National Appropriation of Imperial Lands in Northeast Asia
Year: 2023

The chapter examines the transformation of imperial territories into national lands in Northeast Asia (NEA). The concept of the geo-body, which attaches emotional value to a territory, is central to the argument. The chapter outlines the principal mechanisms for creation of the modern geo-bodies of Russia, China, and Japan through the appropriation of the Russian Far East (RFE), Hokkaido, and China’s Northeast (Manchuria). A formal annexation or inheritance from a collapsing empire did not make