"Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" origin

Author: Lin Qingyuan, Yang Qifu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-11-01
Features:
Foreword: The Sino-Japanese relationship has a long history. Ancient Japan once took China as a model to learn its culture, and Confucianism has always had a profound influence in Japan. Unfortunately, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted a national policy of "enriching the nation and strengthening the military" through aggression and plunder, demonstrating a strong ambition to dominate its Asian neighbors. This ultimately led to the Pacific War in the 20th century, causing immense suffering for the people of Asia, including the Japanese people. It can be said that the history of modern Sino-Japanese relations is stained with blood due to the reckless aggression of Japanese militarism against China. There are countless research papers and monographs on the history of Japanese aggression in Asia. However, relatively speaking, studies from an ideological and theoretical perspective are relatively weak. Some monographs on similar topics are only mentioned in the context of Japanese history, and most are by Japanese and Taiwanese scholars. Among them, Iwao Seiichi's History of Japanese Militarism is similar to this topic. In the 1990s, some Japanese scholars began to pay attention to this subject. For example, Japanese scholar Mizuno Akira pointed out that in the hundred years of relevant literature, "most have focused on the war itself and the evaluation of figures involved in the war, while the formation of Japan's imperialist ideology in invading China has not been deeply studied in terms of quality, necessitating further exploration." Why does Japanese militarist ideology linger on, appearing and disappearing from time to time? Why do some Japanese people stubbornly deny Japan's war crimes against Asia? One important reason is that since the Meiji Restoration, a set of "rational" justifications for aggression has been formed, creating a deeply rooted path of military plunder to enrich capitalist capitalism. Analyzing Japan's aggressive ideology from a Marxist theoretical perspective can deepen the understanding of various forms of imperialism (such as Japan, Germany, and the West), expand academic fields, conduct in-depth research on the history of Japanese aggressive ideology, and lead the study of modern Japanese history to greater depth. This not only has significant academic value but also practical significance. Thus, it serves to show the world: peaceful development is the right path, while military plunder is a dead end. Indeed, alongside Japan's aggression against Asia, including China, different excuses, slogans, and banners have been created in each period, fabricating various aggressive theories to cover up their actions. Calling them "theories" is actually mostly a distortion of facts or sophistry. In response, we must not only analyze them with Marxist theory but also use empirical historical methods, relying on a wealth of historical materials to expose their motives and conspiracies, especially using their internal statements to expose the deceptive and appealing words and slogans they publicly put forward. We believe this is undoubtedly an effective rebuttal to the right-wing elements in Japan who still defend its foreign aggression to this day. By organizing and reviewing the historical materials of Japanese aggression against China, it allows the world to clearly see whether Japan's actions in modern history were an invasion of Asia or a "liberation of Asia." This is also the most important purpose of writing this book. Japanese militarism's external expansion and aggression created different excuses, banners, and aggressive theories in each period to cover up its aggressive actions. The so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" is the most deceptive and completely exposes Japan's ambition to dominate the world. This book comprehensively and systematically analyzes its "origin" and "flow" through the words and writings of those who made, manufactured, launched, and advocated aggression, making it a monograph that focuses on studying Japanese aggressive ideology, policies, and theories.