A pivotal addition to scholarship on Japanese imperialism and war. This carefully researched, lucidly written book uncovers the role of colonial Taiwan and its overseas subjects, who molded Japan's southern empire with visions and ambitions of their own.

This lucid account places at its center the people of Taiwan and their intermediating roles in Japan's expanding empire in the Chinese-speaking world of South China and Southeast Asia. It draws on multi-lingual voices to depict the liminal status of those who were ascribed second-class colonial subjecthood in an ethno-imperial hierarchy. A history written from the commanding height of Japan's imperial policies and politics, the book raises powerful questions about agency, intent, and colonial complicity, challenging post-war constructions of victims and victimizers, patriots and collaborators.

Powerful and original. Shirane's new vision of Taiwan and its position in Japan's empire?one in which the colony is an originating site for colonial policy and practice?effectively challenges prevailing ideas of Japanese imperialism as something exported from the metropole.

Imperial Gateway is a must-read for those who find the binary account of southern- vs northern-expansion doctrines unsatisfactory and are searching for an alternative explanatory framework to make sense of Japan's contradictory expansionist policies since the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) through World War II.

This fresh look at Japan's empire centers the story on Taiwan as a springboard for further expansion into South China and Southeast Asia. Told with admirable clarity and breadth of vision, Imperial Gateway illuminates imperial Japan's southern strategy and its haunting legacies.

Imperial Gateway recenters Japan's empire around Taiwan, highlighting the role of geography in historical analysis. Shirane underscores the strategic importance of Taiwan to Japan's southern imperial expansion and the use of Taiwan as a laboratory to train future generations of imperially minded policies. His work signifies Japan's indecisiveness concerning whether to advance north or south in its competitive bid to push the boundaries of its empire. Shirane challenges the notion that Taiwan was a simple outlier on the imperial periphery and his research commands us to consider Taiwan's position as a regional hub which deeply affected international relations and the postwar as well.

This lucid account places at its center the people of Taiwan and their intermediating roles in Japan's expanding empire in the Chinese-speaking world of South China and Southeast Asia. It draws on multi-lingual voices to depict the liminal status of those who were ascribed second-class colonial subjecthood in an ethno-imperial hierarchy. A history written from the commanding height of Japan's imperial policies and politics, the book raises powerful questions about agency, intent, and colonial complicity, challenging post-war constructions of victims and victimizers, patriots and collaborators.