Rethinking Governance in Europe and Northeast Asia: Multilateralism and Nationalism in International Society by Uwe Wissenbach

Author:Uwe Wissenbach [Wissenbach, Uwe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781032086576
Google: i5tmzgEACAAJ
Amazon: B07Z6Q8H4Y
Barnesnoble: B07Z6Q8H4Y
Goodreads: 56116842
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2021-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

The concepts Japan pursued in the 1930s and 1940s of an ‘East Asian Community’, a ‘New Order in East Asia’, the ‘Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere’ and an ‘Asian Community’, all under Japan’s leadership, were portrayed (and, outrageously for Japan’s neighbours, continue to be) as an attempt to liberate fellow Asians from Western colonialism and leading them into modernity. However, rather than a cynical disguise for imperialism, these concepts rooted in Japanese Pan-Asianism, were part of an intellectual heritage building on East Asian commonality of culture, script, race and common ancestors (Duara 2001, 111; Duus 2008, 146). ‘The Japanese were imperialists in China who thought of themselves as friends and mentors, rather than occupiers’. (Mitter 2014, 46–7)

The wider ideological clash between Japan and China was a central cause of the tragedy [the Nanjing massacre]. Japanese Pan-Asianism had metamorphosed in the decades between 1900 and the 1930s, and the Japanese were seized with a sincere, if deluded, belief that they had the duty to lead their Asian neighbours, including China, in a journey of liberation from Western imperialism. The notion that China might have developed its own vision of nationalism, in which Japan was as much an aggressor as the West, did not fit into the world view of the invaders. This cognitive dissonance did a great deal to fuel the contempt of the troops for their victims and their consequent savagery.

(Mitter 2014, 139)

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