일본 제국주의의 정신구조

Abstract

This paper analyzes the rise of the distinctively theocratic Japanese Empire, and the psychological structure of Japanese Imperialism. The Meiji Restoration is a unique historical case with many features rarely seen in other countries. When the Europe imperialists reached the east in the late 19th century the Japanese empire was embryonic, and at that point it was scarcely imaginable that Japan, through its ‘reactive imperialism’, would develop an aggressive and expansive imperialism which would occupy and attempt to incorporate parts of eight sovereign territories into an imperial theocracy. Why did Japan aspire to expand and integrate its empire? Did the Meiji Restoration plant the seeds of imperialism? What characterizes the psychological structures underlying the process of nation-state building in modern Japan? This paper seeks to answer these questions, which are essential to any examination of the Japanese occupation of Chosun, and to Japanese imperial rule from 1910-1945. Japan is perhaps unique in the course taken by its modernization, which proceeded quite differently from other countries. In many ways, modern Japan took a path which was the reverse of that taken elsewhere：by unifying religion and politics, by centralizing power, and by making its people the subjects of a fabricated ideology. The Japanese needed to find a way to overcome their geographic and cultural isolation, which had inspired fear and a sense of inferiority during the Tokugawa years：the device they came up with was a divine emperor. The mythicization of history allowed the Meiji leadership to eradicate these negative sentiments, and to build the foundations of a strong state which integrated all of its people under the ideology of divine nation. Through such factors, this paper seeks to explain the underlying ideas and the psychological structures which drove the creation of Japanese Imperialism.