Japan Focus has a nice article by Anne Booth on Japanese colonialism in Taiwan (and Korea) The standard view is that the post-war development of both places has a lot to do with the economic transformation created under colonialism. Booth compares Taiwan and South Korea to the European colonies in S.E. Asia and finds very little systematic difference. Yes, Taiwan did double its value added in agriculture, and both places were insulated from the Great Depression more than the European colonies, but the Japanese colonies do not consistently stand out. She looks at a lot of other data, but here are her 1938 GDP per capita figures
Philippines 1522
Korea 1459
Malaya 1361
Taiwan 1302
Indonesia 1175
Thailand 826
Burma 749
I don’t have much to say about it, but it is an interesting paper.
Via Michael Turton
