East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Research Articles

“Asia for Asians”: Revisiting Pan-Asianism through the Propaganda Arts of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Abstract The slogan “Asia for Asians” has been a central concept of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and propagated by Japan as it imperialized parts of East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Oceania. Without bias to the resulting historical developments and realities, Pan-Asianism is revisited through the propaganda arts and materials proliferated by the Empire of Japan towards its agenda of a unified Asia. Aided by knowledge of art history and criticism, six specifically chosen propaganda arts are analyzed using theories of image analysis drawing from the works of Guillermo (2001), Bartmański, Alexander, and Giesen (2012), and Ross (2002). Three main themes are analyzed: the image of the sphere, the collective identity of the countries in the sphere under Japan, and the meaning of co-prosperity. The themes provide an insight into the development of Pan-Asianism as propagated by the Japanese Empire in its attempt towards Pan-Asianism through the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Socio-Spatial Multiplicity in World Politics: Non-Western Regional Imaginations of the Indo-Pacific

Abstract Originally a biogeographic term, “Indo-Pacific” is increasingly replacing “Asia-Pacific” in political discourse. This is not merely a linguistic matter but also has political implications. However, the meaning of “Indo-Pacific” remains unclear, and its implications are contested. While it has attracted the attention of a wide spectrum of political pundits, the regional designation “Indo-Pacific” is used to describe a space of global cooperation and geopolitical competition. This study makes two contributions by reexamining this debate. First, it helps lift the fog around the Indo-Pacific to gain a deeper understanding and encourage reflection on its current rise. Thus, it is situated within a growing body of literature that excavates the complex history of the Indo-Pacific by revisiting its Japanese wartime origins. Second, drawing on the emergent literature on multiplicity, this study shows how the term has historically invoked two different kinds of international relations in Japan. This suggests the importance of examining multiple socio-spatial imaginations internalized by diverse collectivities in the social space of international politics that goes beyond modern European state borders. Introduced by the Japanophile German geopolitician Karl Haushofer, the term was originally used to express the area of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a region that aimed to create a world order that differed from the Western one. This significantly contradicts contemporary usage by the Japanese government, which claims that universal values exist in the region.

Nishida Kitaro and Japans Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

No one shaped modern Japanese philosophy as significantly as did Nishida Kitaro, a prominent scholar at Kyoto Imperial University and the author of An Inquiry into the Good. He pioneered the Kyoto School of Japanese philosophy, which combined Western and Eastern thoughts, traditions, and religions to reach a new understanding of the world. Not usually seen as a political figure, Nishida penned a controversial essay in 1943, two years before his death, titled The Principle of the New World Order. The essay was intended for Prime Minister Tojo Hideki's use at the 1943 Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo, where leaders from East and Southeast Asian countries under the rule of Japanese imperialism discussed future visions for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Japan's ostensible war cause. Nishida opposed the militarist government and its oppressive policies at home and abroad, but he hoped to influence its policy through his philosophical writing as Japan's defeat loomed larger than ever. The tense political atmosphere in wartime Japan and Nishida's vision of the world, which was characterized by the harmonious coexistence of the individual and the collective, turned The Principle of the New World Order into a text full of contradictionsthe greatest among them being his uncritical use of Hakko Ichiu (Eight Corners of the World under One Roof), a politico-religious jargon to justify the supreme rule of the Japanese emperor. After WWII, Nishida was posthumously criticized for cooperating with the military government by writing that essay, but a close examination of the text, its historical context, and other works by Nishida reveal that the lone Japanese philosopher was trying to steer Japan's Pan-Asian policy from within, an attempt that was doomed to fail when the government was mobilizing intellectuals for its imperial goals. By focusing on the case of Nishida, this article uncovers the complex dynamic between the Japanese empire and Japanese intellectuals who tried to voice their views different than the government's.

Religion and Nationalism: Reform of Lamaism in Inner Mongolia by the Japanese

This article examines Inner Mongolian nationalism, which was promoted by Japan in Inner Mongolia during the Sino-Japanese War through the intermediary of Mongolian Buddhist Lamaism. It reveals the competition for the religious support of Lamaism among the nationalist political parties in Inner Mongolia, the reformation of Lamaism carried out by the Japanese under the slogan of Mongolian national awakening, and how the Japanese integrated this work into their larger Asian goals, specifically the Japanese army’s promotion of its own Pan-Asianism among other Asian peoples as the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia ed. by Barak Kushner and Andrew Levidis

Reviewed by: In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia ed. by Barak Kushner and Andrew Levidis Kelly Anne Hammond (bio) In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia. Edited by Barak Kushner and Andrew Levidis. Hong Kong University Press, 2020. vi, 246 pages. $65.00, cloth; $40.00, E-book. Edited collections can be tricky. They often lack cohesion and feel like they are strung together by a theme that is either too broad or too narrow, or the quality of the chapters varies widely. Luckily, this is not the case with Barak Kushner and Andrew Levidis's edited volume, In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia . The book presents cutting edge scholarship on many different facets of the underacknowledged and underrepresented continuities between the Japanese imperial project and the postimperial reconstruction throughout East Asia. Essentially, the book is a smorgasbord of postimperial history: there is something for everyone who is interested in the legacies of Japanese imperialism throughout East Asia. Although I do not have the space to review all the chapters, I hope that readers will be prompted by my review to check out the book and see what suits their own interests. This volume examines how political systems and society were rebuilt in the postwar period while simultaneously considering how the collapse of the Japanese empire impacted East Asia (p. 2). The postwar experiences of those living scattered throughout the remains of the defunct empire were varied, as were the processes of "deimperialization" (pp. 3–4). At its core, the edited volume examines the ways that the violence inflicted by imperial Japan informed both the tangible (political and military, especially) legacies as well as the postwar memories of people living throughout East Asia (p. 11). The book coalesces around two central themes. All the chapters address how "newly independent entities, or states reclaiming independence" successfully or unsuccessfully came to terms with Japan's imperial programs in their territories. The collection also investigates how postimperial Japan "worked to reframe" these new political, military, and civilian relationships within the new cold war geopolitics in East Asia (p. 15). For the authors, the "indelible mark" of the Japanese empire is all over East Asia, although it is not fully recognized, nor is it fully reconciled (p. 23). The chapters are divided into three thematic sections: "Collaboration and Dilemmas of Deimperialization" (four chapters); "Negotiating Past and Present in the Military and Political Realms" (three chapters); and "Returning to the Continent, Japan's Relations with New China" (two chapters). [End Page 247] When I started my PhD in 2008, Tim Brook had only recently published Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China (Harvard University Press, 2007). Although there is a cottage industry in French studies about Vichy and French collaboration with the Nazis, Brook's work was really the first monograph in English to deal with collaboration with the Japanese empire. Such studies have become more frequent and nuanced (see, for example: Jeremy Yellen, The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: Where Total Empire Met Total War [Cornell University Press, 2020]; and A. Carly Buxton, Unthinking Collaboration: American Nisei in Transwar Japan [University of Hawai'i Press, 2022]). Yet, there is still a lot of work to do on the postwar legacies of these collaborators. Many of the chapters in this book (including Levidis's chapter on Kishi Nobusuke and the wartime antecedents of the Liberal Democratic Party [LDP]) are a step in this direction. Beyond the volume, Ernest Leung's recent article in Palladium (August 2021), "The School That Built Asia," echoes many of the points the authors in this section make about the legacies of wartime collaborators in postwar East Asian politics. In section 1, the authors are attempting to "[b]ring attention to spaces where imperial control ceased but was not really replaced" (p. 18). There were often conflicts about how to handle collaborators in postwar East Asia. The Tokyo War Crimes Trials were so different from Nuremburg (see Tim Brook's article "The Tokyo...

The fantasy of Greater East Asia: the racializing discourse of ‘peaceful construction’ and Japan’s occupation of Singapore

This article examines the Japanese wartime discourse on the construction of Greater East Asia as an instrument of racialization by looking at the writings of Ibuse Masuji, Jinbo Kōtarō, and Nakajima Kenzō; Japanese writers and literary critics who served with the military propaganda unit in Singapore under Japanese rule (1942–1945). The nonfiction writings on Japanese language education by Nakajima and Jinbo and the interethnic romance written by Ibuse each take part in multilayered modes of racialization – (in)visibilization, infantilization, re-ethnicization, and feminization. I argue that these different modes of racialization collectively provide the language and content for the narcissistic fantasy of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, thereby displacing the brutal reality of Japanese occupation.

Kokutai Spirit and The Concept of National Identity in Japanese National Policy Film

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was Japan’s imperialist attempt to control the economies of East Asia and Southeast Asia in the first half of the twentieth century. The constituents of the Sphere included Japan, Korea, China, Manchuria, and some territories in Southeast Asia. To increase agricultural production and strengthen its military force, Japan recruited people from its colonies. As the leader of the Sphere, Japan wished to establish its own identity as distinct from—and superior to—that of the West. Propaganda campaigns and media were carefully prepared to manipulate the thoughts and behavior of the people to contribute to the supposed goal of mutual prosperity in the Sphere, by providing labor power for industry and agriculture as well as the military. Films were central to the Japanese propaganda. From 1936 to 1945, films that contain political and ideological messages of the Japanese leadership were produced and circulated both inside and outside Japan. This research aims to illuminate the identity of the Japanese imperial power that was promoted through the propaganda films and show how the films highlighted nationalism and culture harnessed during the war period as constitutive of Japan’s national identity, or kokutai.

Financing Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in Thailand

This article analyses Thailand's place in Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and how Japan financed its goal of integrating the kingdom into the sphere. Financial arrangements to incorporate Thailand in a yen bloc go well beyond finance to reveal Japanese attitudes and policy towards the Co-Prosperity Sphere. In Thailand, Japan's use of ‘special yen’ created near open-ended Japanese purchasing power. Japan could obtain whatever resources it could ship home but provide Thailand almost no goods in exchange. Although in response to Japanese demands the Thai government printed large quantities of money, prices rose not too much faster than monetary expansion. Thailand, unlike most of wartime Southeast Asia, avoided hyperinflation. It is argued that principal explanations for this economically unexpected stability were Thailand's particular economic structure and the behaviour of Thai peasants.

The Southern Experience as a turning point for the poet Kotaro Jinbo - Focusing on the “Southern Poetry Collection”-

This article examines the life of the poet Kotaro Jinbo, focusing on his collection of Southern Poems, while considering his dispatch to Singapore as a conscripted literary agent as a turning point in his life.<BR> Kotaro Jinbo is considered to be the opposite of Masuji Ibuse, who was also conscripted to Singapore. While Ibuse was anti-war and anti-establishment, Jinbo is said to have been an active supporter of Japan’s “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” ideology. This assessment, however, does not take into account the fact that Jinbo was a poet, but judges him solely for his role as President of the Shonan Japan Academy, which taught Japanese in the region. However, in order to appropriately evaluate Jinbo, it is necessary to follow him and pay attention to his activities as a poet before and after his posting to Singapore. <BR> This article examines the poetry and discourses of the poet Kotaro Jinbo, before and after his conscription, and examines how the experience of conscription affected him.

The Southern Experience as a turning point for the poet Kotaro Jinbo - Focusing on the “Southern Poetry Collection”-

This article examines the life of the poet Kotaro Jinbo, focusing on his collection of Southern Poems, while considering his dispatch to Singapore as a conscripted literary agent as a turning point in his life.<BR> Kotaro Jinbo is considered to be the opposite of Masuji Ibuse, who was also conscripted to Singapore. While Ibuse was anti-war and anti-establishment, Jinbo is said to have been an active supporter of Japan’s “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” ideology. This assessment, however, does not take into account the fact that Jinbo was a poet, but judges him solely for his role as President of the Shonan Japan Academy, which taught Japanese in the region. However, in order to appropriately evaluate Jinbo, it is necessary to follow him and pay attention to his activities as a poet before and after his posting to Singapore. <BR> This article examines the poetry and discourses of the poet Kotaro Jinbo, before and after his conscription, and examines how the experience of conscription affected him.

ИСТОРИЧЕСКАЯ ПОЛИТИКА В ЯПОНО-СИНГАПУРСКИХ ОТНОШЕНИЯХ

The article analyses the influence of issues of the historical issues on the contemporary Japan-Singapore relations. The key features of the Singaporean memory about the World War Two are revealed. The connection between the contemporary Singaporean politics of memory and nation-building processes is explored. The contemporary Japanese approach to the policy towards SEA countries has been analysed. The author argues that Japan tries to reincarnate its idea of “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere”. Therefore, it is important for Japan to put the past of the aggressive imperial policy out of the contemporary relations with Singapore, as well as with other countries of Southeast Asia. The absence of barriers in the Japan-Singapore relations due to the historical past is linked with specific features of the Singaporean politics of memory and “forgetting” strategy, which is used by both states.

NOMURA Yoshimasa, Diplomacy The Formation Process and Structure of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: The Conflict in the Japanese Imperial Army between Its Military Administrations and Military Operations

NOMURA Yoshimasa, <i>Diplomacy The Formation Process and Structure of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: The Conflict in the Japanese Imperial Army between Its Military Administrations and Military Operations</i>

Theorizing East Asian Minor Cinema

Theorizing East Asian Minor Cinema Woosung Kang (bio) Why East Asia? Ever since Karl Marx referred to the Asiatic mode of production, the whole continent has often been characterized as the origin of modern capitalist social formation. As is well known, Marx once distinguished Asiatic landforms from all other precapitalist social formations. He specifically had in mind "oriental despotism and the propertylessness" in ancient Asia, "this clan or communal property system" that was "created mostly by a combination of manufactures and agriculture within the small commune" (Marx 1973, 473). Regardless of the historical evidence of such a primitive form of production, the main purpose of Marx's Asian reference appears to have been to emphasize the transitory nature of modern bourgeois society, thereby showcasing that capitalist modernity is not a natural phenomenon but a historically specific form that has to "give place to the next higher (and final) stage in the systematic historical process of the economic formation of society" (Lubasz 1984, 457). For Marx, the Asiatic mode of production constitutes, if anything, both the norm and the exception to his systematic theory of human history. It demonstrates the embryonic stage from which nineteenth-century European bourgeois society derived, but it is also to be understood as the deviant form of social formation that is not fully developed into capitalist economy. Asia has simultaneously been conceived of as prehistorical and premodern. Although Marx's polemical argument emphasizes the former intent, it becomes inevitable that the latter has been appropriated by the later theorists of Orientalism to justify the European intervention of modernity into premodern Asian territories. Since the seventeenth century, modernity in Asia has predominantly been compared with European modernity, and as a result, Asian communities have had to suffer various forms of colonialism. Indeed, Asian colonial modernity is frequently defined as the obverse of European modernity, lagging behind—or lacking entirely, for that matter—the universal narrative of civilizational development. In particular, East Asian communities, or what is often called "Sinophone culture" or "trans-Chinese tributary system," are usually described to be [End Page 205] the epitome of premodern feudalism tightly yoked to the familial system of economy (Hamashita 2008, 12). The violent disintegration of the Qing empire in the nineteenth century by European national imperialism was the case in point. Since then, modernity in East Asia means the Westernization by colonialism according to European standards, thereby modernizing the premodern system of Asiatic feudalism. The exception in this process was Japan, which, because it was situated at the fringe of trans-Chinese tribute system and quick to open to European modernity, voluntarily turned its society into a European one earlier than other East Asian societies (Hamashita 2001, 84). The upshot of the colonization of Chinese empire by European national imperialism and later by modernized Japan was the conundrum in which every community in East Asia constantly strives to catch up with European modernity and, at the same time, fiercely resist the very process of colonial modernization. As a result, East Asian countries find themselves faced with the often contradictory task of at once rapidly modernizing their premodern societies and seeking national independence against Western national imperialisms, including the regional superpower of Japan. Just at the moment when European nationalism in the form of colonial imperialism was clearly in decline, colonized East Asian countries strengthened their nationalism for the purpose of rapid modernization. Ironically, this rise of "belated" nationalisms has defined East Asian communities at least since the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95. Indeed, colonial modernity in East Asia has less to do with the direct occupation of Western imperialism than with the intraregional intervention of Japanese empire. That's why the dominant form of East Asian nationalism and colonial modernity is more anti-Japanese than anti-Western. In fact, the idea of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere or Pan-Asianism by Japanese regional empire was the double-edged sword that partly helped sponsor the nationalism of colonized societies in East Asia and partly compelled the subjugation of national interests to the geopolitical identity of East Asia against Western imperialism. The desire behind the slogan of Co-Prosperity Sphere is clear: Japan, as a new regional empire...

『구스모의 꽃(クスモの花)』에 나타난 태평양전쟁기 일제의 지배 이념

The Flower of Kusumo is an Indonesian Fairy Tales Collection created during the Pacific War. Children's literature writer Koide Shyogo selected 20 stories and adapted them into a fairy tale style for Japanese children to read Indonesian myths and tales. In the preface to this fairy tale book, the author clearly stated the purpose of writing that he hopes the Japanese children to recognize the mission of Japan, as a leader to lead Southeast Asia. So the contents of the book need to be analyzed with the internal principles of the Greater East Asia Co􋹲prosperity Sphere discourse at the time. In addition, since the book was made based on Indonesian myths and tales, it is essential to review it with the concurrent Japanese researcher's folklore perspective and other discourses distributed at the time and the comparison with the original texts. As a result of analyzing the contents in consideration of the above points, the argument that emphasized the similarity between the unique characteristics of Indonesia and Japan first stood out in the work. The most prominent features in the anecdotes found in the book can be categorized into the aspects of the thought of divine kingdom, the Doctrine of Family and Nation, Asian Solidarity and Bushido, and acquiring knowledge about the resources of Southeast Asia. What can be seen from these analysis results is that the author was very conscious of the Pacific War and carefully wrote the work, and that it intended a dual learning effect that reaffirmed Japan's “uniqueness” and value in the process of learning Indonesia. In addition, it can be said that there was an aspect in which Japanese children learned in advance the area where they would be active in the future by naturally being familiar with resources of Southeast Asia while reading fairy tales.

Hidden Facts and The Representation of Indonesia within Mamiya Mosuke’s “Kichi no Seikatsu”

Despite witnessing modernization in Indonesia, nanpōchōyōsakka (South-dispatched writers) depicted Indonesians as people who remain undeveloped because of Western colonialism. This article argues that there must be “hidden facts” behind the representation of Indonesia within the writers’ works due to a mission of disseminating the idea of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. Using Mamiya Mosuke’s military essay “Kichi no Seikatsu” as the object of study, this article seeks to explain what kind of “Indonesia” Mamiya represents and the impact of such representation on “Indonesia” as a spatial concept by illuminating “hidden facts” behind his expressions. This article employs the concept of contact zone (Mary Louise Pratt) to view Indonesia as a social space already shaped by Dutch colonialism and uses sakuhinron method to analyze Mamiya’s expressions in representing Indonesia. Through analysis, Mamiya portrays Indonesians as reliant people and blames such conditions on the Dutch colonial policy while leaving local intellectuals and nationalist movements out of his narrative. This article concludes that Mamiya justifies the notion of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere by denying Indonesian agency, gives an impression that Indonesians need Japanese guidance to stand on their own. Keywords: Contact Zone; Kichi no Seikatsu; Mamiya Mosuke; Nanpōchōyōsakka; Representation

'The Yellow River Comes from Our Hands': Silt, Hydroelectricity, and the Sanmenxia Dam, 1929-1973

Abstract Focusing on the planning and construction of the Sanmenxia hydropower project, this article analyses the dynamics and tensions between energy demand and the nature of the Yellow River in the twentieth century. From the late 1920s, Japanese engineers aimed to develop hydroelectric power by building dams on the Yellow River. They viewed the Yellow River as an important source of hydroelectric power for building the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. When Chinese Communists took control, they claimed that the primary function of the Sanmenxia project was flood control. Yet, influenced by the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist state's industrialisation efforts, the engineers also emphasised the generation of electrical power, which resulted in a high dam design. The silting of the reservoir, however, frustrated the ambition of the Chinese leaders and engineers and resulted in the production of much lower and unstable power output upon the dam's completion.

What a Map and a Portrait Have in Common

This short essay summarizes thoughts inspired by two images chosen for covers of the journal EASTS—a portrait of an East Asian female scientist and a map of the Pacific Ocean region centered on Taiwan. At first glance, they appear to bear no relation to each other until one realizes that they were both produced in 1944 within the Japanese “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere”—the map in colonial Taiwan and the portrait in colonial Korea.

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War by Jeremy A. Yellen

Reviewed by: The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War by Jeremy A. Yellen Barak Kushner (bio) The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War. By Jeremy A. Yellen. Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY, 2019. xii, 286 pages. $45.00. In late April 1997, the Asahi shinbun published a series of conversations between former Japanese Prime Ministers Nakasone Yasuhiro and Miyazawa Kiichi. The statesmen agreed on many issues but remained divided on the 1946 constitution. Miyazawa assessed it as a force for good even though it did not emerge from the will of the Japanese people. Nakasone did not dismiss it but felt that Japan had lost its "independence." Therefore he wanted to try and redraft the nation's own constitution.1 The debate was supposed to focus on contemporary Japan but the discussions kept turning back to Japan's war in Asia, which influenced how the leaders viewed the postwar. Was the nature of Japan's postwar constitution reflective of its past or indicative of a peaceful future? After the Abe Shinzō administration stepped down after almost eight years in power, the current push for constitutional reform continues to remain pertinent. Most contemporary political discussions in Japan still pivot on an assessment of the character of the war and Japan's empire, so Jeremy Yellen's book arrives at a propitious time. He leads us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the scaffolding that the Japanese employed in their imperial construction of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Yellen's book opens with the 1937 China Incident. The imperial general headquarters-government liaison conference was created in November 1937, as the army marched toward Nanjing, so it is an apt beginning. It is fitting, as Tomoko Akami explains, because the idea of "equality and independence of colonies from European powers" grew to be "a significant strategic matter for the Allied forces and Japan, for both needed the cooperation of China and other colonies." This shift to gain support propelled the Japanese to further define "its war ideology, the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere."2 Yellen describes in his deep empirical analysis, showing mastery of the archival record in Japan and the long stretch of Japanese secondary scholarship, how Japan was attempting to shape its own new world order. There [End Page 215] are four schools of thought on the sphere as he sees it: (1) the Kobayashi Hideo school which sees the sphere as starting with the Manchurian Incident in 1931 and then evolving in Japan's push for industrialization and self-sufficiency; (2) the revisionists who see the sphere in an uncritical and congratulatory light as the zenith of Japan's holy war and efforts to liberate Asia; (3) an ideological third school, which sees it as an outgrowth of pan-Asianism and imperialism as an ideological mission containing fascist and neo-Confucian elements all at once; and (4) those who hold that the sphere was an abortive vision of the future. Building on research examined in The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931–1945, Yellen takes a more in-depth approach to examine the interactive nature of the sphere in Southeast Asia. By 1942, Japanese rule over 350 million people stretched almost from the Aleutian Islands to India.3 Japanese hegemony was, of course, more illusory than actual but we cannot ignore its impact. In this vein, Yellen embarks on the prior journey that Louise Young analyzed in her description of Manchuria as a key element for Japan's launch of total empire.4 However, historians in mainland China have depicted Manchukuo as a "fake" empire, not worthy of analysis. Yamamuro Shin'ichi cautions us in his autopsy of the region that we need to take care when assessing Japan's imperial periphery because to merely label it as a puppet erases our chances of understanding its complicated legacy.5 In Yellen's analysis, the sphere was a hybrid construction of both fantastical conjecture and practical realpolitik to preserve a space for imperial Japan in an expanding world war. Japanese ideologues saw the sphere as colonial and anticolonial at the same time (p. 20). Japan was...

Rising Sun in the Eastern Horizon of Java: The Occupation of Japanese 16th Army in Banyuwangi, East Java 1942-1945

The Japanese Armed Forces did not take a long time to occupy the southern regions. Invading the southern regions was the Japanese’s ambition to build “The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. Through Kalijati treaty, the Government of Dutch East Indies declared its unconditional surrender to the Japanese Armed Forces. Banyuwangi is an area located in the most eastern part of Java and considered as a strategic place as a defense fortress for all Java regions from the allied attacks from the south (Australia). The Japanese 16th Army implemented various policies as a part of the Greater East Asia War plan. The purpose of this study was to describe the policies made by the Japanese military government when occupying Banyuwangi, East Java. This study used a historical research method consisting of five steps: topic selection, heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The result of this study shows that Banyuwangi is a strategic area where the Japanese 16th Army directly or indirectly implemented various policies for mass mobilization in supporting the Greater East Asia War. Through its propaganda, the Japanese military said that the Banyuwangi people’s sacrifice was for a mutual victory in the war to build a new, safe, and prosperous Asia.

Justification and Opposition of Mass Killing: Black Sun—The Nanking Massacre

Japan was supposed to obey the law during the second world war. However, the Nanjing Massacre still happened. Hirohito, the Japanese emperor, deliberately avoided mentioning the International Treaties in the imperial rescript of the Great East Asia War in 1937. The Nanking Massacre was carried out according to the Japanese army’s interpretation of the imperial rescript. Such a legal interpretation was rooted in the idea that Japan had to educate the Chinese and transform China by killing its people in order to pursue a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere led by Japan. In the film Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre (1995), we can see both a justification of and an opposition to killing. In this paper I am going to show how the imperial rescript is used to justify this mass killing is and how opposing arguments are used to show its cruelty and absurdity, which is taken as a means to achieve a greater good.