A Comparative Study on Japanese and American Colonial Policies

2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 15520389
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Historical studies in general
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: OKAMOTO Koichi Waseda University, Faculty of International Liberal Studies, Professor (60288024)
• Project Period (FY): 2003 – 2006
• Keywords: Modern Japanese history / Colonialism / Taiwan / Korea / The Philippine Islands / The United States of America / Constitutionalism / Comparative history

Research Abstract

This research project is intended to a comparative study on Japanese and American colonialism and colonial policies, based upon recent works on colonial/post-colonial studies in each national framework. Initially, while keeping Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan and Korea in mind, I investigated American colonial policy toward the Philippine Islands. Particularly, I concentrated on collecting and analyzing primary materials and basic works on so-called “Benevolent Assimilation" policy starting in 1898. Through the research, I found that since empirical studies on American colonial rule over the Philippines needed to be developed, I focused more on collecting basic data on bureaucracy in the U. S. colonial administration.
Thanks to the intellectual interaction with some representative scholars in the field of American colonialism, including Prof. Paul Kramer, I came to realize that the nature of colonial rule appeared in the bureaucracy within the colonial administration and the legal ap plication to their colonies. And “constitutionalism" is a vital parameter for comparing the American colonial policy to the Japanese one. Especially, through the process to establish the American and Japanese colonial administration respectively in the Philippines and Twain, I conduct a thorough investigation on constitutional background of colonial policy. At the same time, I tried to situate Japanese colonial policy in an international historical context. As a tentative conclusion, I argue that American and Japanese colonial policies are the product of the historical stage of late 19th and early 20 century. The commonalities of both colonialisms indicate that they were in a new international historical phase. Therefore, the analysis requires an transnational framework, which is hardly found in the existing studies.
I was on a sabbatical leave from the academic year of 2007 to 2008. While being a visiting scholar at the Harvard's Yenching Institute, I was able to finish a book-length manuscript of this study.