Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (GEACPS), during World War II (1939–45), the Japanese concept of a unified and self-sufficient bloc in the Asia-Pacific region under Japanese control. It was to be Japan’s ideological new order, which would amount to a self-contained empire stretching from Manchuria to the Dutch East Indies and including China, French Indochina, Thailand, and British Malaya as satellite states. Under the slogan “Asia for Asians,” Japan intended to ensure its political and industrial hegemony over the region while excluding from it both European imperialism and communist influence. In reality, many countries within the GEACPS were exploited by Japan for its war effort. The GEACPS collapsed with Japan’s surrender to the Allied powers in September 1945.

Background

The idea of the GEACPS developed from a series of issues. Japanese leaders had an imperialistic interest in securing natural resources and expanding Japan’s territory, military, and economy. In addition, they believed that Westerners treated the Japanese unfairly, out of racial and ethnic prejudice against Asians, and they resented the Western colonization of Asian countries as well as the discriminatory laws and sentiments against Asians in the United States and other Western countries. Since the Meiji Restoration, a political revolution in 1868 that brought about the modernization and Westernization of Japan, Japanese leaders had sought recognition of their country as a power equal to Western countries. However, the treatment that Japan received from the Western powers during negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference—the meeting that inaugurated the international settlement after World War I—further convinced Japanese leaders that their country was not being regarded as an equal.

Japan had entered World War I in 1914 on the side of the Allied powers, and it had primarily fought German naval forces and captured German-controlled territories in the Asia-Pacific region. Japanese leaders’ primary goals were to expand Japan’s power in that region and to gain the country recognition as an equal of the Western powers. After the Allies won the war in 1918, Japanese leaders expected their country to be rewarded. However, Japan’s representatives at the Paris Peace Conference achieved far less than they had hoped and found themselves being treated unfairly vis-à-vis their Western peers. Whereas they had expected to secure all the formerly German-controlled territories in the Asia-Pacific, they secured only some of them. New Zealand, Australia, and Great Britain gained the other German concessions.

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In addition, Japan’s representatives proposed a “racial equality clause” to be included in the covenant of the League of Nations, which was also under negotiation at the conference. The clause stated that all countries, regardless of the race of their people, were equal. This was a Japanese effort to secure recognition of Japan’s equal footing with Western countries. Although the majority of the negotiating parties supported the clause, it was ultimately rejected by the conference chair, U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson, ostensibly because the vote in favour of it had not been unanimous. The rejection of the racial equality proposal, as well as Japanese disappointment at not receiving more territorial spoils, played a part in Japanese leaders’ conclusion that their goal of increasing Japan’s influence would be best served by dominating the Asia-Pacific.

Overview

The GEACPS was formally announced to the public by the Japanese foreign minister Yōsuke Matsuoka in August 1940. In the announcement, he introduced the idea of “Asia for Asians,” which entailed the economic, political, and military unification of Asia. Scholars have since observed the similarity of the GEACPS to the Monroe Doctrine: just as that statement of U.S. foreign policy, proclaimed in 1823, included a prohibition of further colonization in the Western Hemisphere, the GEACPS concept sought to end the era of Western colonization in the Asia-Pacific.

As Japanese forces invaded and conquered more and more countries and territories in that region, the GEACPS came to include Korea, Manchukuo (Japanese-controlled Manchuria), parts of China, French Indochina, the Philippines, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, Thailand, and other countries and territories in Asia as well as parts of the Pacific Islands region.

In November 1943 Tokyo hosted an international summit called the Greater East Asia Conference, which was attended by representatives from puppet regimes in Japanese-occupied countries and territories, such as prime ministers from Manchukuo and Burma. At the conclusion of the conference, a joint declaration with five points was announced. The GEACPS countries were to (1) cooperate to ensure the stability of their region, (2) respect the sovereignty and independence of each participating country, (3) respect one another’s traditions and cultures, (4) cooperate for economic development and prosperity, and (5) work to establish friendly relations with other countries around the world. While this declaration was designed to appear beneficial for all parties, in actuality Japan dominated the GEACPS and engaged in extractive colonialism.

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Japan justified its dominant position within the sphere by claiming that the Japanese people were racially superior. For this reason, despite the 1943 joint declaration of respect for the sovereignty and independence of each participating country, Japan imposed its culture on the rest of the sphere. For instance, it mandated Japanese as the official language of the GEACPS, it sent Japanese teachers to the other countries to teach Japanese culture and instill respect for the Japanese emperor, and it often forced non-Japanese people to pray for Japan’s success at Shinto shrines.

In addition to imposing its culture on other countries within the bloc, Japan took control of each country’s government. Countries that Japan declared to be independent, such as Burma and the Philippines in 1943, were actually Japanese puppet states. Japanese leaders sent their military forces to countries within the sphere to maintain order. Despite the atrocities those forces were committing in the areas they occupied, including widespread torture, rape, and mass killings, the Japanese-controlled mass media sector produced propaganda, such as films and print materials, that often portrayed the Japanese as heroic figures—indeed, as liberators of the Asia-Pacific from Western colonialists.

During World War II, Japan used the GEACPS as an economic backbone. Primarily to serve its own interests, it oversaw trade, manufacturing, and financial and monetary affairs within the bloc. It also exploited the GEACPS countries’ human and natural resources. For instance, it forced non-Japanese civilians to work in factories that produced arms for Japan’s military, and it compelled member countries to ship much of their agricultural produce to Japan. In addition, it had natural resources like iron ore, rubber, oil, and coal extracted from GEACPS countries and sent to Japan to supply its war effort.

In the process, millions of people within the sphere experienced widespread terror and suffering. With the Japanese surrender to the Allies on September 2, 1945, the GEACPS collapsed.