ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book uses the period of the “Japanese empire” instead of “modern” or “the early twentieth century” for describing the history of the rule of Japanese imperialism and its effects experienced by Asian women. The commencement of Japanese colonialization was in the 1870s in Okinawa and Hokkaido, in 1895 in Taiwan, in 1910 in Korea, and in 1914 in Micronesia. Meanwhile, Japanese colonial imperialism gradually spread from the northeast islands to the whole of Asia, and the Japanese army's aggression spread in mainland China and Southeast Asia from World War I to World War II. Such varied regional histories under imperial Japan can be explained comprehensively with the periodization of the “Japanese empire” in Asian history. The book consists of four parts that reveal the historical elements of Asian women.
