Originally published on April 21, 2019.
This essay argues that whereas the colonial rule of the Western powers was rooted in slaughter, exploitation, and the deliberate degradation of subject peoples, Japan’s rule in Taiwan, Manchuria, and Korea took the form of developmental governance, with national funds invested in schools, infrastructure, farmland reclamation, and industrial growth.
It further contends that Japan extended its sense of national pride and self-reliance not only to its own people but also to other ethnic groups, as shown in its respect for local languages and emphasis on education, and that this reflected Japan’s aspiration toward harmony among peoples.

2019-04-21
This means that the Japanese, who possessed a strong sense of ethnic pride and self-reliance, never applied those principles only to their own nation, and that, in the end, this was also an expression of their desire for harmony among different peoples.

What follows is an essay published by the same person.
Within it there was a passage that overlapped with points I have long made.
*What follows is my comment.
Japan was the only country in the world that brought out its national budget for the sake of its colonies.
He may have forgotten that the Korean Peninsula was not a colony but a union state, yet the point itself is sound.

The colonial rule of the white powers was based on slaughter and exploitation, disunity and enforced ignorance.
In order to suppress hostility toward the metropole and prevent resistance, they thoroughly imposed such measures as the banning of native languages, the suspension of education, and the prohibition of assemblies and organizations, while all crops, industrial and craft goods, and minerals obtained from that land were sent back to the mother country, where they were used, among other things, to buy slaves.
It was a demonic barbarity.

But what of Taiwan and Korea, present-day South Korea, where Japan advanced.
Japan poured large sums of money into Taiwan, Manchuria, and Korea.
It devoted itself to the construction of schools, the development of infrastructure, the reclamation of farmland, and the growth of industrial power.
It also respected native languages and educated people in ethnic pride.

The fact that Hangul has taken root in Korea today, that Taiwan developed into one of Asia’s leading industrial countries, and that South Korea rose to the point where it could host the Olympic Games, all lead back, if traced historically, to the thorough development and education carried out by Japan.
This means that the Japanese, who possessed a strong sense of ethnic pride and self-reliance, never applied those principles only to their own nation, and that, in the end, this was also an expression of their desire for harmony among different peoples.