<![CDATA[Previous research on Japanese imperialism has mainly concentrated on how it mirrors the Western colonial gaze, which portrays colonized populations as inferior. This study argues that the Japanese colonial gaze, particularly towards Southeast Asian inhabitants, exhibited instability, oscillating between feelings of superiority and inferiority. This duality emerged because Southeast Asia was already subjected to European colonial rule prior to Japanese occupation, which cast a persistent shadow of Europeanness as the ultimate Other within Southeast Asian society. To support this argument, the study analyzes the instability of the Japanese colonial gaze in three short stories by Takami Jun (1907—1965), reflecting his experiences traveling to the Dutch East Indies and serving as a nanpōchōyōsakka in Burma (now Myanmar). The stories examined are “Amoi no Yōhai Shiki,” “Shominzoku” (both first published in 1941), and “Nōkana no Koto” (first published in 1944). Utilizing Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic framework, this analysis explores the instability of the Japanese colonial gaze through the motif of language barriers as a symbol of “the other’s reverse gaze,” and the transformation from racial prejudice to introspective attitudes. This study employs a textual analysis method, linking it to the historical context of Dutch colonial policy in the Dutch East Indies and British colonial policy in Burma. Additionally, it examines the literary context in Japan regarding the representation of Southeast Asia in the early 1940s. This research also adds to previous studies by addressing the diversity and complexity of the discourse surrounding Japanese imperialism.]]>
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