Imperial Japanese colonization is an interesting term. Because much of the Japanese did not actually leave Japan to these overseas territories. That being said Japan had some plans to expand their empire and if they got their way, would’ve cleared the way for them to colonize.

Part of the Japanese war in China was to do just this. They wanted to clear the area of the Chinese and eventually colonize it. We know this because at the Tokyo trials the Japanese defended themselves by citing what the US did to the native Americans. Basically you run your conquest, why can’t we? Japan went to war with China with hopes of getting that territory. They eventually became bogged down though and combined with an American embargo, had to attack the Americans and the allies in general.

Japan did just that and did a “blitzkrieg in the pacific” and took over a lot of territory. The Philippines, Guam, Borneo and many others. Much of this was to gain resources for themself to use in China and fight off the Americans.

The Japanese came into these territories thinking they were going to be hailed as liberators. This was far from the truth and the Japanese found themselves the targets of guerrilla war in some of these territories. When Japan reached its greatest extent, they had to start resorting to brutal tactics and techniques to dissuade this, it only made the underground movements resist even more. The Japanese had dealt with hostile populations and assumed all to be hostile they would come across, this was a big mistake. Just as the Germans in the Ukraine treated the Ukrainians horribly forcing the Ukrainians to work with the Russians, who they hated too, the Japanese did this for many populations.

Eventually though Japan’s empire would collapse with the US and other allies counter attacking. So how did the Japanese empire contribute to decolonization? Well in the war many allied colonies had fought in underground movements against the Japanese. This created a feeling of nationhood in many of them. The US saw the writing on the wall and made sure to liberate the Philippines and give them independence. Other allied nations would follow suit ( besides France and Vietnam, for various reasons )

So in summery Japan waged a war of aggression to clear China and other locations of their native populations out of hopes of one day colonizing. They became bogged down and were forced to attack the US and other allied colonies. They were unable to hold this and for many nations like the Philippines, Vietnam and India, beating Japan proved to be a major factor in unifying them for independence. This combined with the USSR and US anti imperialist policy only meant a matter of time before Asia and oceanic colonies were decolonized.