You gotta respect him for being so frank about his thoughts (w
I actually did a whole semester of research regarding Fukuzawa Yukichi (mentioned in article as being the intellectual who provided the intellectual underpinning of Japan's subsequent invasion and colonization of Asian nations) - and I ended up thinking how great a man he was, even though some of his thinking was a little extreme.
Datsu-a-ron (On Leaving Asia), which Fukuzawa wrote and which is mentioned in that article, is often cited as an example of his "imperialist" ideas, but the research I did indicates that it was more a reponse to the Korean government's (with the aid of Yuan Shikai's and the Chinese military - which is someone I don't likew) merciless suppression of the nationalist / independence party at that time, which Fukuzawa actually supported, thinking that they'd lead Korea towards modernisation. Read in context with the other stuff he published that the time, as well as the rest of the articles published in the same paper the Datsu-a-ron was published, and you find that the "imperialist" interpretation starts losing weight.
Wow, that was long. I think I'd better not start rambling about my research here or I'll be bv4nn3d! soon w
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Date: 2005-11-21 12:07 am (UTC)I actually did a whole semester of research regarding Fukuzawa Yukichi (mentioned in article as being the intellectual who provided the intellectual underpinning of Japan's subsequent invasion and colonization of Asian nations) - and I ended up thinking how great a man he was, even though some of his thinking was a little extreme.
Datsu-a-ron (On Leaving Asia), which Fukuzawa wrote and which is mentioned in that article, is often cited as an example of his "imperialist" ideas, but the research I did indicates that it was more a reponse to the Korean government's (with the aid of Yuan Shikai's and the Chinese military - which is someone I don't likew) merciless suppression of the nationalist / independence party at that time, which Fukuzawa actually supported, thinking that they'd lead Korea towards modernisation. Read in context with the other stuff he published that the time, as well as the rest of the articles published in the same paper the Datsu-a-ron was published, and you find that the "imperialist" interpretation starts losing weight.
Wow, that was long. I think I'd better not start rambling about my research here or I'll be bv4nn3d! soon w