Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 474, Southward Ho, Part 3. So, the last few weeks have been about

the process by which Japan became the ruling power in Micronesia. This week will be all about

the nature of Japanese empire in the region, what was Micronesia like under Japanese rule?

From what I've seen, the nature of the Japanese Empire in Micronesia was defined by two questions,

both of which were central to the Nan Yōcho or South Sea's office, the colonial government of the region,

but neither of which was ever answered satisfactorily.

First was the complex question of what relationship Micronesians now had to the Japanese state.

They were, in a sense, subjects of the Empire and the League of Nations mandate in the region

both charged Japan to modernize Micronesian life,

whatever that meant, and to include Micronesians fully under the laws of Japan itself.

And yet, the Nanjo-Chol always maintained the Japanese constitution did not apply in Micronesia,

due to the area's status as a League of Nations mandate and functionally operated

as an appointed dictatorship in the region.

As for the Micronesians themselves, Japanese bureaucrats, in all their writings about the region,

never seemed to have fully accepted the Micronesians as part of the empire.

Japan's colonial policy was always a bit of a mishmash of ideas.

On the one hand was the rhetoric of pan-Asian unity and in Korea and Taiwan of shared

confusion culture and the shared benevolence of the Japanese sovereign.

On the other was a strong sense of Japanese cultural

particularism and chauvinism that in this mindset gave Japan the right to lift up other Asians

even against their will. In Micronesia, this clashing of ideas was even more acute, because

the rhetoric of shared culture

...