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Japan's Intentions for Its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere as Indicated in Its Policy Plans for Thailand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

William L. Swan
William L. Swan
Affiliation:
Tokyo, Japan
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Abstract

The article examines the intent of the Japanese for their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It relies on documents that the Japanese government prepared in September 1942 which set forth prospective policy towards Thailand as a member of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. The proposals in these documents specified the political and diplomatic relations Japan expected to have with Thailand, and they were very specific regarding Japan's control over Thailand's economy as a part of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. The documents indicate that the Japanese were aiming at establishing a well-organized, well-regulated sphere as a unity under the direction of Japan. The organic nature that the Japanese envisioned for the Co-Prosperity Sphere was patterned on the same organic unity that they had applied to building and controlling their empire between 1895 and 1940.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Special Issue 1: The Japanese Occupation in Southeast Asia , March 1996 , pp. 139 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1996

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References

1 Daihonei-Seifu renraku kaigi () is translated as “Government-Imperial Headquarters liaison conference”. It is interesting to note, however, that English reverses the order of the two bodies involved, the government (the cabinet ministers) and the military (the chiefs-of-staff); in Japanese, as befitting the times, the military side, Daihonei, is put first.

2 Tai Tax shisaku ni kan sum ken (); this policy statement is contained in Kenkyūjo, Kajima Heiwa [Kajima Peace Research Center], Nihon Gaikōshi [Japanese Diplomatic History], vol. 24 (Tokyo: Kajima Kenkyūjo Suppankai, Shōwa 48 [1973]), pp. 166–67Google Scholar.

3 This treaty of alliance was concluded between the two countries on 21 Dec. 1941.

Attached to this document were two additional comments:

(1) In carrying out the matters set forth in this policy statement, it is intended that there be very close communication and cooperation with our officials in Thailand.

(2) There will be adequate control and supervision of Japanese living in Thailand regarding the implementation of policy towards that country.

5 Tai Tai keizai shisaku yōkō (); this document is contained in Kajima, Nihon Gaikoshi, pp. 168–72.

6 The entire document is translated in the appendix.

7 On the Japanese approach to empire, the reader is directed to the works in Myers, R.M. and Peattie, M.R. (eds.), The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984)Google Scholar, especially the “Introduction” by Mark R. Peattie.

8 Nampō senryōchi gyōsei jisshi yōryō (); this document is contained in Masao, Inaba et al. , Taiheiyō sensōe no michi, Bekkan, Shiryōhen [The Road to the Pacific War], Appendix Volume, Documents Section (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha, Showa 38 [1963]), p. 587Google Scholar; English translations are in Dee, Nobutaka, Japan's Decision for War (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1967), pp. 251–53Google Scholar, and Joyce Lebra, C. (ed.), Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in World War II (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 114–16Google Scholar; a summary of the main policy objectives is given in Imai Seiichi, Taiheiyō sensōshi, dai 4 kan, “Taiheiyō sensō I” [History of the Pacific War, vol. 4, “The Pacific War I”] (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, Showa 48 [1972]), p. 179.

9 Imai, Taiheiyo sensoshi, pp. 179–80.

10 Nampō keizai taisaku yōkō (); this policy decision is summarized in Imai, Taiheiyo sensoshi, pp. 180–81, and Tom Yano, The Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere: Setting the Stage for the Cold War in Southeast Asia, Discussion Paper No. 83, The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Nov. 1975, pp. 13–20; an English translation of a portion of the document is in Lebra, Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, pp. 116–17.