Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

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Image:Manchukuo011.jpg
Poster of Manchukuo promoting harmony between Japanese, Chinese, and Manchu. The caption says: "With the help of Japan, China, and Manchukuo, the world can be in peace."

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (Kyūjitai: 大東亞共榮圈, Shinjitai: 大東亜共栄圏 Dai-tō-a Kyōeiken) was a concept created and promulgated during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan which represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers". [1] The Sphere was initiated by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, in an attempt to create a Great East Asia, comprised of Japan, Manchukuo, China, and parts of Southeast Asia, that would, according to imperial propaganda, establish a new international order seeking ‘coprosperity’ for Asian countries which would share prosperity and peace, free from Western colonialism and domination [2].

However, this was one of a number of slogans and concepts used in the justification of Japanese aggression in East Asia in the 1930s through the end of World War II and the term "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" is remembered today largely as a front for the Japanese control of occupied countries during World War II, in which puppet governments manipulated local populations and economies for the benefit of Imperial Japan.

Negative connotations which many still associate with the term "Greater East Asia" (大東亜) remain one of a number of difficulties facing the annual East Asia Summits, begun in 2005, to discuss the possibility of the establishment of a stronger, more united East Asian Community.

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[edit] History

During World War II, many countries occupied by Japan were run by puppet governments, which manipulated local populations and economies for the benefit of Imperial Japan, backed by this conception of a united Asia absent of, or opposed to, European influence. It was an Imperial Japanese Army concept which originated with General Hachiro Arita, who at the time was Minister for Foreign Affairs and an army ideologist. "Greater East Asia" (大東亜 Dai-tō-a?) was a Japanese term (banned during the post-war Occupation) referring to Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and surrounding areas.

The idea of the Co-Prosperity Sphere was formally announced by Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke on August 1, 1940 in a press interview, but had already existed in various forms for many years. Leaders in Japan had long been interested in the idea, in reality to extend Japanese power and acquire an empire based on European models, though ostensibly to free Asia from imperialism.

As part of its war drive, Japanese propaganda included phrases like "Asia for Asians" and talked about the perceived need to liberate Asian countries from imperialist powers. In some cases they were welcomed when they invaded neighboring countries, driving out British, French, and other governments and military forces. In general, however, the subsequent brutality and racism of the Japanese led to them being regarded as equal to, or, more often, much worse than Western imperialists.

From the Japanese point of view, the main reason behind forming the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, was the same reason Japan initiated war with the United States: Chinese Markets. Japan wanted their "paramount relations", in relation to Chinese markets, acknowledged by the U.S. government. The U.S., however, saw the abundance of wealth that could be found in these markets, and thus refused to let the Japanese have an advantage in distributing to these markets. Therefore, in an attempt to give Japan a formal advantage over the Chinese markets, the Imperial regime invaded China and launched the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. According to Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, would Japan be successful in creating this sphere, it would then emerge as the leader of Eastern Asia and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity sphere would be another name for the Japanese Empire [3].

The Co-Prosperity Sphere collapsed with Japan's surrender to the Allies.

[edit] The Kōa-in

The Kōa-in (興亜院, East Asia Development Board), created on 18 November 1938 under the first Konoe government, was developed to be one of the main actors in the economic development of the Sphere.

However, according to historian Zhifen Ju, its main result was the implementation of a system of slave work. She argues that until 1942, at least five million Chinese civilians from North China and Manchukuo were enslaved for work in Imperial mines and war industries. After the Greater East Asia War was launched, the number of workers that were coerced exceeded 10 million, of which about 7 million came from North China. [4]

According to a document found by journalist Reiji Yoshida, the Kōa-in was directly implicated in providing funds to drug dealers in China for the benefits of puppets governements of Nanjing, Manchukuo and Mongolia.[5] This document corroborates evidence analyzed earlier by the Tokyo tribunal which stated:

"Japan's real purpose in engaging drug traffic was far more sinister than even the debauchery of Chinese people. Japan, having signed and ratified the opium conventions, was bound not to engage in drug traffic, but she found in the alleged but false independence of Manchukuo a convenient opportunity to carry on a worldwide drug traffic and cast the guilt upon that puppet state (...) In 1937, it was pointed out in the League of Nations that 90% of all illicit white drugs in the world were of Japanese origin..."[6].

[edit] Joint Declaration of the Greater East Asia Conference

The published Joint Declaration of the Greater East Asia Conference: It is the basic principle for the establishment of world peace that the nations of the world have each its proper place, and enjoy prosperity in common through mutual aid and assistance.

The United States of America and the British Empire have in seeking their own prosperity oppressed other nations and peoples. Especially in East Asia, they indulged in insatiable aggression and exploitation, and sought to satisfy their inordinate ambitions of enslaving the entire region, and finally they came to menace seriously the stability of East Asia. Herein lies the cause of the recent war.

The countries of Greater East Asia, with a view to contributing to the cause of world peace, undertake to cooperate toward prosecuting the War of Greater East Asia to a successful conclusion, liberating their region from the yoke of British-American domination, and ensuring their self-existence and self-defense,. and in constructing a Greater East Asia in accordance with the following principles:

  • The countries of Greater East Asia through mutual co­operation will ensure the stability of their region and construct an order of common prosperity and well-being based upon justice.
  • The countries of Greater East Asia will ensure the fraternity of nations in their region, by respecting one another's sovereignty and independence and practicing mutual assistance and amity.
  • The countries of Greater East Asia by respecting one another's traditions and developing the creative faculties of each race, will enhance the culture and civilization of Greater East Asia.
  • The countries of Greater East Asia will endeavor to accelerate their economic development through close cooperation upon a basis of reciprocity and to promote thereby the general prosperity of their region.
  • The countries of Greater East Asia will cultivate friendly relations with all the countries of the world, and work for the abolition of racial discrimination, the promotion of cultural intercourse and the opening of resources throughout the world, and contribute thereby to the progress of mankind. [7]

[edit] Failure of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Although Japan succeeded in stimulating anti-Westernism in Asia, the sphere never materialized into a unified Asia. Dr. Ba Maw, wartime President of Burma under the Japanese, claims that this was because of the Japanese military: "The militarists saw everything only in a Japanese perspective and, even worse, they insisted that all others dealing with them should do the same. For them there was only one way to do a thing, the Japanese way; only one goal and interest, the Japanese interest; only one destiny for the East Asian countries, to become so many Manchukuos or Koreas tied forever to Japan. These racial impositions...made any real understanding between the Japanese militarists and the people of our region virtually impossible" [8]. In other words, the Greater East Co-Prosperity Sphere was not working for the betterment of all the East Asia countries, but rather for Japan's own interests and thus they failed to gather support in other East Asian countries. Nationalist movements did appear in these East Asian countries during this period and these nationalists did, to some extent, cooperate with the Japanese. However, Willard Elsbree, former professor of political science at Ohio University, claims that the Japanese government and these nationalist leaders never developed "a real unity of interests between the two parties, [and] there was no overwhelming despair on the part of the Asians at Japan's defeat" [9]. It seems that the failure of Japan to understand the goals and interests of the other countries involved in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere led to a weak association of countries bound to Japan only in theory and not in spirit. Dr. Ba Maw argues that had Japan "only been faithful to the concept of Asia for the Asians that she herself had proclaimed at the beginning of the war, Japans fate would have been very different. No military defeat could then have robbed her of the trust and gratitude of half of Asia or even more, and that would have mattered a great deal in finding for her a new, great, and abiding place in a postwar world in which Asia was coming into her own" [10]. Thus, had Japan created a sphere where all of Asia's interests were represented, post-war Asia could have been an entirely different place even with the military defeat of Japan.

[edit] Ministers For Greater East Asia

[Ministry abolished August 1945.] [11]

[edit] See also

Image:DaitouaKyoueiken.JPG
Greater East Asia Map Stamp

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^ http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/papers/coprospr.htm
  2. ^ Iriye, 6
  3. ^ Iriye
  4. ^ Zhifen Ju, Japan's Atrocities of Conscripting and Abusing North China Draftees after the Outbreak of the Pacific War, Joint Study of the Sino-Japanese War, Harvard, 2002, http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/sino-japanese/minutes_2002.htm
  5. ^ Japan profited as opium dealer wartime China, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070830f1.html
  6. ^ http://www.ibiblio.net/hyperwar/PTO/IMTFE/IMTFE-5.html
  7. ^ http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=70 WW2DB: Greater East Asia Conference
  8. ^ Lebra, 157
  9. ^ Lebra, 160
  10. ^ Lebra, 158
  11. ^ Foreign Office Files for Japan and the Far East

[edit] General

  • Dower, John. War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. Pantheon Books. New York: 1986.
  • Iriye, Akira. Pearl Harbor and the coming of the Pacific War :a Brief History with Documents and Essays. Boston : Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
  • Lebra, Joyce C. Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in World War II: Selected Readings and Documents. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.

[edit] External links

es:Esfera de coprosperidad del este de Asia fr:Sphère de coprospérité de la grande Asie orientale ko:대동아공영권 he:מרחב השגשוג המשותף של מזרח אסיה רבתי ja:大東亜共栄圏 pl:Wielka Wschodnioazjatycka Strefa Wspólnego Dobrobytu pt:Bloco yen th:วงไพบูลย์ร่วมแห่งมหาเอเชียบูรพา zh:大東亞共榮圈

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