Japanese Imperial Education in Korea and Taiwan and the Lens of Reciprocal Assimilation

Authors

Devin Sanders

Keywords

meiji restoration, westernization, Fukuzawa Yukichi, modernization, Japan

Abstract

During the 19th century, the nation of Japan underwent a variety of political, social, and economic changes, including but not limited to events such as the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and the first Sino-Japanese War in 1894-1895. This paradigmatic shift sought to usher in a new era of Japanese dominance on both regional and international scales. Japanese dominance and international relevance, as indicated by Meiji-era domestic and foreign policy, was to be realized through adopting demonstratively successful policies, technologies, ideals, governments, militaries, economic approaches, and even the appearances of Western powers.1 Indeed, influential Japanese leaders such as Fukuzawa Yukichi believed that “the levels of intelligence of Japanese and Westerners, in literature, the arts, commerce, or industry, from the biggest things to the least, in a thousand cases or in one, there is not a single area in which the other side is not superior to us,” conceding that the West was vastly superior in its technology and perceived ‘intelligence,’ and that Japan should learn from these differences to become a civilized country.

Recommended Citation

Sanders, Devin (2023) "Japanese Imperial Education in Korea and Taiwan and the Lens of Reciprocal Assimilation," The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 52: Iss. 1, Article 12.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol52/iss1/12