Japanese "Co-Prosperity Sphere": What was it really?

[Postauthoritarian America]

A euphemism for the Japanese Empire.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Random people in Southeast Asia: "Don't worry guys, Japan is here to emancipate us from the European colonialists.

Japan: https://youtu.be/9QrRhQd4gZA

[Genivaria]

Random people in Southeast Asia: "Don't worry guys, Japan is here to emancipate us from the European colonialists.

Japan: https://youtu.be/9QrRhQd4gZA

See I was going with Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.
Japan :FELLOW ASIANS! WE ARE HERE TO SAVE YOU!
Asians: Oh great it's the Empire of Japan!
Japan: FROM YOURSELVES!
Asians: Oh great it's the Empire of Japan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzse69b0qMo

[Pilipinas and Malaya]

But of course, this is just my view. What do you all think of this controversial aspect of 20th-century Asian history?

I can't speak for other member-states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, and I'm not going to justify the god-awful atrocities the Japanese committed (especially as a Filipino), but I will say that from a Filipino perspective, I understand why the GEACPS saw some popularity and why some people supported it. I think the Pacific theatre was simply inevitable because of this fact, and even if the Japanese did not attack Pearl Harbour, some other Asian country would have instigated a WW2-style Pan-Asian "revolution" at a much later date anyway.

Anyway, I'm going to discuss why some of my countrymen actually collaborated with the Japanese to make the GEACPS happen. Like I said I don't know if the case is the same with other GEACPS member-states like Indonesia or in your case, Korea, but I am well-read about this era of my country's history and I just want to contribute to the thread.

The Americans committed ungodly atrocities during the Philippine-American War (which ended circa 1901). Filipino democratic revolutionaries were forced to fight a guerilla war, and were scattered across the archipelago. For many who were hopeful that the Philippines would become the first non-American native liberal, constitutional democracy, this was a humiliating setback. Many of the revolution's leaders fled to three places in particular when the Americans exiled them: Hong Kong, Formosa, and Yokohama.

Yokohama was, in particular, a boiling point for anti-Western sentiment. Democratic revolutionaries from Indonesia, China, and the Philippines sought refuge here and contacted organizations like the Black Dragon Society to see if they could use their influence to ask the Japanese ministry of commerce for money to continue their revolution. On the other hand, laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and many of Australia's apartheid-esque racist 20th century laws were highly publicized by Japan's free press, and caused massive outrage. Combined with what the exiled anti-imperialist revolutionaries of Asia were saying, the Japanese people (who had themselves been humiliated by the Americans not so long ago) were legitimately angered and in fact, much of the intelligentsia had highly benign intentions in this regard.

Then, the military took power in Japan. Subtly, many high-ranking political officials became puppets of the military. It's important to note that at this point that the Japanese government had essentially adapted two completely opposing ideologies: the first being that Japan should be to the Asia what the USA was to South America (i.e Japanese Monroe Doctrine), and the other being that all people of Asia should be freed from Western imperialism.

Long story short, those who advocated for the former had guns and those who advocated for the latter were university teachers and politicians, so you do the math. The people who actually advocated for benign Pan-Asianism were assassinated one by one, and actually a lot were already killed during the Showa Restoration. Support for local democratic revolutionaries dried up with the funds which went to the IJA/IJN. The government decided to promote the idea of a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere to the public as one where all Asian peoples would live free, while on the other hand also enacting a Monroe Doctrine style dictation of what government forms should be installed in each Asian country.

In the Philippines, the Japanese installed a popular figurehead and granted Filipinos independence (at least on paper) so long as they fought alongside the GEACPS until the end of the war. Filipinos were thrilled about this because the Americans, on the other hand, didn't promise independence until 1947, and hadn't kept their promise about independence in 1935—so for all intents and purposes, this was as close to actual independence as we Filipinos would get at the time. That; the fact that many Filipino revolutionaries from the aforementioned guerilla war supported the Japanese (remember, this was only 40 years since the end of the Philippine revolution and many of the revolutionaries were in their 20s when they assumed high-ranking positions); and the fact that the Americans were extremely racist and had put in place an apartheid system before the war, legitimately convinced many Filipinos to join the struggle and actually fight the Americans during WW2. There are even accounts that suggest Filipinos participated in Banzai charges towards the end of WW2, something which I totally believe.

Basically, the common consensus is that there was an extreme cognitive dissonance right from the very beginning between the two wings of Japan's 20th century ideology. I truly believe that a lot of Japanese and other Asian collaborators believed in what they were fighting for because some truly demonstrated heroic resolve for their ideology, and a lot of revolution-era heroes who fought and bled to create an independent Philippines fought or at least supported the Japanese side. Mind you, of course, not all Japanese soldiers fought for the "benign" wing of the Pan-Asian ideology, some were just legitimately psychopaths, but that's how they got common people to enlist, train, and fight. That's war for you. It kills everyone, regardless of what they wanted to get out of the war.

TLDR: Western pre-WW2 atrocities were horrible. The extremely vengeful soldiers who fought on the Japanese side believed they were Pan-Asian revolutionaries, were used by their generals for their own gain, and then ended up committing atrocities. Some were good, others bad, but I do believe Pan-Asianism wasn't just facade for a lot of people and many Asian countries had understandable reason to fight on the side of GEACPS.

Also before anyone accuses me of being pro-Japanese, I'll just say that I've been to a lot of places where Japan committed atrocities and I just overall hate that Japan had to intervene during the WW2 era. Tbh the Americans are not much better, they literally Dresden'd my country's capital for no good reason. I wish the Sakdal Uprising had succeeded, instead of its leaders being turned into collaborators by Japan.

While I don't necessarily concur with PAS here, PAS is definitely right regarding this matter. America had installed a brutal regime that killed more people in 4 years than during the Spanish occupation, and this led many revolutionaries and Filipinos to support Japan. Naturally, most of these people did not know of the atrocities they committed elsewhere, which includes most collaborationist figureheads (which included the First President of the Philippine Republic, Emilio Aguinaldo). Aguinaldo himself said that he initially supported the Nazis, because of the narrative they pushed, Germany for the Germans, much like the Philippines is for the Filipinos sentiment. Once he learned of the Holocaust and other ethnic cleansing stuff, he withdrew support for them.

Needless to say, GEACPS did manipulate the revolutionary feelings of many Asians for Japanese gain. GEACPS likely also just helped Japan gain more access to natural resources, especially across Southeast Asia. It's pretty clear that Japan wanted more, establishing their second capital in the south, being Singapore, or Syonan-to and their repeated attacks on Australia.

[Rusozak]

Random people in Southeast Asia: "Don't worry guys, Japan is here to emancipate us from the European colonialists.

Japan: https://youtu.be/9QrRhQd4gZA

I don't know why they even bothered to sugarcoat it. Japan trying to conquer its neighbors certainly wasn't a new phenomena. The rest of Asia knew better than the Western powers what kind of country Japan was.

[The Two Jerseys]

Random people in Southeast Asia: "Don't worry guys, Japan is here to emancipate us from the European colonialists.

Japan: https://youtu.be/9QrRhQd4gZA

See I was going with Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.
Japan :FELLOW ASIANS! WE ARE HERE TO SAVE YOU!
Asians: Oh great it's the Empire of Japan!
Japan: FROM YOURSELVES!
Asians: Oh great it's the Empire of Japan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzse69b0qMo

Philippines: "Yankee go home!"

Japanese: "We're here to liberate you from the Yankee colonizers!"

Philippines: "Yankee come back!"

[Borderlands of Rojava]

See I was going with Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.
Japan :FELLOW ASIANS! WE ARE HERE TO SAVE YOU!
Asians: Oh great it's the Empire of Japan!
Japan: FROM YOURSELVES!
Asians: Oh great it's the Empire of Japan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzse69b0qMo

Philippines: "Yankee go home!"

Japanese: "We're here to liberate you from the Yankee colonizers!"

Philippines: "Yankee come back!"

Nobody:

Japan the moment they took over the Philippines: https://images.app.goo.gl/3X2D5AyWR61nFKY79

[Wallenburg]

Random people in Southeast Asia: "Don't worry guys, Japan is here to emancipate us from the European colonialists.

Japan: https://youtu.be/9QrRhQd4gZA

I don't know why they even bothered to sugarcoat it. Japan trying to conquer its neighbors certainly wasn't a new phenomena. The rest of Asia knew better than the Western powers what kind of country Japan was.

Wars of conquest were kinda losing their luster even in the early 20th century. That's why the rest of the Axis also pretended their conquests were acts of self-defense or liberation.

That's not to say that empire building ever really died, people just lost the taste for calling it that.

[Odreria]

Random people in Southeast Asia: "Don't worry guys, Japan is here to emancipate us from the European colonialists.

Japan: https://youtu.be/9QrRhQd4gZA

I don't know why they even bothered to sugarcoat it. Japan trying to conquer its neighbors certainly wasn't a new phenomena. The rest of Asia knew better than the Western powers what kind of country Japan was.

Yeah because Japan had invaded Indonesia so many times before...? Any way Rojava was correct, many nationalists across Southeast Asia initially welcomed the Japanese.

[Diahon]

See I was going with Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.
Japan :FELLOW ASIANS! WE ARE HERE TO SAVE YOU!
Asians: Oh great it's the Empire of Japan!
Japan: FROM YOURSELVES!
Asians: Oh great it's the Empire of Japan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzse69b0qMo

Philippines: "Yankee go home!"

Japanese: "We're here to liberate you from the Yankee colonizers!"

Philippines: "Yankee come back!"

pan-asia has it right: the philippines' relationship with the united states in the years after the start of the philippine-american war and the conclusion of world war ii is far more complicated than is usually told

blame the lassitude of our contemporary historiographical pedagogy for that, though it can be hard to convey half a century of passions that have lost the urgency they once had, especially when most of your compatriots are poor and want out

[Wallenburg]

I don't know why they even bothered to sugarcoat it. Japan trying to conquer its neighbors certainly wasn't a new phenomena. The rest of Asia knew better than the Western powers what kind of country Japan was.

Yeah because Japan had invaded Indonesia so many times before...? Any way Rojava was correct, many nationalists across Southeast Asia initially welcomed the Japanese.

Korea is a joke to you?

[Pan-Asiatic States]

god some of the people on this thread posting history "memes" when op clearly wanted have a serious discussion are just unbelievable

hhhhhhhhh NSG moment

[Odreria]

Yeah because Japan had invaded Indonesia so many times before...? Any way Rojava was correct, many nationalists across Southeast Asia initially welcomed the Japanese.

Korea is a joke to you?

Korea is not in Southeast Asia, nor is it in Indonesia.

[Diahon]

god some of the people on this thread posting history "memes" when op clearly wanted have a serious discussion are just unbelievable

hhhhhhhhh NSG moment

memes, when used right, can convey an unbelievably condensed amount of information to an audience otherwise known for its short attention span

problem is, most of the time, the medium is propaganda

[Pan-Asiatic States]

Korea is a joke to you?

Korea is not in Southeast Asia, nor is it in Indonesia.

wdym Korea is my favorite southeast Asian country

[Pan-Asiatic States]

god some of the people on this thread posting history "memes" when op clearly wanted have a serious discussion are just unbelievable

hhhhhhhhh NSG moment

memes, when used right, can convey an unbelievably condensed amount of information to an audience otherwise known for its short attention span

problem is, most of the time, the medium is propaganda

okay but can you point me to any meme with substance on this thread

[Diahon]

Korea is a joke to you?

Korea is not in Southeast Asia, nor is it in Indonesia.

point, though

a lot of the ardent tribalists of the time thought the world of japan, at least as a strong asian nation standing alongside its western counterparts, despite its treatment of korea and koreans, though it may be the case that most of them did not know of japan's doings in korea or saw it in a laudatory light

[Diahon]

memes, when used right, can convey an unbelievably condensed amount of information to an audience otherwise known for its short attention span

problem is, most of the time, the medium is propaganda

okay but can you point me to any meme with substance on this thread

give it time

[Miku the Based]

memes, when used right, can convey an unbelievably condensed amount of information to an audience otherwise known for its short attention span

problem is, most of the time, the medium is propaganda

okay but can you point me to any meme with substance on this thread

Anything with "substance" is also propaganda but with more words.

[Pan-Asiatic States]

okay but can you point me to any meme with substance on this thread

Anything with "substance" is also propaganda but with more words.

what's wrong with propaganda

[Miku the Based]

Anything with "substance" is also propaganda but with more words.

what's wrong with propaganda

Nothing, you just need to be aware it is in everything.

[Ellbonnia]

god some of the people on this thread posting history "memes" when op clearly wanted have a serious discussion are just unbelievable

hhhhhhhhh NSG moment

It's honestly fine, as long as the discussion is kept civil I don't mind the odd history meme every now and then.
Only if it really derails the conversation or is meant to just piss people off then I have a problem with it.

I also really appreciated your elaboration on people's motivations for collaborating with the Japanese; I can't speak for Koreans, but a lot of Chinese collaborators did so out of a sense of hopelessness and trying to simply survive under Japanese occupation. That doesn't excuse any warcrimes or atrocities committed under them, but I agree that not every Japanese soldier or collaborator was a complete monster.

They should still be taken to task for their crimes against humanity, however, whether in life or in death.

[Pan-Asiatic States]

god some of the people on this thread posting history "memes" when op clearly wanted have a serious discussion are just unbelievable

hhhhhhhhh NSG moment

It's honestly fine, as long as the discussion is kept civil I don't mind the odd history meme every now and then.
Only if it really derails the conversation or is meant to just piss people off then I have a problem with it.

I also really appreciated your elaboration on people's motivations for collaborating with the Japanese; I can't speak for Koreans, but a lot of Chinese collaborators did so out of a sense of hopelessness and trying to simply survive under Japanese occupation. That doesn't excuse any warcrimes or atrocities committed under them, but I agree that not every Japanese soldier or collaborator was a complete monster.

They should still be taken to task for their crimes against humanity, however, whether in life or in death.

Yeah, I was just trying to answer the question of why your run-of-the-mill Japanese person would enlist in the army. There's not a lot of discussion of these things in the West, unfortunately, and most usually people resort to just comparing them to the Nazis.

[Ellbonnia]

Yeah, I was just trying to answer the question of why your run-of-the-mill Japanese person would enlist in the army. There's not a lot of discussion of these things in the West, unfortunately, and most usually people resort to just comparing them to the Nazis.

It's interesting to compare the psychology of the average Wehrmacht soldier and a member of the IJA (the "normal citizen" type, disregarding the obvious psychopaths and the like). While the former was disillusioned by disproportionate reparations and a shattered economy, the latter was being strung along as a supposed member of a divinely-blessed race of superhumans who could do no wrong, as their nation was undergoing a rapid increase in industrialization and economic power.

Both resulted in otherwise-normal people committing horrific acts against civilians and enemy forces, as the circumstances of their indoctrination into Nazism and Hakkō ichiu respectively meant that they were encouraged to show no mercy and feel no guilt for their actions. So while there are obvious differences between the Germans and the Japanese, there is definitely something shared between the two regarding groupthink and mob mentality.

[Moscareinas]

yeah uh otherwise-normal germans weren't as beholden to the aryan thing as they were to the killing jews thing

like, germany was drowning in murderminded antisemitism well before the nazis were a thing, to the point that even people who wanted nothing but good towards the jews -- even those who defended them while in great suffering, while inside concentration camps -- still wanted those very same jews to renounce their putative control of german life and their apparently wayward morals in comparison to the german body politic