wanting to acquire territory within Asia. The problem with China started when the military of Japan organized an expedition to Taiwan. Also, the team was extended to Okinawa and the state (Kubota: p.6). Both China and Japan had an intention of controlling kola. When Japanese captured Korea, made China remain unhappy, due to this interests both Japan and China started a war, the Japanese army defeated the Chinese within a short period. It resulted to japan army who proceeded to occupy the cities of chines and hence took its territory.
Through imperialism Japan got new markets, labor force and the source of raw materials for their industries, also, it facilitated cheap and easy to understand raw materials to Japan government. More labor played a significant role in sectors for Japan to imperialize other countries. The effort put in by Japan to colonize China resulted in the improvement of education and sanitation to the state of China. The products that were manufactured by the Japanese in China were sold globally, hence made China richer which made China expand economically.
However, the Japan imperialism affected negatively to the colonies. For example countries like China lost it power and authority to Japan. Secondly, the natives of China were subjected to hard labor to Japan’s industries, and finally, the colonies were subjected to oppressive taxation policies. The resident had no role in the government which was pat
In the post-world war, II Japan established itself as a global economic and political power. Economically Japan used different institutions like Ministry of international Trade an industry that promoted Japan in its development globally while restricting the foreign business companies around the country(Morrell: p.45). Since the practices were accepted by America, hence prepared Japan‘s economy toward elevating exponentially in the time of cold war. By the year 1981, many Japanese goods and services, for example, the electronics were allowed to be exported all over the world. The section of industries increased and became the second largest globally. The progress pattern continued up to 1990s onwards.
In politics, Japan’s Allied occupation ended in the year 1952, when it signed the treaty of Francisco. According to the terms of the agreement, Japan regained its power, but most of the possessions before World War II lost control over some small areas ta was finally under the League of Nations. The treaty guaranteed japan a freedom to involve itself I international defense’s bloc(Mangan et al., Japanese Imperialism 6) . The United States of America president and the prime minister of Japan signed an agreement which gave opportunity the United States defense forces to continue their use of bases in Japan. The Japan government restored its full control sovereignty, it rehabilitated 70000 people who had been eliminated, and a lot of people went back to their own countries.
In foreign relations, Japan also became to be known as the central position in the world economy; it had a significant effect on global policies because of its post-war periods. By 1950s Japan had re-established mainly different relations to any numbers of countries where Japan had the very critical role. For example, it joined the United Nations in the year 1956. It also made a relation to its former enemy Germany, which created a new basis in1955 that were majorly focused on the exchange of economy. Japan established the relationship with China after the Second World War II. The relations were kept with the nationalist government during the exile to Taiwan, the policy that made the hostility between Japan and China.
Regarding culture, Japan continued to experience the western culture, even after the post-war error. It due to American soldiers who common became widely popular in Japan (Morrell: p.45). The American music became favorites, and the Japanese artist was influenced and built on both European and Japanese inspirations. Through this age, the Japanese started to arise as the exporter of the values where the early individuals stated to watch the monster movie, cartoons and majority of the Japanese’s authors began to develop such as Kawabata.
In conclusion, the Japan’s imperialism was motivated by both political and economic factors. Its primary concern was for national security and the emulation of western countries in their imperialist expansion. The colonialism brought both negative and positive effects to both colony and the colonized states. But Japan came to its realization and stopped imperialism and embarked on its activities.
Work cited
Kubota, Ryuko. “Globalization and Language Education in Japan.” Second and Foreign Language Education, Springer, 2017, pp. 287–299.
Mangan, J. A., et al. Japanese Imperialism: Politics and Sport in East Asia: Rejection, Resentment, Revanchism. Springer, 2017.
Morrell, Sascha. “Pacific Revolt: The Typhoon, Japan and American Imperialism in Melville’s Moby Dick.” Tracking the Literature of Tropical Weather, Springer, 2017, pp. 45–65.
