Was the Japanese occupation of Korea really justified in racial terms?<p>I&#x27;m skeptical of parts of this article when it refers to Japanese imperial ideology as &quot;fascism.&quot; It was most certainly extremely right-wing, but I think extreme nationalism + imperialism are more accurate descriptions, especially since Japan didn&#x27;t join the Axis until decades after Korea was annexed.<p>I thought the motivation for the colonization of Korea was more resource scarcity in Japan and a desire to compete with Western powers through empire building. To justify their actions I think Korean society was portrayed as &quot;less civilized&quot; which is more a statement about cultural and political norms than race, although those portrayals can probably slip into a racist ideology pretty quickly.<p>It seems like the &quot;official&quot; policy was different, at least: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Racial_Equality_Proposal" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Racial_Equality_Proposal</a><p>I&#x27;m not trying to portray devil&#x27;s advocate at all, just actually asking whether what the article portrays is accurate. I think the early 20th century <i>actions</i> of imperial Japan were abhorrent, but it&#x27;s important to at least try to understand the ideology of the time as it was discussed and understood.