Japan: colonization and settlement

Abstract

As a collection of islands close to the regions that would eventually become modern‐day China and Korea, Japan in its early form was heavily indebted to the influences of those traveling across Asia. It is generally considered that modern Japanese culture began with the mingling of the Jōmon civilization with the arrival of Korean and Chinese refugees from the aggression taking place during the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BCE –9 CE ). In 250 BCE the Yamato state unified Japan and involved itself extensively in the activities of Korea and China; there was constant cross‐immigration and settlement between these areas. This settlement and interaction, however, was drastically reduced around the time of the Tang dynasty in China, which saw Japan retreat from international affairs. After 918 CE the nation had little international contact, concentrating instead on internal civil wars. From very early on Japanese colonization and settlement was thus more internal than external. Various tribes conquered and settled land from their neighbors until the Minamoto dynasty emerged triumphant at the end of the 12th century.

An unfortunate history: Securitization and historical narratives in the Sino-Japanese security paradox

“…part of the global movement for national self-determination. Notably, there is evidence that expanding Japanese influence into the Chinese province of Manchuria was presented as a moral imperative for the Japanese people during the prelude to the war and which benefitted from popular support at home (Taylor, 2013).…”

“…Firstly, the Revisionist Narrative presents Japan as a victim of western imperialism, communicated through stories of an isolationist feudal Japan 19 being forced to open its borders and to develop socio-economically in accordance with western models of industrialisation and imperialism (Taylor, 2013). These stories present the West's role in Japan's modernisation as connected to its wartime history, framing Japanese militarism and wartime atrocities as a consequence of western tutelage (Hoshino and Satoh, 2012).…”