Japan presented expansion as Asian cooperation, but sought a region under its own leadership and control of resources needed for war.
In 1940, Japan promoted the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It promised shared prosperity and freedom from Western colonial rule, but Japan was to lead the region. The appeal to Asian unity helped justify expansion. A promise of liberation did not show that the peoples brought under Japanese control would be free to govern themselves.
Southeast Asia offered oil in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, and rubber and tin in British-ruled Malaya. Controlling these resources could help Japan continue fighting while reducing reliance on Western suppliers. Germany's defeat of France and the Netherlands in 1940, and Britain's continuing war in Europe, made their Asian colonies appear more vulnerable. Britain had not surrendered; it faced demands on its forces in different places.
Japan moved into northern French Indochina in 1940 and southern Indochina in 1941. This region covered present-day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Bases there brought Japanese forces closer to further targets in Southeast Asia. But the United States also had forces and interests in the Pacific, including the Philippines. An advance south therefore offered resources while risking war with Britain, the Netherlands and the United States.
Worked example: Check the promise against who would hold power
A student says that a promise to free Asia proves Japan's expansion would bring independence.
- The slogan tells us how Japan presented its plans: Asian unity and freedom from Western rule.
- The proposed region was to be led by Japan, and control of oil and other materials would support its war effort.
- To judge independence, ask who would make decisions and control resources. A promise of shared prosperity does not by itself answer those questions.
Watch out for this
The Co-Prosperity Sphere meant equal, independent partners.
Japan proposed a region under Japanese leadership. Test its claims against control, extraction and the experience of occupation.
Check your understanding
Which explanation best connects the Co-Prosperity Sphere with Japanese expansion?
- The promise of shared prosperity established that the territories would govern themselves independently.
- It presented a Japanese-led region as Asian cooperation while promising control of resources useful to Japan's war effort.
- The plan required Japan to leave China before it could build a region of equal partners.