Japanese colonialism was fundamentally different from western Essay

Japanese colonialism was fundamentally different from western colonialism. Do you agree Discuss - Essay Example Such, it cannot be generalized that all colonial nations follow the same form of colonialism that bears the same geopolitical meaning and practice across regions and continents. This fundamental difference in colonialism can be best illustrated in the case of Japan when contrasted with its colonialist counterpart in the western part of the world where its colonialist differences were identified in this paper. The most plausible cause that can be identified for this difference was that Japan jumped in the colonialist foray later than its western counterpart that it had an implication why colonialism in the East, particularly Japan, fundamentally differed from its counterpart in the West. It can be surmised that while the west has already a deep experience of colonizing, the idea of colonialism was only impinged into the consciousness of Japan in the 1870’s with the Meiji Restoration (Myers and Peattie, 1984) which has an implication on how it exercised its power and prerogative over its colonized countries. Japan’s exposure in colonialist effort was short while its western counterparts had already a long history of colonizing exploits that stretched as far back as 900 A.D. with the crusades. This wide gap in terms of colonizing experience has an implication on Japan’s motivation, purpose and method of colonizing that fundamentally differed from the West which will be elaborated in this paper. ... II. The Fundamental Difference of Japanese Colonialism from Western Colonialism A. Timeline and motivation for being a colonial power The western colonizers have a very long and deep experience in colonizing. While Japan as a country was still struggling among itself in 900 A.D., Europe has already embarked on a crusade to reclaim the Holy Land from the Turks and Saracens in the Middle East. Needless to say, the West already has already a deep experience with colonizing while Japan only learned the idea of colonialism in the 1870’s. It is also important to note that before the Meiji Restoration in the 1870’s, it came from a 200 year isolationist policy of the Tokugawa Shogunate and as such, was economically and military inferior compared to the west. In addition, Japan began with the same disadvantages just like its neighboring Asian countries. Also, just like any other non-European states, it was forced to sign unequal treaties that chafed the ire of its nationalists a s an infringement of its national sovereignty. Moreso, when Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States came to Japan in 1853 with its fleet that forced Japan to open itself to trade and end its self-imposed isolation (Myers and Peattie, 1984:78). This made Japan realize how backward they were and prompted them to embark on a nationalist endeavor to strengthen itself and become a respected country. This sentiment was recorded by a memorandum of saga samurai, Eto Shimpei in 1856 that â€Å"what was required . . ., was a long-range plan to utilize the talents, not merely of all Japanese, but of talent wherever it might be found in tools, in arms, in medicine, in land development, in astronomy, and so on, should be utilized