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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 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] 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.
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. It was an Imperial Japanese Army concept which originated with General Hachiro Arita, who at the time was minister of foreign affairs and an army ideologist. was a Japanese term (banned during the post-war occupation) referring to East Asia, Southeast Asia and surrounding areas.
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.

Contents

History

The Kōa-in

Trivia

See also

References and Notes

General

External links

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

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. ^[2]
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.^[3]

Trivia

In the video game Front Mission the player leads a military unit for the Oceania Cooperative Union, a political entity comprised of the regions intended to make up the Co-prosperity Sphere, against an expansionist power known as the United States of the New Continent which dominates the Americas.

See also

★ Hachirō Arita: Army thinker who thought up the Greater East Asian concept

★ Satō Nobuhiro: alleged founder of the Greater East Asia concept

★ Imperialism in Asia

★ Azad Hind

★ Militarism-Socialism in Showa Japan

★ Japanese fascism

★ Japanese nationalism

★ Japanese war crimes

★ Korea under Japanese rule

★ Second Philippine Republic (Japanese-sponsored)

★ Tanaka Memorial

★ Japanese Empire

★ Ministry of Greater East Asia (Japan)

★ Greater East Asia Conference (November 1943)

★ List of East Asian leaders in the Japanese sphere of influence (1931-1945)

★ Overseas political parties and movements with Japanese support

★ Yen block

★ East Asia Summit: unrelated term in the early 21st century

References and Notes

1. http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/papers/coprospr.htm
2. Zhifen Ju, Japan's Atrocities of Conscripting and Abusing North China Drafteees 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
3. ''Japan profited as opium dealer wartime China'', http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070830f1.html

General

Dower, John. War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. Pantheon Books. New York: 1986.

External links

★ Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere - academic paper