Duus analyzes Japan's acquisition of Korea, the largest and most populous of its colonial possessions, as the result of two separate but interlinked processes, one political/military and the other economic: every attempt at increasing Japanese political influence licensed new opportunities for trade, and every new push for Japanese economic interest buttressed, and sometimes justified, further political advances. The sword was the servant of the abacus; the abacus, the handmaiden of the sword.

The political process was driven by the attempt of the Meiji leaders, backed and prodded by politicians and military men at home, to create a stable cadre of Korean collaborators committed to self-strengthening; when this attempt failed, the Japanese leaders finally decided to extend full political control over the peninsula.

The economic process, propelled by industrial change, involved penetration of the Korean market by an anonymous army of Japanese traders, sojourners, and settlers in search of new economic opportunities.

While suggesting that Meiji imperialism shared much with Western colonial expansion that provided both its model and its context, Duus also argues that it was "backward imperialism," shaped by Japan's sense of inferiority to the West, as well as its relatively undeveloped economy, limited history of foreign contacts, economic dependency on the advanced economies, and intense desire to catch up.

Drawing on a diverse range of new source material, this careful and informed study casts light on a wide array of topics in social, economic, and diplomatic history and contributes to a better understanding of modern Japanese imperialism.