Japan and the Two Koreas

The Korean peninsula is the only region in the world where Japan’s geopolitical interests seem to exceed its geoeconomic interests. Often described as a ‘dagger pointing to the heart of Japan’, the Korean peninsula is the most obvious launch-pad for any ambitious continental invader. Perceptions and reality, of course, are often quite different — the only time the peninsula actually served such a purpose was in the thirteenth century when the Mongols twice attempted to invade Japan from Korea. At the turn of the nineteenth century Tokyo used the excuse of potential Chinese and Russian threats to Korea to declare war on both countries, defeat them and incorporate the peninsula into the Japanese empire. In 1945 a potential threat from the Korean peninsula emerged again with Japan’s devastating defeat and the liberation of its colonies, the Soviet Union’s spread across Eastern Europe, the imposition of a communist regime in North Korea and the threat of successful communist revolutions in China and Vietnam.