Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 5, 2021 at 5:18:14 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Empire]: Eysturlid on Yellen, 'The Greater East > Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Jeremy A. Yellen. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When > Total Empire Met Total War. Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian > Institute, Columbia University Series. Ithaca Cornell University > Press, 2019. 306 pp. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-5017-3554-7. > > Reviewed by Lee Eysturlid (Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy) > Published on H-Empire (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Charles V. Reed > > Professor Yellen's book on the intellectual political foundations of > Japan's so-called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is a welcome > addition to a rather short list of literature, especially in English, > on Japan's empire in the Second World War. Yellen sets out to correct > the generally held view of the Sphere as an integral and > well-thought-out part of Japanese grand strategy for the war. It now > turns out that this was not the case, but rather that Japanese > leadership-- military, political, and intellectual--held various > visions of the concept in the years leading up to the expanded war in > the Pacific. These competing visions, and the lack of apparent will > to ruthlessly make it happen, mean it was never an ideology but more > an addition to Japan's "total war" effort. Having established the > underlying arguments for the Sphere in Japanese thinking, Yellen > explores the Sphere's impact during and immediately after the war in > two imperial targets, the Philippines and Burma. Both had > independence movements before the war and both made active use of the > Co-Prosperity Sphere for national ends. > > The study is not a military history; there is little of the actual > war in the book. There is also little of the nuts-and-bolts that > concerned imperial government except in the contact between Japanese > and colonial governments or individuals. It is also not a study of > the daily lives of people at the time and in different states. Of > great service is Yellen's focus on the interplay of early > twentieth-century thinking on the place of states within the > international structure and how a state, in this case Japan, created > or justified a reality of expansion within the propagandistic context > of a pan-Asian war of "liberation." Throughout the study Yellen > introduces the numerous Japanese leaders who announced the > Co-Prosperity Sphere as a combined effort to remove the physical and > intellectual domination of the West (including the United States) > while apparently replacing it with a more liberating, pan-Japanese > focus. > > Perhaps the greatest Japanese architect involved in creating the > Co-Prosperity Sphere was the foreign minister Matsuoka Yōsuke, who > may have actually coined the phrase. Two factors come into play. > Matsuoka appears, at least in part, to have been keen to draw the > Germans into alliance (the Tripartite Pact) for support but more > importantly to preempt the Germans from claiming British and French > colonial possessions before Japan could. Added to this was his belief > that the post-World War I international order was at an end, and a > more realistic system of regional powers was emerging. In this new > vision of a world based on a few powerful states dominating the > world's several regions, Japan would control China and Southeast > Asia. The idea of the Sphere as a resource supply, to secure Japan's > "self-existence and self-defense," was a creation of the military. It > should also be noted that Germany's relatively cool reaction to the > early success of the Japanese against the British, especially at > Singapore, upset Nazi notions of "racial" hierarchy, in that a > "yellow race" had achieved victory. > > As late as mid-1941 numerous Japanese organizations were debating the > structure and actual intent of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. The > ominously titled the Total War Research Institute researched the > topic in its title to determine what would be needed in such a > conflict. In January 1942, they created a document that would > initially establish the Sphere, while the other groups from the Naval > Intelligence Division and the National Policy Research Association > created competing plans. Despite the evident, if not emerging, > realities that a war with the United States must bring, bickering > over what the Sphere meant and how to manage it continued. Even the > newly centralized authority under Prime Minister Tōjō did little to > give focus. However, Anglo-American imperialism was to be replaced > with the lofty Japanese concept of _hakkō ichiu_, or "universal > brotherhood." This recasting of "Japanism" failed to grab the > populations of occupied territories that had been granted little > autonomy and were being tapped for resources. > > Similar problems of focus existed in both the Philippines and Burma. > Neither of these colonial states had the ability to assert itself in > the new situation. However, the Philippines had something like a > promise from the United States for independence in the near future, > while Burma did not, and where Filipino politicians were generally a > more cautious group, some of the Burmese leaders were willing to > fight. This said, the conquest by the Japanese in 1942 had leaders in > both states maneuvering to become what Yellen calls "Patriotic > Collaborators." They were to be participants at the Greater East > Asian Conference in November of 1943, in Tokyo. With the war effort > going poorly, Japan changed tack and looked to treat the forty-plus > states at the meeting as nominally independent, albeit under the > guidance of a benevolent hand. Later, the Joint Declaration attempted > to do the same thing by adopting the phrase "abolish racial > discrimination," which the military balked at but other government > leaders cynically saw as necessary to win over "public sentiment" > within the Sphere. > > As Yellen correctly points out in his excellent conclusion, the > "Co-Prosperity Sphere witnessed conflict, contradictory visions and > processes" (p. 210). This ideal never really provided a reason why > non-Japanese peoples would want a place in the new order as lesser > partners in a Japan-centric economic system. Yellen's notion that > Hitler never answered this question for the German empire either is > too benign. Hitler did not need an answer; he had a solution, and > that was the extermination or displacement of peoples and their > wholesale replacement by German colonists. The Japanese never > envisioned a Pacific peopled by themselves. Written in an engaging if > at times instructional style, the book at hand is singular in its > ability to introduce the reader to the ideas and failures of the > Co-Prosperity Sphere. It is reasonable in length and eminently > readable; it has been exhaustively researched and makes clear that > the author is well versed in the Japanese historiography. The > reviewer strongly recommends this book to anyone that teaches or has > a strong interest in the Second World War, especially in the Pacific, > as well as the intellectual nature of empire. > > Citation: Lee Eysturlid. Review of Yellen, Jeremy A., _The Greater > East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War_. > H-Empire, H-Net Reviews. April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55164 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7774): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7774 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81875860/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
