87-535: Hakkō ichiu ( 八紘一宇 , "eight crown cords, one roof", i.e. "all the world under one roof") or hakkō iu ( Shinjitai : 八紘為宇 , 八紘爲宇 ) was a Japanese political slogan meaning the divine right of the Empire of Japan to " unify the eight corners of the world ." The slogan formed the basis of the empire's ideology. It was prominent from the Second Sino-Japanese War to World War II and
174-413: A changing litmus test of those factional relationships during the next decade. The term hakkō ichiu did not enter general circulation until 1940, when the second Konoe administration issued a white paper titled "Fundamental National Policy" ( 基本国策要綱 , Kihon Kokusaku Yōkō ) , which opened with those words and in which Prime Minister Konoe proclaimed that the basic aim of Japan's national policy
261-412: A different form in 團, where instead of changing the phonetic element in a regular manner to get the expected 囩 it is shortened to the meaningless component 寸, producing 団. The latest 2010 jōyō kanji reform has added additional inconsistencies in this regard as in some instances radicals that were previously uniformly simplified across the jōyō set now first appeared in their traditional variants in some of
348-702: A drafted military convention that would specifically delimit the Asian continent by a dividing line along the 70th meridian east longitude . This line, running southwards through the Ob River 's Arctic estuary, southwards to just east of Khost in Afghanistan and heading into the Indian Ocean just west of Rajkot in India , would have split Germany's Lebensraum and Italy's spazio vitale territories to
435-509: A few stages of simplifications made since the 1950s, but the only changes that became official were the changes in the Jōyō Kanji List in 1981 and 2010. The following forms were established as a result of the post-war character reforms. Many were based on widely used handwritten abbreviations ( 略字 , ryakuji ) from the prewar era. In 332 cases, characters in the new standard have fewer strokes than old forms, in 14 cases they have
522-521: A result of the embargo, Japan decided to attack the British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia from 7 to 19 December 1941, seizing the raw materials needed for the war effort. These efforts were successful, with Japanese politician Nobusuke Kishi announcing via radio broadcast that vast resources were available for Japanese use in the newly conquered territories. As part of its war drive in
609-691: A semantic component and a phonetic component. A choice was made to replace the phonetic parts with homophones which had fewer strokes. For example, 圍 was changed to 囲 , because 韋 and 井 were homophones. Other simplifications of this method include 竊→窃, 廳→庁, 擔→担 . There are also colloquial handwritten simplifications (otherwise known as ryakuji ) based on this model, in which various non-kanji symbols are used as onpu, for example 魔 ( MA ; demon) [simplification: ⿸广マ, 广+マ { Katakana ma }], 慶 ( KEI ; jubilation) [⿸广K, 广+K], 藤 ( TŌ , fuji ; wisteria) [⿱艹ト, 艹+ト {Katakana to }], and 機 ( KI ; machine, opportunity) [⿰木キ, 木+キ {Katakana ki }]. In some cases
696-499: A standard character was replaced by a variant character that neither is a graphical variant nor shares an On reading, but had a historical basis for standardisation. Examples include 證 → 証 and 燈 → 灯 , replacing 登 → 正 and 登 → 丁 respectively. In both cases the variant character had a different meaning and reading but was adopted due to its lower stroke count anyway. Some kanji were simplified by removing entire components. For example, In five basic cases and six derivations for
783-407: A total of eleven cases, kanji were modified by adding a stroke, thereby rendering the composition more regular: Simplification was not carried out uniformly. Firstly, only a select group of characters (the common jōyō kanji ) was simplified, with characters outside this group (the hyōgaiji) generally retaining their earlier form. For example, 賣 , 續 and 讀 (with the right-side element in
870-660: A vast range of territories covering virtually all of East Asia, the Pacific Ocean , and even sizable portions of the Western Hemisphere , including in locations as far removed from Japan as South America and the eastern Caribbean . Although the projected extension of the Co-Prosperity Sphere was extremely ambitious, the Japanese goal during the "Greater East Asia War" was not to acquire all
957-667: Is unknown if the Axis powers ever formally negotiated a possible, complementary second demarcation line that would have divided the Western Hemisphere. Puppet states which already existed at the time, the Land Disposal Plan has been drafted, were: Contrary to the plan Japan installed a puppet state on the Philippines instead of exerting direct control. In the former French Indochina, the Empire of Vietnam ,
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#17327754538801044-449: Is unsimplified kanji (usually similar to traditional Chinese characters ). This simplification was achieved through a process (similar to that of simplified Chinese ) of either replacing the onpu ( 音符 , "sound mark") indicating the On reading with another onpu of the same On reading with fewer strokes, or replacing a complex component of a character with a simpler one. There have been
1131-406: The hakkō ichiu monument (now Heiwadai Tower) at what is now Miyazaki Peace Park in the city of Miyazaki . As the Second Sino-Japanese War dragged on without conclusion, the Japanese government turned increasingly to the nation's spiritual capital to maintain fighting spirit. Characterization of the fighting as a "holy war" ( 聖戦 , seisen ) , similarly grounding the current conflict in
1218-595: The Allies in September 1945. Ba Maw , wartime President of Burma under the Japanese, blamed the Japanese military for the failure of the Co-Prosperity Sphere: The militarists saw everything only from a Japanese perspective and, even worse, they insisted that all others dealing with them should do the same. For them, there was only one way to do a thing, the Japanese way; only one goal and interest,
1305-538: The Burma-Siam Railway . The Japanese sometimes spared ethnic groups, such as Chinese immigrants, if they supported the war effort, whether sincerely or not. An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus – a secret document completed in 1943 for high-ranking government use – laid out that Japan, as the originator and strongest military power within the region, would naturally take
1392-654: The GEACPS , was a pan-Asian union that the Empire of Japan tried to establish. Initially, it covered Japan (including annexed Korea ), Manchukuo , and China , but as the Pacific War progressed, it also included territories in Southeast Asia and parts of India . The term was first coined by Minister for Foreign Affairs Hachirō Arita on June 29, 1940. The proposed objectives of this union were to ensure economic self-sufficiency and cooperation among
1479-724: The Japanese colonial empire , as it expanded dramatically during the war, contained two contradictory impulses. On the one hand, it preached the unity of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a coalition of Asian races directed by Japan against Western imperialism in Asia . This approach celebrated the spiritual values of the East in opposition to the "crass materialism " of the West. In practice, however,
1566-620: The Marianas , Carolines , Marshall Islands , and several others do not figure in this project. They were the subject of earlier negotiations with the Germans and were expected to be officially ceded to Japan in return for economic and monetary compensations. The plan divided Japan's future empire into two different groups. The first group of territories were expected to become either part of Japan or otherwise be under its direct administration. Second were those territories that would fall under
1653-575: The 2,600th anniversary of Jimmu's ascension , which fell in the year 1940 according to the traditional chronology. Stories recounted that Jimmu, finding five races in Japan, had made them all as "brothers of one family". After Japan declared war on the Allies in December 1941, Allied governments produced several propaganda films citing the hakkō ichiu as evidence that the Japanese intended to conquer
1740-457: The Asiatics". He claimed that if Japan had proclaimed this maxim at the beginning of the war and acted on that idea, they could have engineered a very different outcome. No military defeat could then have robbed her of the trust and gratitude of half of Asia or even more, and that would have mattered a great deal in finding for her a new, great, and abiding place in a postwar world in which Asia
1827-458: The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere as a device for the "development of the Japanese race." When World War II ended, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere became a source of criticism and scorn for Allies. The concept of a unified Asia under Japanese leadership had its roots dating back to the 16th century. For example, Toyotomi Hideyoshi proposed to make China, Korea, and Japan into "one". Modern conceptions emerged in 1917. During
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#17327754538801914-813: The Japanese Empire and was collectively referred to as the Greater East Asian Film Sphere. These film centers mass-produced shorts, newsreels, and feature films to encourage Japanese language acquisition as well as cooperation with Japanese colonial authorities. Prior to the escalation of World War II to the Pacific and East Asia, Japanese planners regarded it as self-evident that the conquests secured in Japan's earlier wars with Russia ( South Sakhalin and Kwantung ), Germany ( South Seas Mandate ), and China ( Manchuria ) would be retained, as well as Korea ( Chōsen ), Taiwan ( Formosa ),
2001-519: The Japanese Empire. The Greater East Asia Conference ( 大東亞會議 , Dai Tōa Kaigi ) took place in Tokyo on 5–6 November 1943: Japan hosted the heads of state of various component members of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The conference was also referred to as the Tokyo Conference . The common language used by the delegates during the conference was English . The conference
2088-493: The Japanese an opportunity to fulfill the objectives of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, without significant pushback from the Western powers or China. This entailed the conquest of Southeast Asian territories to extract their natural resources. If territories were unprofitable, the Japanese would encourage their subjects, including those in mainland Japan, to endure "economic suffering" and prevent outflow of material to
2175-647: The Japanese defeat at the insistence of the U.S. military. The tower was the inception point for the torch relay of the 1964 Summer Olympics . After the Olympics, which coincided with worldwide interest in the Japanese Imperial family, the local tourism association successfully petitioned the Miyazaki Prefecture to reinstall the " Hakkō ichiu " characters. Shinjitai Shinjitai ( Japanese : 新字体 , "new character form") are
2262-416: The Japanese failed to gather support in other Asian countries. Nationalist movements did appear in these Asian countries during this period, and these nationalists cooperated with the Japanese to some extent. However, Willard Elsbree, professor emeritus of political science at Ohio University , claims that the Japanese government and these nationalist leaders never developed "a real unity of interests between
2349-457: The Japanese installed organisationally-minded bureaucrats and engineers to run their new empire, and they believed in ideals of efficiency, modernisation, and engineering solutions to social problems. Japanese was the official language of the bureaucracy in all of the areas and was taught at schools as a national language. Japan set up puppet regimes in Manchuria and China; they vanished at
2436-491: The Japanese interest; only one destiny for the East Asian countries, to become so many Manchukuos or Koreas tied forever to Japan. This racial impositions ... made any real understanding between the Japanese militarists and the people of our region virtually impossible. In other words, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere operated not for the betterment of all the Asian countries but for Japan's interests, and thus
2523-551: The Japanese military led many of the inhabitants of those regions to regard Japan as being worse than their former colonial rulers. The Japanese government directed that economies of occupied territories be managed strictly for the production of raw materials for the Japanese war effort; a cabinet member declared, "There are no restrictions. They are enemy possessions. We can take them, do anything we want". For example, according to estimates, under Japanese occupation, about 100,000 Burmese and Malay Indian labourers died while constructing
2610-426: The Japanese, and Asians had been weakened by colonialism, it was Japan's self-appointed role to "make men of them again" and liberate them from their Western oppressors. According to Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō (in office 1941–1942 and 1945), should Japan be successful in creating this sphere, it would emerge as the leader of Eastern Asia, and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere would be synonymous with
2697-574: The Jōyō Kanji Table. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper is thorough in its simplification of hyōgaiji, and its in-house simplifications are called Asahi characters . For example, 痙攣 ( KEIREN ; cramp, spasm, convulsion) is simplified following the model of 經→経 and 攣→挛 . This is also said to have been done because in the age of typewriter -based printing, more complicated kanji could not be clearly printed. The Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) contain numerous simplified forms of Kanji following
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2784-465: The Pacific, Japanese propaganda included phrases like "Asia for the Asiatics" and talked about the need to "liberate" Asian colonies from the control of Western powers. They also planned to change the Chinese hegemony in the agricultural market in Southeast Asia with Japanese immigrants to boost its economic value, with the former being despised by Southeast Asian natives. The Japanese failure to bring
2871-533: The Philippines during the war. Transportation between the islands was difficult because of a lack of fuel. Food was in short supply, with sporadic famines and epidemic diseases that killed hundreds of thousands of people. In October 1943, Japan declared the Philippines an independent republic. The Japanese-sponsored Second Philippine Republic , headed by President José P. Laurel , proved to be ineffective and unpopular as Japan maintained very tight control. The Co-Prosperity Sphere collapsed with Japan's surrender to
2958-468: The Soviet Union. In some cases local populations welcomed Japanese troops when they invaded, initially seeing them as preferable to being ruled by Western colonial powers. The Japanese also indoctrinated their soldiers into believing that it was their duty to make Asians "strong again" through force, after being weakened by Western imperialism. The official translation offered by contemporary leaders
3045-430: The character 龍 , meaning "dragon", was simplified in isolation and in some compound characters, but not others. The character itself was simplified to 竜 , as was the compound character 瀧 ("waterfall") → 滝 ; however, it was not simplified in the characters 襲 ("attack") and 籠 ("basket"), although an extended shinjitai variant, 篭 , exists for the latter, and is used in practice rather often over
3132-461: The conference, the conference served little military value. With the simultaneous use of Wilsonian and Pan-Asian rhetoric, the goals of the conference were to solidify the commitment of certain Asian countries to Japan's war effort and to improve Japan's world image; however, the representatives of the other attending countries were in practice neither independent nor treated as equals by Japan. The following dignitaries attended: The ideology of
3219-595: The control of a number of tightly controlled pro-Japanese vassal states based on the model of Manchukuo, as nominally "independent" members of the Greater East Asian alliance. Parts of the plan depended on successful negotiations with Nazi Germany and a global victory by the Axis powers . After Germany and Italy declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941, Japan presented the Germans with
3306-585: The controversial aspects of simplified Chinese, some shinjitai were originally separate characters with different meanings. For example, the kanji 藝 ( GEI ; performance, accomplishment) was simplified to 芸 , but 芸 was originally a separate character read with the On reading UN . Many of the original characters which have become merged are no longer used in modern Japanese: for example, 豫 ( YO, arakaji(me) ; in advance) and 餘 ( YO, ama(ri) ; excess) were merged with 予 and 余 , respectively, both archaic kanji for
3393-409: The distinction between old and new forms of the characters. In particular, all Unicode normalization methods merge the old characters with the new ones. 蘒 (U+8612), which is not jōyō, is displayed as an (extended) shinjitai character; its kyūjitai counterpart is considered as a duplicate, and is thus not unified, even though some fonts such as Source Han Sans may treat it as unified. Like one of
3480-425: The economies of most occupied territories were remanaged only to produce raw war materials for Japan. Hakkō ichiu meant the bringing together of the corners of the world under one ruler, or the making of the world's one family. That was the alleged ideal of the foundation of the empire, and, in its traditional context, meant no more than a universal principle of humanity , which was destined ultimately to pervade
3567-525: The enemy. Nonetheless, they preached the moral superiority of cultivating a "spiritual essence" instead of prioritising material gain like Western powers. After Japanese advancements into French Indochina in 1940, knowing that Japan was completely dependent on other countries for natural resources, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a trade embargo on steel and oil , raw materials that were vital to Japan's war effort. Without steel and oil imports, Japan's military could not fight for long. As
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3654-573: The entire world . To win the support of the conquered, Japanese propaganda included phrases such as "Asia for the Asians!" and emphasized about the perceived need to liberate Asian countries from imperialist powers. Japan's failure to win the war in China was blamed on European nations and the US exploiting their Asian colonies to assist Chinese forces, even though the Chinese received far more assistance from
3741-603: The first person pronoun "I". However, 芸 poses a problem, in that Japan's first public library, Untei ( 芸亭 ) (built during the Nara Period ), uses this character. This character also has significance in classical Japanese literature , and Japanese history books have had to distinguish between the two by writing UN using the old form of the 艹 radical, (艸). Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan simplified their writing systems independently from each other. After World War II, poor relations prevented cooperation between
3828-499: The flags of all the states and a map depicting the intended sphere. Others proclaimed that they had given independent governments to the countries they occupied, a claim undermined by the lack of power given to these puppet governments. In Thailand, a street was built to demonstrate it, to be filled with modern buildings and shops, but 9 ⁄ 10 of it consisted of false fronts . A network of Japanese-sponsored film production, distribution, and exhibition companies extended across
3915-467: The highest decision-making council at the time, took the decision to prohibit the expulsion of the Jews from Japan, Manchuria, and China . Thereafter, the Japanese received Jewish refugees despite the opposition of their ally Nazi Germany . 1940 was declared the 2,600th anniversary of the founding of Japan in part to celebrate hakkō ichiu . As part of the celebrations, the government officially opened
4002-535: The jōyō Kanji List; 18 of them have a variant. For a list of traditional and modern forms of jōyō and jinmeiyō kanji, see Kyūjitai . Due to Han unification , some shinjitai characters are unified with their kyūjitai counterparts. Within the jōyō kanji, there are 62 characters whose kyūjitai forms may cause problems displaying: 海 社 勉 暑 漢 神 福 練 者 都 器 殺 祝 節 梅 類 祖 勤 穀 視 署 層 著 諸 難 朗 欄 廊 虜 隆 塚 祥 侮 僧 免 卑 喝 嘆 塀 墨 悔 慨 憎 懲 敏 既 煮 碑 祉 祈 禍 突 繁 臭 褐 謁 謹 賓 贈 逸 響 頻 These characters are Unicode CJK Unified Ideographs for which
4089-587: The late 1940s after several years of fighting the Dutch. To build up the economic base of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Japanese Army envisioned using the Philippine islands as a source of agricultural products needed by its industry. For example, Japan had a surplus of sugar from Taiwan , and a severe shortage of cotton , so they tried to grow cotton on sugar lands with disastrous results; they lacked
4176-432: The latter two not being identical, but merely graphically similar) were simplified as 売 , 続 , and 読 , respectively, but the hyōgaiji 贖 , 犢 and 牘 , which contain the same element ( 𧶠 ), were kept in use in their unsimplified variants. Secondly, even when a simplification was done in some characters within this group, the analogous simplification was not applied to all characters. For instance,
4263-469: The member states, along with resisting the influence of Western imperialism and Soviet communism . In reality, militarists and nationalists saw it as an effective propaganda tool to enforce Japanese hegemony. The latter approach was reflected in a document released by Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare , An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus , which promoted racial supremacist theories. Japanese spokesmen openly described
4350-826: The model of the shinjitai simplifications, such as 﨔 (the simplified form of 欅 ); many of these are included in Unicode, but are not present in most kanji character sets. Ryakuji for handwriting use, such as the abbreviations for 門 (in simplified Chinese, this abbreviation, 门 , has become official) and 第 (which exists in Unicode as 㐧 ) are not a part of the shinjitai reforms and therefore do not carry official status. Cursive script (also known as grass script) and semi-cursive script forms of kanji were adopted as shinjitai. Examples include: Characters in which there were two or more variants were standardized under one form. The character 島 ( TŌ , shima ; island) also had
4437-479: The names of hakkō ichiu , which eventually became symbols for world domination through military force. Since the end of the Pacific War, some have highlighted the hakkō ichiu slogan as part of a context of historical revisionism . The hakkō ichiu monument was renamed Heiwa no tou ( 平和の塔 , Tower of Peace) in 1958 and still stands today. The writing " Hakkō ichiu " was removed from it after
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#17327754538804524-494: The nation's sacred beginnings, became increasingly evident in the Japanese press at this time. In 1940, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association was launched to provide political support to Japan's war in China. The general spread of the term hakkō ichiu , neatly encapsulating this view of expansion as mandated in Japan's divine origin, was further propelled by preparations for celebrating
4611-478: The new jōyō characters; contrary to prior practice no new simplifications of characters have been carried out, likely in consideration of established JIS character set use spanning decades at this point. Compare 飮 → 飲 ("drink") to 2010 jōyō 餌 ("fodder, bait"), or 錢 → 銭 ("coin") to 2010 jōyō 箋 ("label"). For the latter an analogically simplified 䇳 character does exist, but was likely ignored due to having no history of use in Japanese character sets. On
4698-628: The official variant, for instance in 篭手 vs. 籠手 ("gauntlet"). Note that despite simplification 龍 can still be found in Japanese. Conversely, the character 貫 ("pierce") was not simplified, nor was the compound character 慣 ("accustomed"), but in the other compound character 實 it was simplified, resulting in 実 ("truth"). Similarly, 卒 ("graduate") has been kept unsimplified in isolation, but in compounds has been simplified to 卆 , such as 醉 to 酔 "drunk"; 專 has been simplified to 云 in some characters, such as 傳 to 伝 ("transmit"), and 轉 to 転 ("revolve"), but it takes
4785-485: The old form (kyūjitai) and the new form (shinjitai) have been unified under the Unicode standard. Although the old and new forms are distinguished under the JIS X 0213 standard, the old forms map to Unicode CJK Compatibility Ideographs which are considered by Unicode to be canonically equivalent to the new forms, and may not be distinguished by user agents. Therefore, depending on the user environment, it may not be possible to see
4872-403: The old printed form is still seen in the hyōgaiji characters 絆 and 鮃 . The character 青 ( SEI , SHŌ , ao ; blue) was once printed as 靑 but written as 青 , so the written form became standard; the old printed form is still found in the standard form in hyōgaiji characters such as 鯖 and 蜻 , but 青 is used in some fonts. Characters of the keisei moji ( 形声文字 ) group each contain
4959-418: The ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War to a swift conclusion was blamed in part on the lack of resources; Japanese propaganda claimed this was due to the refusal by Western powers to supply Japan's military. Although invading Japanese forces sometimes received rapturous welcomes throughout recently captured Asian territories due to anti-Western and occasionally, anti-Chinese sentiment, the subsequent brutality of
5046-402: The original kanbun : 掩八紘而爲宇 ), and means: "I shall cover the eight directions and make them my abode". The term hakkō ( 八紘 ) , meaning "eight crown cords" ("crown cords" being the hanging decorations of the benkan ( 冕冠 ) , a traditional Chinese-style crown), was a metaphor for happō ( 八方 ) , or "eight directions". Despite its original universalist meaning, according to
5133-620: The other hand, former extended shinjitai 艶 ("luster") has been added in favor of 艷 . Nevertheless, the guidelines published by the Japanese government explicitly permit simplification in handwriting, and do not object to use of alternate characters in electronic text. In the 2,136 jōyō kanji , there are 364 pairs of simplified and traditional characters. The kanji 弁 is used to simplify three different traditional kanji ( 辨 , 瓣 , and 辯 ). Of these 364 traditional characters, 212 are still used as jinmeiyō kanji in names. The jinmeiyō kanji List also includes 631 kanji that are not elements of
5220-521: The principle of "ichi soku issai, issai soku ichi (one is inseparable from the whole and vice versa)", Tanaka interpreted it as justification for imperialism. To stop this imperialist reinterpretation from spreading, Koyama Iwao (1905–1993), disciple of Nishida , and drawing off the Flower Adornment Sutra , proposed to substitute the words "to be included or to find a place" for the last two characters ("to make them my abode"). That move
5307-850: The proceedings of the Lansing-Ishii Agreement , Japan explained to Western observers that their expansionism in Asia was analogous to the United States ' Monroe Doctrine . This conception was influential in the development of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity concept, with the Japanese Army also comparing it to the Roosevelt Corollary . One of the reasons why Japan adopted imperialism was to resolve domestic issues such as overpopulation and resource scarcity . Another reason
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#17327754538805394-537: The recently seized additional portions of China, and occupied French Indochina. A reasonably accurate indication as to the geographic dimensions of the Co-Prosperity Sphere are elaborated on in a Japanese wartime document prepared in December 1941 by the Research Department of the Ministry of War . Known as the "Land Disposal Plan in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" ( 大東亜共栄圏における土地処分案 ) it
5481-496: The rediscovery of hakkō ichiu as an expansionist element of Japanese nationalistic beliefs. The naval limitations treaties of 1921 and especially 1930 were seen as a mistake in their unanticipated effect on internal political struggles in Japan, and the treaties provided an external motivating catalyst that provoked reactionary militarist elements to desperate actions, with their presence overtaking civilian and liberal elements in society. The evolution of hakkō ichiu serves as
5568-743: The rules of the Conference that allowed a majority vote. In 1924, the US Congress enacted the Asian Exclusion Act , outlawing immigration from Asia. Worsened with the economic impact of the Shōwa financial crisis and the Great Depression in the 1930s, which led to a resurgence of nationalist, militarist and expansionist movement, Emperor Shōwa , known more commonly as Hirohito outside Japan, and his reign became associated with
5655-497: The same number, and in 11 cases they have one more stroke. The most drastic simplification was 廳 → 庁 , removing 20 strokes. The simplification in shinjitai were only officially applied to characters in the Tōyō and Jōyō Kanji Lists, with the kyūjitai forms remaining the official forms of Hyōgaiji ( 表外字 , characters not included in the Tōyō and Jōyō Kanji Lists) . For example, the character 擧 ( KYO , agaru , ageru ; raise [an example])
5742-481: The same way in both languages, others in different ways. This means that those who want to learn the writing systems of both Chinese and Japanese must sometimes learn three different variations of one character: traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, and modern Japanese (e.g. 龍 - 龙 - 竜 for "dragon"). Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ( Japanese : 大東亞共榮圈 , Hepburn : Dai Tōa Kyōeiken ) , also known as
5829-741: The seeds, pesticides, and technical skills to grow cotton. Jobless farm workers flocked to the cities, where there was minimal relief and few jobs. The Japanese Army also tried using cane sugar for fuel, castor beans and copra for oil, Derris for quinine , cotton for uniforms, and abacá for rope. The plans were difficult to implement due to limited skills, collapsed international markets, bad weather, and transportation shortages. The program failed, giving very little help to Japanese industry and diverting resources needed for food production. As Stanley Karnow writes, Filipinos "rapidly learned as well that 'co-prosperity' meant servitude to Japan's economic requirements". Living conditions were poor throughout
5916-492: The simplified forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in simplified Chinese characters , but shinjitai is generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification. Shinjitai were created by reducing the number of strokes in kyūjitai ("old character form") or seiji ( 正字 , "proper/correct characters") , which
6003-667: The superior position within the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, with the other nations under Japan's umbrella of protection. Japanese propaganda was useful in mobilizing Japanese citizens for the war effort, convincing them Japan's expansion was an act of anti-colonial liberation from Western domination. The booklet Read This and the War is Won —for the Japanese Army—presented colonialism as an oppressive group of colonists living in luxury by burdening Asians. According to Japan, since racial ties of blood connected other Asians to
6090-728: The territory designated in the plan at once, but to prepare for a future decisive war some 20 years later by conquering the Asian colonies of the defeated European powers, as well as the Philippines from the United States. When Tōjō spoke on the plan to the House of Peers he was vague about the long-term prospects, but insinuated that the Philippines and Burma might be allowed independence, although vital territories such as Hong Kong would remain under Japanese rule. The Micronesian islands that had been seized from Germany in World War I and which were assigned to Japan as C-Class Mandates , namely
6177-521: The two nations. Traditional Chinese characters are still officially used in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea (as a supplement to Hangul , but they are no longer used in North Korea), and by many overseas Chinese. In Chinese, many more characters were simplified than in Japanese; some characters were simplified only in the one language, but not in the other; other characters were simplified in
6264-415: The two parties, [and] there was no overwhelming despair on the part of the Asians at Japan's defeat". The failure of Japan to understand the goals and interests of the other countries involved in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere led to a weak association of countries bound to Japan only in theory and not in spirit. Ba Maw argued that Japan should've acted according to the declared aims of "Asia for
6351-606: The union the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere , which he announced by radio address. At Yōsuke Matsuoka 's advice, Arita emphasised on the economic aspects more. On August 1, Konoe, who still used the original name, expanded the scope of the union to include the territories of Southeast Asia. On November 5, Konoe reaffirmed that a Japan–Manchukuo–China yen bloc would continue and be "perfected". The outbreak of World War II in Europe gave
6438-570: The uniquely-virtuous Yamato . Because that would bring people under the emperor's fatherly benevolence, force was justified against those who resisted. The Japanese additionally undertook many projects to prove that they supported racial equality. For example, on December 6, 1938, the Five Ministers Council (Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe , Army Minister Seishirō Itagaki , Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai , Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita and Finance Minister Shigeaki Ikeda ),
6525-407: The variant forms 嶋 (still seen in proper names) and 嶌 , but only the 島 form became standard. The 辶 radical was previously printed with two dots (as in the hyōgaiji 逞 ) but was written with one (as in 道 ), so the written form with one dot became standard. The upper 丷 portion of the characters 半, 尊, and 平 was previously printed as 八 and written 丷 (as in the aforementioned examples), but
6612-644: The war's end. The Imperial Army operated ruthless administrations in most conquered areas but paid more favourable attention to the Dutch East Indies . The main goal was to obtain oil but the Dutch colonial government destroyed the oil wells. However, the Japanese could repair and reopen them within a few months of their conquest. However, most tankers transporting oil to Japan were sunk by U.S. Navy submarines, so Japan's oil shortage became increasingly acute. Japan also sponsored an Indonesian nationalist movement under Sukarno . Sukarno finally came to power in
6699-525: The west of it, and Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and its other areas to the east of it. The plan of the Third Reich for fortifying its own Lebensraum territory's eastern limits, beyond which the Co-Prosperity Sphere's northwestern frontier areas would exist in East Asia, involved the creation of a "living wall" of Wehrbauer "soldier-peasant" communities defending it. However, it
6786-467: The whole universe. The way to the realisation of hakkō ichiu was through the benign rule of the Emperor, and therefore the "way of the Emperor," the "Imperial" or the "Kingly way," was a concept of virtue and a maxim of conduct. Hakkō ichiu was the moral goal, and loyalty to the Emperor was the road that led to it. Throughout the years that followed measures of military aggression were advocated in
6873-466: Was "the establishment of world peace in conformity with the very spirit in which our nation was founded." and that the first step was the proclamation of a "new order in East Asia" ( 東亜新秩序 , Tōa Shin Chitsujo ) , which later took the form of the " Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ". In the most magnanimous form, the term was used to indicate the making of a universal brotherhood implemented by
6960-506: Was "universal brotherhood", but it was widely acknowledged that that expression meant that the Japanese were "equal to the Caucasians but, to the peoples of Asia, we act as their leader". Hence hakkō ichiu could be seen as a euphemism for Japanese supremacy. In fact, the brutality and the racism of the Japanese led the conquered to view the Japanese imperialists as being equal to or sometimes worse than Western imperialists. For example,
7047-435: Was coming into her own. Pamphlets were dropped by airplane on the Philippines, Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, Singapore, and Indonesia, urging them to join the movement. Mutual cultural societies were founded in all conquered lands to ingratiate with the natives and try to supplant English with Japanese as the commonly used language. Multi-lingual pamphlets depicted many Asians marching or working together in happy unity, with
7134-409: Was mainly used as propaganda. At the conference, Tojo greeted them with a speech praising the "spiritual essence" of Asia instead of the "materialistic civilisation" of the West. Their meeting was characterised by the praise of solidarity and condemnation of Western colonialism but without practical plans for either economic development or integration. Because of a lack of military representatives at
7221-516: Was popularized in a speech by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on January 8, 1940. The term was coined early in the 20th century by the Nichiren Buddhist activist and nationalist Tanaka Chigaku , who cobbled it from parts of a statement attributed in the chronicle Nihon Shoki to legendary first Emperor Jimmu at the time of his ascension. The emperor's full statement reads: "Hakkō wo ooute ie to nasan" ( 八紘を掩うて宇と為さん ) (in
7308-606: Was put together with the consent of and according to the directions of the Minister of War (later Prime Minister) Hideki Tōjō . It assumed that the already established puppet governments of Manchukuo, Mengjiang , and the Wang Jingwei regime in Japanese-occupied China would continue to function in these areas. Beyond these contemporary parts of Japan's sphere of influence it also envisaged the conquest of
7395-491: Was rejected by the military circles of the nationalist right. There were enough Japanese in Western nations that suffered from racial discrimination issues that in 1919, Japan proposed a racial equality clause at the Paris Peace Conference . The proposal, intended to only apply to League of Nations members, received the support of a majority but was vetoed by US President Woodrow Wilson in violation of
7482-514: Was simplified as 挙 , but the character 欅 ( keyaki ; zelkova tree) which also contained 擧 , remained unsimplified due to its status as a Hyōgaiji. Despite this, simplified forms of hyōgaiji do exist in Japanese character sets, and are referred to as extended shinjitai ( 拡張新字体 ) . However, they are to be seen as unofficial, a position reiterated in the National Language Council's 2000 report on Characters Not Listed in
7569-571: Was to withstand Western imperialism. On November 3, 1938, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and Minister for Foreign Affairs Hachirō Arita proposed the development of the New Order in East Asia ( 東亜新秩序 , Tōa Shin Chitsujo ) , which was limited to Japan, China, and the puppet state of Manchukuo. They believed that the union had 6 purposes: The vagueness of the above points were effective in making people more agreeable to militarism and collaborationism . On June 29, 1940, Arita renamed
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