-
Introduction
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Chapter
- Additional Information
xiii Introduction FOR over two decades following the end of World War II, Japan’s goalsandtacticsinwartimeGreaterEastAsiahaveremainedburied in government and military archives and in the memories of wartime leadersstillliving.Theimage,fosteredthroughtheproceedings of the International Military Tribunal in Tokyo, of Japan as one of the world’s most rapacious militarist powers has long prevailed on both sides of the Pacific. Difficulty of access to private and officialarchivesofthewaryearshashelpedperpetuatethedarkness which still obfuscates many aspects of the Pacific War. Japanese historiansstillremainreluctanttoscrutinizetheconcepts,goals,and implementationofJapan’sGreaterEastAsiaCo-ProsperitySpherein Asia. American scholars have only recently pioneered in re-examining Japan’swaraimsandhavebeguntheworkofrevisingearlierassumptions . This task has been facilitated by the appearance of the first volumes of the Japanese official history of World War II, edited by thestaffoftheWarHistoryOfficeoftheDefenceAgency. Thewar,accordingtosomeAmericanrevisionists,wasnotsimply a Japanese version of the capitalist pattern of imperialism described by Lenin and demonstrated by Western powers. It was more signi ficantly a war for preservation and defence of vital interests threatened by the advance of Western imperialism inAsia. Similarly , the traditional image of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere as the grand design for Japanese empire inAsia can also be questioned. For one thing, the borders of the Greater EastAsia CoProsperity Sphere were nebulous and elastic. The concept crystallized in the minds of various individuals, some civilian but mostly military, by late 1940. But the forerunners of the Sphere—the East Asia Co-operative Body and the New Order in East Asia—were advanced even earlier, during the Manchurian Incident. For some, 00IndNatPrelims.indd13 4/21/084:34:52PM xiv by early 1941, the Greater Sphere, or sphere of influence, would sweep across Asia to embrace India, Australia and New Zealand within its compass. The goal of economic self-sufficiency provided the rationale for political and cultural arrangements. The concept of the Sphere grew as more of Southeast Asia fell under Japanese militaryoccupation. Inactuality,militarystrategywasneverdevisedtopushtheboundaries of the Sphere much beyond Burma. Protection of the Burma border and disruption of China-India lines of communication took the Japanese Army in 1944 into Imphal in the state of Manipur, India. Militarily, the campaign was ill conceived; it was a fiasco in execution. Politically,however,IndiawasincludedinthevisionoftheJapanese sphere of influence, even before the outbreak of hostilities in the Pacific. The propaganda goal of “Asia for the Asiatics” served Japan well in Southeast Asia. Japan adopted a policy aim of encouraging anti-British sentiment throughout Southeast Asia and particularly in Burma, Malaya and Thailand. Intelligence missions weresentinsidethebordersofIndia.TheImphalcampaignof1944 was designed in part to encourage Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian NationalArmy, and thereby to incite revolution within India. InJapan’smilitaryfiascoatImphaltheimmediatepoliticalgoalwas alsodefeated. From the Indian viewpoint, the struggle throughout Asia was for independence. The roots of Indian nationalism extend back into the nineteenth century under the British Raj. During the early decades of the twentieth century the political mainstream of Indian nationalism followed the Gandhian doctrine of non-violent disobedience . But there was another tradition, a heterodox political vision with equally ancient roots, which turned toward violence. SubhasChandraBosebecameleaderofthismilitantwingofthenationalist movement, splitting with Gandhi and Nehru over the issue of the use of force against the British. Despite the opposition of Gandhi,however,BosewaselectedPresidentoftheIndianNational Congressin1938andagainin1939. BosewasaBengalirevolutionary.NurturedinaKshatriyafamily onreformistdoctrinesprevalentinBengalattheturnofthecentury, he advocated the use of force as the only means to rid the motherland oftheBritishimperialpower.Placedunderhousearrestin1940, he eluded the authorities, escaping toAfghanistan and then to Nazi 00IndNatPrelims.indd14 4/21/084:34:52PM [3.145.130.31] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 18:35 GMT...
Buy This Book in Print