Editing Decolonization (section)

==== Japan ====
[[File:US Army in Korea under Japanese Rule.JPG|thumb|U.S. troops in [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea]], September 1945]]
Before World War I, Japan had gained several substantial colonial possessions in East Asia such as Taiwan (1895) and Korea (1910). Japan joined the allies in World War I, and after the war acquired the [[South Seas Mandate]], the former German colony in Micronesia, as a [[League of Nations Mandate]]. Pursuing a colonial policy comparable to those of European powers, Japan settled significant populations of ethnic Japanese in its colonies while simultaneously suppressing Indigenous ethnic populations by enforcing the learning and use of the [[Japanese language]] in schools. Other methods such as public interaction, and attempts to eradicate the use of [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Hokkien]], and [[Hakka Chinese|Hakka]] among the Indigenous peoples, were seen to be used. Japan also set up the [[Imperial Universities]] in Korea ([[Keijō Imperial University]]) and Taiwan ([[National Taiwan University|Taihoku Imperial University]]) to compel education.

In 1931, Japan seized [[Manchuria]] from the Republic of China, setting up a puppet state under [[Puyi]], the last Manchu emperor of China. In 1933 Japan seized the Chinese province of [[Rehe Province|Rehe]], and incorporated it into its Manchurian possessions. The [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] started in 1937, and Japan occupied much of eastern China, including the Republic's capital at [[Nanjing]]. An estimated 20 million Chinese died during the 1931–1945 war with Japan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/15/content_468908.htm|title=Remember role in ending fascist war|work=chinadaily.com.cn|access-date=2016-02-25}}</ref>

In December 1941, the empire of Japan joined [[World War II]] by invading the European and U.S. colonies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, including [[French Indochina]], [[Hong Kong]], the Philippines, Burma, [[British Malaya|Malaya]], [[Indonesia]], [[Portuguese Timor]], and others. Following its surrender to the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] in 1945, Japan was deprived of all its colonies with a number of them being returned to the original colonizing Western powers. The [[Soviet Union]] [[Soviet–Japanese War (1945)|declared war on Japan in August 1945]], and shortly after occupied and annexed the southern [[Kuril Islands]], which Japan [[Kuril Islands dispute|still claims]].