Paradox of Postcoloniality

This chapter underscores the ways in which post-1945 neocolonialism in the region has set in place a hegemonic framework in East Asia predicated upon developmentalism and internal division within East Asia itself. Such a division has obscured an understanding of the colonial past in both Korea and Japan in terms of a shared experience of modernity. The chapter argues that the disavowal of empire characterizes the nature of imperialism in the region from the past to the present. The conundrum of colonial modernity examined throughout the book returns as a paradox of postcoloniality and post–Cold War in a region where empire persists by other means and in ever-new forms.