Japanese Colonialism

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

...