With the upsurge of scholarly interest in Japanese imperialism in recent years, it is now recognized that imperialism was an integral part of pre-war Japan’s modernization/Westernization efforts.  As several recent studies have shown, Japan’s “mimetic imperialism” involved the emulation not only of Western colonial practices, but also of discourses that served to legitimize overseas expansion.[1]  Nevertheless, Japan’s interaction with Western colonial culture is still generally explained as a one-way flow from the West to Japan, whereas Japan was in fact “a coeval participant in the early twentieth-century reorganization of the world”[2] and contributed to a transnational culture of imperialism.  Japan’s position as a non-Western newcomer to the “colonial club” not only gave rise to an inferiority complex among Japanese imperialists, but also had a significant impact on Western colonial worldviews.

Drawing on contemporary newspaper articles and books, this paper argues that one of the keys to understanding Japan’s position in the turn-of-the-century trans-imperial system lies in how Taiwan (often described as Japan’s first colony) was discussed inside and outside of Japan.  Acquired rather hastily at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, the island was in fact not universally considered a “colony” until many years later.  For over a decade, Taiwan’s status became a discursive field of contention for Japanese politicians and intellectuals holding competing visions of the Japanese empire.  This debate was important in shaping perceptions of Japan as a “great power” abroad and contributed to later tensions between colonialist and pan-Asianist discourses within the Japanese Empire.

[1] Tierney, Robert. Tropics of Savagery: The Culture of Japanese Empire in Comparative Frame. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010, p. 15.  See also Atkins, E. Taylor. Primitive Selves: Koreana in the Japanese Colonial Gaze, 1910-1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

[2] Hill, Christopher. “Tropics of Savagery: The Culture of Japanese Empire in Comparative Frame (review).” The Journal of Japanese Studies, 38:1 (Winter 2012), p. 162.