Japanese Imperialism: The

Greater East Asia Co-

Prosperity Sphere
University of Guadalajara
大東亜の現代史
Cristóbal Collignon de Alba, PhD
Angel J. Orozco Romero
Julián Darío Nuño Ramirez
Karla Muñoz Ruiz

Andrew J. Grajdanzev
Born in Ussolie, Russia, in
1899. In 1924 he moved to
Harbin later taught at Nankai
University in Tianjin. Dr.
Grajdanzev had an extended
career as a research scholar in
China and the US.
About the authors
Peter Duus
The William H. Bonsall Professor of History at
Stanford University and a prolific scholar, Peter
Duus has made significant contributions to the
understanding of the development of Japanese
imperialism and the emergence of the modern
Japanese nation. Having received his doctorate
from Harvard, Duus taught successively at
Harvard, Washington University, and the
Claremont Graduate School before arriving at
Stanford in 1973.
 After the WWI: 'How could imperialism be legitimized now
that colonialism was no longer legitimate?

The Mandate System Pan-nationalism

Established by Article 22 of the League of Nations
Covenant The ideology of 'pan-
nationalism' tried to
'Sacred trust of civilization’ implied the right to reconcile imperialism
dominate; 'tutelage' implied the exercise with the ethnic conception
of the nation, proposing a
of domination;
union of 'equals'.
and
'responsibility'
• Commonality and
implied the
solidarity in the face of
ability to
foreign intrusion and
dominate.
domination
Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita on 29 June 1940:

“In order to realize [the establishment of world peace], it seems to be

the most natural step that peoples who are closely related to one
another geographically, racially, culturally, and economically should
first form a sphere of their own for co-existence and co-prosperity
and establish peace and order within that sphere”.
 Strategy of the GEACPS
● Justification during the Sino-Japanese War - slogan to combat
the enmity of the peoples who were included in this sphere.
● These peoples were to be convinced that their inclusion in this
co-prosperity sphere was in their own interest; that not only
Japan but also the population of the occupied regions would
derive advantages from the occupation.

● The GEACPS,
contemplated a pan-
nationalist unity
able to accommodate
the national
autonomy of other
Asians.
 Configuration of the
GEACPS
In Northeast Asia, Japan planned to
build an integrated industrial
complex; the role of territories in the
south was to supply raw materials
and also provide a market for
Japanese exports.

The management of the new empire

is concentrated in the Greater East
Asia Ministry.
Objectives of the project

The pan-Asian mission was defined in two

The overarching main ways
goals of the Greater
East Asian Co-
Prosperity Sphere Japan should serve Japan had a duty to protect
were economic as a conduit for the its East Asian neighbours
autarchy and tight modernization/ from Western takeover by
political control Westernization of extending its benevolent
from Japan East Asia control over them
The vision of GEACPS allowed Japanese leaders to assert
Japan's domination and deny it at the same time with its
commitment to a new anti-colonial 'world order', built an
intellectual or ideological basis for wartime collaboration.

It offered a new and inspiring definition of Japan's national

identity, one that not only placed Japan on a plane equivalent
to the Western powers but also suggested that Japan stood in
the forefront of a movement to end their centuries-long
hegemony over the world outside the West.
Matsuoka 1933, the League of Nations and Japan’s
counter-colonialism.

Address by Prime Minister Yosuke

Matsuoka to the Imperial Diet 1941

http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1941/41
0121b.html
 The forgotten armies

Was Japan a lonely nation on this effort?

大東亞會議 , Dai Tōa Kaigi Greater East Asia Conference 1941

Participants of the Greater East

Asia Conference from left to right:
Ba Maw (Burma), Zhang Jinghui
(Manchukuo), Wang Jingwei
(China/Kuomingtan), Hideki Tōjō
(Japan), Wan Waithayakon (Thai),
Jose P. Laurel (Philippines), and
Subhas Chandra Bose (Free India)
 Pan-Asian idealism against the evil "white devils"

● Mutual cooperation
● Fraternity of the region
● Respecting one another’s traditions
● Accelerate economic development
● Cultivate friendly relations with the nations of
the world

Results:
○ Special emphasis against racism and
discrimination
Collaborators in SEA
● Nationalist heroes?
● Traitors?
● War criminals?

The war in the Philippines devolved also into civil war.

● Guerilyeras / Amazonas in the Hukbalahap(Philippine
women fighting vs Japanese occupation)
Youtuber Kirby Araullo is an interesting gateway
But also read this and this or atthe very least, this
Questions and reflections to be very, very careful.

What is the GEACSP?

1.- “GEACSP” is what japanese
polititians make of it.
Was it unjust?
How did it manifest? 4.- It became, as war progressed, a
proposition of justice an
2.- Panasianism and
postcolonialism on pragmatic
liberation
militarism.
Did it ended?
Was it unilateral? 5.- Influence on the
Unmeikyoudotai Belt and Road
3.- The forbidden armies of
Philippines and Myanmar
Initiative from China

Was it liberal?
6.- It provided language for liberal
IR perspectives in Asia,
brought the South East Asia
 Sources

Booth, A. E. (2007). The Greater Asian

Co-Prosperity Sphere: 1942–1945. In
Colonial Legacies (pp. 148-163).
University of Hawaii Press.

Duus, P. (1996). Imperialism without

colonies: The vision of a greater east
Asia co‐prosperity sphere. Diplomacy
and Statecraft, 7(1), 54-72.

Grajdanzev, A. J. (1943). Japan's Co-

Prosperity Sphere. Pacific Affairs, 16(3),
311-328.

Presentation elaborated by P. Dayanara Hernández