An Analysis Of The Ideological Origin Of Japan's "Great East Asia Co-prosperity Circle"

Before World War II,Japan,the first modernized Asian country,was trying to break the international order set by the United States and Britain,in order to absorb the resources to develop itself and get rid of the restrictions imposed by the Western countries.By preaching the Imperial history and the superiority of emperor politics,using the means of aggression and supporting pro-Japanese regimes,Japan was trying to carry out a vertical sequence structure,called "Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere",which was a kind of international order would make Asian countries under the leadership of Japan.The emergence of this concept is both accidental and inevitable.From the policy side,the fact that Germany was sweeping the battlefield of Europe brought a sense of crisis to Japan.In order to safeguard its own interests in Southeast Asia,Japan changed its wording,and defined its sphere of influence by the word "Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere",which shows the contigency;From the ideological side,the inevitability shows in two levels: at the outer level,the concept of "Coprosperity Sphere",originated from “Asianism”.It was developed by Konoe and his son,then inherited but also diverged by Matsuoka.In the inner level,the foreign policy of Japan is inextricably linked with its "position consciousness" since the ancient times,and the concept of "Coprosperity Sphere" is in essence the inevitable outcome of Japan' s position judgement at that time,which appeared to be "China<the West<Japan".Furthermore,the relationship between Japan's foreign policy and its "position consciousness" is also reflected in the fact that same position often leads to similar foreign policy.By comparing the "Maharaja diplomatic system" of the Tokugawa Shogunate period and the "Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere" from the aspects of cognition and policy,the above statement can be affirmed.And it reveals that the concept of "Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere" was just the re-attempt of Japanled "Hua Yi system" in modern times.