The Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia developed out of what was arguably the first international conflict that was truly â??â??global,â??â?? in that it mounted a challenge to the Eurocentric world system and to increasing American intervention in the region. Japanâ??s leaders in the occupation championed the fight for Japanese hegemony in East Asia, which they saw as a legitimate right, and led what they conceived as a pan-Asian struggle to throw off the yoke of Western imperialism.
Prior to World War II (1939â??1945), Japan controlled Korea (formally annexed in 1910), Taiwan (colonized in 1895), Karafuto (or Sakhalin Island), the Guangdong Leased Territory, and the Pacific Islands (most of Micronesia), and sought to integrate their economies with its own as suppliers of raw materials and foodstuffs in exchange for Japanese investment and technology.
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