Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

The engines of militarism and ultranationalism drove World War II to the depths of darkness in human history. The wars in Europe and Asia shared aspects of ultranationalism and yet were dissimilar in how these nations arrived at World War II and how they reacted afterwards. There is no question as to whether ultranationalist motives and racial myths insinuated human rights violations. However, war guilt remains a controversial and unsettled issue today. While ideas of glorification, racial…

Even though during the reign of King Vajiravudh (1910-1925), the country was the only independent country in the region that did not suffer from the demands for territory or other concessions. However, in reality Siam sovereignty suffered from encroachment, violations and limitations imposed on the country by Western imperialism since the middle of nineteenth century as a result of the Bowring Treaty in 1855. Some of the articles in the treaty allowed foreign countries free trade with only 3…

Rather, it should only be used in situations where a state is “actively hostile to the very existence of entire peoples,” (Walzer, 1997). However, the Japanese war objective was to “secure the resources of Southeast Asia…and to establish a ‘Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity’ sphere under a Japanese hegemony” (Coakley, 2001). It was under their expansionist ideals and war aims, that citizens of their conquests were enslaved and millions of lives were lost with complete disregard from the Japanese…

construction projects on thousands of roads, bridges, and public buildings in America. World War II began as Japan invaded Manchuria in search of resources during 1931. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a japanese belief that Asia should be ruled by asians. With that in mind, Japan wanted to control the islands surrounding Asia. Later on, while Hitler rose to power he had a belief that Ayrans were the superior type of person that needed living space in Europe, so the Germans invaded…

This shows that after World War I, Japan had been influenced by the ideas of imperialism and was attempting to separate itself from the world and form trade routes solely within the boundaries of its self developed “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. Japan was trying to colonize and dominate the pacific seas. Using methods of industrialism and militarism, they were doing very well. Japan trying to prove its global imperial presence is an example of how the original problems of…

Conjoining, the two seemingly separate wars, the War in Europe and the War in Asia, nevertheless, gave rise to the onset of the Second World War (Iriye 2). In particular, the War in Europe, which consisted of Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, were at war against Germany (Iriye 2). In the meantime, the Japanese were at war with China (Iriye 4). The formation of alliances, was the development that resulted in the prospect of two wars turning into a subsequent global war. In 1941, even though…

United States of America was the first to use the atomic bomb during World War II. An atomic bomb is the release of nuclear energy by fission of heavy atomic nuclei. The damage occurs through heat, blast, and radioactivity. Ward Wilson states in the article, The Bomb Didn’t Beat Japan… Stalin Did, “The United States bombed Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, when the Japanese finally succumbed to the threat of further nuclear bombardment and surrendered.” Harry S. Truman, the…

victories captured the imagination of the Japanese militarists, showing what could be achieved through a program of territorial expansionism. Due to the war, changes occurred in Europe’s colonial powers, which created a power vacuum in South East Asia, and a perfect stage for Japan to expand their influence; as Edwin P Hoyt stated “Japans ambition at the lowest level was to replace the Europeans and the Americans as the colonial powers...establishing an Asian Federation”. 5This shift in…