Influence of Confucianism on Japanese Colonialism

真蘭羅（Robert Mac Auslan）

中研院社會所訪問學員、美國華盛頓州立大學社會學系博士候選人

World Systems Theory remains the dominant paradigm in Political Economy when examining colonialism and modern empires.  The Core-Periphery relationship based around exploitation of labor and resources, or capitalist cycles of accumulation is a powerful theoretical tool, and a useful lens through which to view European colonialism. However, the expansion of the Japanese empire into northeast China and Taiwan did not follow the same pattern of development and exploitation as its European counterparts, and had dramatically different outcomes for the former colonized states.  This research compares traditional political economic models of Japanese colonialism with a modified version of Michael Mann’s model of social power allowing for ideological drivers of expansion.  Specifically attempting to identify the role of Confucianism as a governing ideology in Japanese imperial expansion from 1895 (the treaty of Shimonoseki) to 1937 (the beginning of Japanese militarism).  In order to determine whether ideology played a significant role in the Japanese colonial administration individual accounts of colonial administrators, both Japanese and foreign, and economic and political reports have been examined. Thus, this project address two questions: 1.) To what extent does Michael Mann's framework improve upon existing models of colonialism?, and 2.) How Confucian was Japanese colonialism?