Japanese colonial empire
The Japanese colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies established by Imperial Japan in the Western Pacific and East Asia region from 1895. Victories over China and Russia expanded the Japanese sphere of influence, notably in Taiwan and Korea, and southern Sakhalin became a colony of Japan as the Karafuto Prefecture in 1905. At its apex, the Japanese colonial empire was one of the largest empires in history. Including the home islands, the total amount of land under Japanese sovereignty reached in 1942. By 1943, it accounted for more than 20% of the world's population at the time with 463 million people in its occupied regions and territories, even more populous than the British Empire at its greatest extent.
Following seizures of German territories in 1914, the League of Nations granted Japan mandates over some former German possessions in the Western Pacific after World War I. With the Japanese expansion into Manchuria in the early 1930s, Japan adopted a policy of setting up and/or supporting puppet states in conquered regions. In this less obviously imperialist form Japan controlled many of the states of what it referred to as the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a concept which gradually formed under Japanese influence from 1930 to 1945. Colonial control over the far-flung territories from Tokyo ended after the Allies defeated Japan in 1945: the extent of Japanese governance reverted to the four home islands, the Nanpō Islands, and the Ryukyu Islands.
Pre-1895
The first overseas territories that Japan acquired were the islands of the surrounding seas. In the 1870s and 1880s, Japan established control over the Nanpō, Ryukyu, and Kurile islands as well as strengthening its hold on the home islands. But this effort was less the initial step toward colonial expansion than it was a reassertion of national authority over territories traditionally within the Japanese cultural sphere. This was similar to nation-building in nineteenth and twentieth-century Europe.Acquisition of Colonies
"The Nation, Volume 74", published in 1902, described the conditions leading to Japanese colonialism: "In all the ameliorating conditions everyone must rejoice; but when these are coupled with the old-time lack of self-control leading to universal early marriages, a problem is rolling up before which Japanese statesmen are appalled. At the present rate of increase, there will, before the middle of this century, be a hundred million people to provide for. It is this prospect that is leading Japanese statesmen to make such frantic efforts to secure opportunity for colonization. Being practically shut off from going to other foreign countries, and Formosa being already largely occupied, Japan would naturally look to Korea and Manchuria; but of these places, Korea would afford only partial relief, both because of its limited area and of its present population. The northern region of Manchuria, however, is still almost as much in a state of nature as were the prairies of the Mississippi valley when the Indians roamed freely over them."Taiwan
Between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a dependency of the Empire of Japan, after Qing China lost the First Sino-Japanese War to Japan and ceded Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The short-lived Republic of Formosa resistance movement ended to no avail when it was suppressed by the Japanese troops. The fall of Tainan ended organized resistance to Japanese occupation and inaugurated five decades of Japanese rule.The annexation and incorporation of Taiwan into the Japanese colonial empire can be viewed as first steps in implementing their "Southern Expansion Doctrine" of the late 19th century. As Taiwan was Japan's first overseas colony, Japanese intentions were to turn the island into a showpiece "model colony". As a result, much effort was made to improve the island's economy, industry, public works and to change its culture for much of the necessities of the war machine of Japanese military aggression in the Asia-Pacific until the surrender of Japan.
In 1945, after the defeat of the Empire of Japan in World War II, Taiwan was placed under the control of the Republic of China with the signing of the Instrument of Surrender as a part of surrender ceremonies throughout the Asia-Pacific theater. The experience of Japanese rule, ROC rule, and the February 28 Incident continues to affect issues such as Taiwan Retrocession Day, national identity, ethnic identity and the Taiwan independence movement.
Korea
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, various Western countries actively competed for influence, trade, and territory in East Asia, and Japan sought to join these modern colonial powers. The newly modernized Meiji government of Japan turned to Korea, then in the sphere of influence of China's Qing dynasty. The Japanese government initially sought to separate Korea from Qing and make Korea a Japanese satellite to further their security and national interests.In January 1876, following the Meiji Restoration, Japan employed gunboat diplomacy to pressure Korea, under the Joseon Dynasty, to sign the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, which granted extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens and opened three Korean ports to Japanese trade. The rights granted to Japan under this unequal treaty, were similar to those granted western powers in Japan following the visit of Commodore Perry. Japanese involvement in Korea increased during the 1890s, a period of political upheaval.
Korea was occupied and declared a Japanese protectorate following the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, and officially annexed in 1910 through the annexation treaty.
In South Korea, the period is usually described as a time of Japanese "forced occupation". Other terms used for it include "Japanese Imperial Period" or "Japanese administration". In Japan, a more common description is "Japanese rule". Korea was officially part of the Empire of Japan for 35 years, from August 22, 1910, until the formal Japanese rule ended on August 15, 1945, upon the surrender of Japan. The 1905 and 1910 treaties were officially declared "null and void" by both Japan and South Korea in 1965.
South Sakhalin
During the nineteenth century, Russia and Japan vied for control of Sakhalin island. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 Japanese settlers were sent to southern Sakhalin to exploit its resources. Japan ceded southern Sakhalin to Russia in 1875 in exchange for the Kiril Islands under the Treaty of Saint Petersburg but following the Russo-Japanese War the Treaty of Portsmouth returned southern Sakhalin to Japan. A colonial government was established in 1907 and South Sakhalin became the Karafuto Prefecture. Japanese and Korean migrants to the colony developed the fishing, forestry and mining industries. Taking advantage of the Russian Civil War, the Japanese army occupied northern Sakhalin between 1920 and 1925 and the Japanese retained coal and oil concessions in the north until 1944. In 1942 South Sakhalin ceased to be a colony and was incorporated into Japan. The Soviet Union gained control of the whole island at the end of World War II.South Seas Mandate
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Empire of Japan declared war on the German Empire and quickly seized the possessions of the German colonial empire in the Pacific Ocean with virtually no resistance. After the end of the war the Treaty of Versailles formally recognized the Japanese occupation of former German colonies in Micronesia north of the equator. A League of Nations mandate put them under the Japanese administration known as the Nan'yō Prefecture and the post of Governor of the South Seas Mandate was created.The main significance of the South Seas Mandate to Japan was its strategic location, which dominated the sea lanes across the Pacific Ocean and provided convenient provisioning locations for ships. During the 1930s, the Imperial Japanese Navy began construction of airfields, fortifications, ports, and other military projects on the South Seas Mandate islands, viewing them as "unsinkable aircraft carriers" with a critical role to play in the defense of the Japanese home islands against potential invasion by the United States. The islands became important staging grounds for Japanese air and naval offensives during the Pacific War but were lost to American military action between 1943 and 1945. The League of Nations mandate was formally revoked by the United Nations on July 18, 1947, according to Security Council Resolution 21, making the United States responsible for administration of the islands under the terms of a United Nations trusteeship agreement which established the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
Manchuria
Japan briefly occupied the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula during the First Sino-Japanese War. Russia formally leased the area from China in 1898 but under the Portsmouth Treaty Japan replaced Russia as the leaseholder and the area was renamed the Kwantung Leased Territory. A governor and a garrison were put in place, the latter becoming the Kwantung Army in 1919.Inner Manchuria had been under Russian influence until the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War which brought the area under Japanese influence. In 1906, Japan laid the South Manchurian Railway to Port Arthur. The chaos following the Russian Revolution of 1917 allowed Japan to temporarily extend its control into Outer Manchuria, but the area returned to Soviet control by 1925. Inner Manchuria came under the control of the Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin during the warlord period in China. He initially had Japanese backing, but the Japanese Kwantung Army found him too independent. He was assassinated in 1928.
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria took place in 1931 following the Mukden Incident, a staged event engineered by Japanese military personnel from the Kwantung Army as a pretext for invasion. The region was subsequently separated from Chinese control and the Japanese-aligned puppet state of Manchukuo was created. The last Emperor of China, Puyi, was installed as head of state in 1932, and two years later he was declared Emperor of Manchukuo. The city of Changchun was renamed Hsinking and became the capital of Manchukuo. An imperial palace was specially built for the emperor. He was, however, nothing more than a figurehead and real authority rested in the hands of the Japanese military officials. The Manchu ministers all served as front-men for their Japanese vice-ministers, who made all decisions. Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies was organized by the Chinese in Manchuria and the pacification of Manchukuo required a war lasting several years.
During the 1930s the Japanese colonized Manchukuo. With Japanese investment and rich natural resources, the economy of Manchukuo experienced rapid economic growth. Manchukuo's industrial system became one of the most advanced, making it one of the industrial powerhouses in the region. Manchukuo's steel production exceeded Japan's in the late 1930s. The Japanese Army initially sponsored a policy of forced industrialization modeled after the Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union but subsequently private capital was used in a very strongly state-directed economy. There was progress in the area's social systems and many Manchurian cities were modernized. Manchukuo issued banknotes and postal stamps, and several independent banks were founded. The Chinese Eastern Railway was bought from the Soviet Union In 1935. Traditional lands were taken and redistributed to Japanese farmers with local farmers relocated and forced into collective farming units over smaller areas of land.
During this period Manchukuo was used as a base from which to invade China. In the summer of 1939, a border dispute between Manchukuo and the Mongolian People's Republic resulted in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. During this battle, a combined Soviet Army and Mongolian force defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army supported by limited Manchukuoan forces. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945 under the agreement at the Yalta Conference and invaded Manchukuo from outer Manchuria and Outer Mongolia. This was called Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. The Army of Manchukuo was defeated and the Emperor was captured by Soviet forces. Most of the 1.5 million Japanese who had been left in Manchukuo at the end of World War II were sent back to their homeland in 1946-1948 by U.S. Navy ships in the operation now known as the Japanese repatriation from Huludao.