JAPANESE COLONIALISM AND KOREAN DEVELOPMENT - A CRITIQUE

New scholarship on economic development in Korea has focused an the be neficial effects of Japanese colonialism and on certain continuities b etween Korea's growth strategy before and after World War II. We chall enge this new revisionism. The growth record under the Japanese occupa tion was more modest than is often thought, there are greater disconti nuities than continuities between the colonial and postwar eras, and p olitical independence was an important factor in subsequent growth. We trace the turning point in Korea's long-term growth to political, pol icy and institutional changes that occurred following the military's s eizure of power in 1961. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.