Questions about Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What was the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere?
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a pan-Asian political and economic union that the Empire of Japan attempted to establish during World War II. It was formally named by Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita in a radio address on the 29th of June 1940. Although promoted as a coalition to resist Western imperialism, a secret government document, An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus, revealed it was designed to enforce Japanese supremacy over the rest of Asia.
When was the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere founded and who named it?
The name Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was coined by Minister for Foreign Affairs Hachiro Arita on the 29th of June 1940, announced via radio address. An earlier version of the concept had been proposed by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and Arita on the 3rd of November 1938, initially covering only Japan, China, and Manchukuo.
What happened at the Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo?
The Greater East Asia Conference took place in Tokyo on the 5th and the 6th of November 1943. Japan hosted heads of state including Hideki Tojo, Wang Jingwei of China, Ba Maw of Burma, Subhas Chandra Bose of the Provisional Government of Free India, Jose P. Laurel of the Philippines, and Prince Wan Waithayakon from Thailand. The conference produced speeches praising Asian spiritual values and condemning Western colonialism but no practical plans for economic integration, and because military representatives were absent, it carried little military value.
Why did the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere fail?
The Sphere failed because Japan operated it for Japanese interests rather than for the benefit of member nations. Ba Maw, wartime head of state of Burma, argued that the Japanese militarists insisted all others adopt the Japanese perspective, making genuine cooperation impossible. Willard Elsbree, professor emeritus at Ohio University, concluded that Japan and the nationalist movements it nominally supported never developed a real unity of interests, and there was no widespread despair in Asia at Japan's defeat in September 1945.
How did American foreign policy influence Japan's expansion in Asia?
General Charles LeGendre, the first non-Japanese foreign policy advisor hired by Japan, urged it in 1872 to declare a sphere of influence modeled on the Monroe Doctrine. President Theodore Roosevelt privately reiterated this encouragement, and the Taft-Katsura Agreement of July 1905 secretly partitioned the Western Pacific between the United States and Japan. During later negotiations, Japan explicitly compared its Asian expansion to the Monroe Doctrine and Roosevelt Corollary.
How far did Japan plan to extend the Co-Prosperity Sphere territorially?
The Land Disposal Plan, completed in December 1941 by Japan's Ministry of War under War Minister Hideki Tojo, projected control over virtually all of East Asia, the Pacific, and parts of the Western Hemisphere. Planned territories included Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Alaska, British Columbia, Alberta, and large portions of Central America and the Caribbean. Australia and New Zealand were designated to receive up to two million Japanese settlers.