This book explores the legacy of the Japanese empire in Korea, asking how colonialism arose as a legal idea. What was the legal process behind the establishment of colonialism as Japan's prime strategy towards Korea since the late 19th century? By addressing such questions, it is not only possible to address how Japanese colonialism in Korea was born, but also address how the process behind the making of colonialism as a judicial and legal project was illegal from its origination. As East Asia grapples with a new generation of power politics, these sober reflects lend an important historical context to the struggles of the present.

This book explores the legacy of the Japanese empire in Korea, asking how colonialism arose as a legal idea. What was the legal process behind the establishment of colonialism as Japan's prime strategy towards Korea since the late 19th century? By addressing such questions, it is not only possible to address how Japanese colonialism in Korea was born, but also address how the process behind the making of colonialism as a judicial and legal project was illegal from its origination. As East Asia grapples with a new generation of power politics, these sober reflects lend an important historical context to the struggles of the present. Holding a PhD from the University of Chicago, Kyu-Hyun Jo was a Research Associate at the Northeast Asian History Foundation in Korea from 2020 to 2021 and is currently a lecturer in Political Science at Yonsei University, where he teaches Korea and East Asian international relations and history.

From its creation in the early twentieth century, policymakers used the discourse of international law to legitimate Japan’s empire. Although the Japanese state aggrandizers’ reliance on this discourse did not create the imperial nation Japan would become, their fluent use of its terms inscribed Japan’s claims as legal practice within Japan and abroad. Focusing on Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910, Alexis Dudden gives long-needed attention to the intellectual history of the empire and brings to light presumptions of the twentieth century’s so-called international system by describing its most powerful—and most often overlooked—member’s engagement with that system. Early chapters describe the global atmosphere that declared Japan the legal ruler of Korea and frame the significance of the discourse of early twentieth-century international law and how its terms became Japanese. Dudden then brings together these discussions in her analysis of how Meiji leaders embedded this discourse into legal precedent for Japan, particularly in its relations with Korea. Remaining chapters explore the limits of these ‘universal’ ideas and consider how the international arena measured Japan’s use of its terms. Dudden squares her examination of the legality of Japan’s imperialist designs by discussing the place of colonial policy studies in Japan at the time, demonstrating how this new discipline further created a common sense that Japan’s empire accorded to knowledgeable practice. This landmark study greatly enhances our understanding of the intellectual underpinnings of Japan’s imperial aspirations. In this carefully researched and cogently argued work, Dudden makes clear that, even before Japan annexed Korea, it had embarked on a legal and often legislating mission to make its colonization legitimate in the eyes of the world.

"This is a major historical work that, in the field of Japanese imperialism, will set a standard for careful and comprehensive analysis. The Abacus and the Sword is the handiwork of a master historian."—Mark R. Peattie, author of Nan'yo: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese in Micronesia, 1885-1945 "This book . . . deserves a wide readership, especially among East Asia history specialists, for it represents difficult and complex scholarship at its best. . . . It is clear from an analysis of his documentation that he put solid study into the Japan-Korea relationship problem, one of the most complex in modern East Asian history—the equivalent perhaps of the English-Irish relationship in Western History. . . . This book is . . . well worth reading, not only for East Asian specialists but for anyone fascinated by the mysteries of history." Hilary Conroy, American Academy of Political Science

This book provides a sweeping overview of East Asian international relations in history from the nineteenth century onwards, with a focus on Korea and its relationship with East Asia and the USA. In contrast with many books which concentrate exclusively on the twentieth century, this book offers a long-term perspective on modernity and modernization in East Asia. It addresses the tributary system, the Meiji Restoration, Japanese imperialism in East Asia, and the Cold War in East Asia. It also incorporates the First and Second Indochina Wars from Vietnam's perspective and expands the geographical scope of East Asia beyond the traditional framework of Korea, Japan, and China. The book begins with the tributary system as a starting point of East Asian modernity in contrast to the old view that the tributary system was not a "modern" system. It rejects the idea that Japan was modernizing while Korea remained stagnant and shows why Japanese colonialism continues to be controversial and problematic. Through the book's emphasis on Vietnam's perspective of the Indochina Wars, it places much value on nationalism, anti-imperialism, and decolonization as forces of modernity and modernization. Relevant to scholars and students in history, international relations, and East Asian studies more broadly, the book brings with it a novel, fresh and innovative approach to East Asian history.

From the late nineteenth century, Japan sought to incorporate the Korean Peninsula into its expanding empire. Japan took control of Korea in 1910 and ruled it until the end of World War II. During this colonial period, Japan advertised as a national goal the assimilation of Koreans into the Japanese state. It never achieved that goal. Mark Caprio here examines why Japan's assimilation efforts failed. Utilizing government documents, personal travel accounts, diaries, newspapers, and works of fiction, he uncovers plenty of evidence for the potential for assimilation but very few practical initiatives to implement the policy. Japan's early history of colonial rule included tactics used with peoples such as the Ainu and Ryukyuan that tended more toward obliterating those cultures than to incorporating the people as equal Japanese citizens. Following the annexation of Taiwan in 1895, Japanese policymakers turned to European imperialist models, especially those of France and England, in developing strengthening its plan for assimilation policies. But, although Japanese used rhetoric that embraced assimilation, Japanese people themselves, from the top levels of government down, considered Koreans inferior and gave them few political rights. Segregation was built into everyday life. Japanese maintained separate communities in Korea, children were schooled in two separate and unequal systems, there was relatively limited intermarriage, and prejudice was ingrained. Under these circumstances, many Koreans resisted assimilation. By not actively promoting Korean-Japanese integration on the ground, Japan's rhetoric of assimilation remained just that.