I don’t know about Taiwan, but Korea were considered bugs and second class, they did not serve in the mainland Japanese government, but Chinilpa (a Korean language derogatory term that denotes ethnic Koreans who collaborated with Imperial Japan) were given high positions in the government in Japanese Korea, but were always in lower position then the Japanese in Korea. Japan ruled Korea with an iron fist and with fear. They did not tolerate any Korean pride and disrespect to the colonizers and tortured and murdered Koreans for it. There is a famous internment camp in Korea where hundreds of thousands died by the imperial Japanese. They made all Koreans take Japanese names and banned the Korean language and culture. It was illegal to make Korean dictionary, study Korean. Historical sites and records were destroyed to make Korea a part of Japan. The Japanese government in Korea industrialized Korea for Japanese benefits, exhausted korean natural resources, destroyed Korean nature and environment for war efforts, exploited the Korean people (forced military service, forced prostitution, forced human experiments, etc), marginalized Korean history and culture. It wasn’t pretty and wasn’t the ideal annexation. The Japanese government one and only goal was to turn Korea into Japan as fast as possible regardless of the harm to the environment and regardless of how many “dirty” Korean lives were taken. That is why the independent movement in Korea was probably the biggest off all Japanese colonized nations. The positives of the colonization would be how Korea modernized super fast to be what it is today to avoid a similar situation. Korea after the independence sought to become modernized and powerful enough to gain strong allies and protect itself. The industrialization of Korea that the Japan had started became a stepping stone to modernization. But I ask, at what cost? Korea lost majority of their environment; tigers, Amur leopards and other animals were killed off for warm coats for the imperial army. The Korean people suffered and were treated like animals. The Korean people lost a majority of their culture. There are elders in Korea today that can’t write or read Korean, because they only learned how to write and read Japanese. It is a sad part of history. Imperial japans ambition to have all of Asia under one flag wasn’t any different from nazi Germany trying to have all of Europe under the nazi flag. And the crimes committed by both nations at that time was heinous. That being said, I really do hope one day both Korea and Japan can look past the past and see it as it is, a dark history that shouldn’t be repeated. Younger generations how are now more understanding of each other, but it should be something that shouldn’t be forgotten by both nations.