An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus
Encyclopedia
, was a secret Japanese government report created by the Ministry of Health and Welfare
’s Population Problems Research Center, and completed on July 1, 1943.
The document, comprising six volumes totaling 3,127 pages, deals with race theory in general, and the rationale behind policies adopted by wartime Japan towards other races, while also providing a vision of Asia
under Japanese control.
The document was classified, had a print run of only a hundred copies, had little effect on the war, and was forgotten until 1981, when portions were discovered in a used bookstore
in Japan, and subsequently publicized by being used as source material for a chapter in historian John W. Dower
’s book War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War.
The document was written in an academic style, surveying western philosophy
on race from the writings of Plato
and Aristotle
to modern German social scientists, such as Karl Haushofer
. A connection between racism
, nationalism
and imperialist
capitalism
was also claimed, with the conclusion, drawing by citing both British and German sources, that overseas expansionism was essential not only for military and economic security, but for preserving racial consciousness. Concerns pertaining to the cultural assimilation
of second and third generation immigrants into foreign cultures were also mentioned.
Since the document was written by the Ministry of Health and Welfare
and not by the military or foreign policy establishment, it is unclear what type of political impact it would have had.
; however, much of the work borrowed heavily from German National Socialist racial
, political and economic theories, including mention of the “Jewish problem” and inclusion of racist anti-Jewish
political cartoons, although the Empire of Japan
had a rather negligible and largely overlooked Jewish minority. The term "blood and soil
" was frequently used, thought usually in quotes, as if to indicate its alien origin.
The authors rationalized of Japanese colonization of most of the eastern hemisphere
including New Zealand
and Australia
, with projected populations by the 1950, as "securing the living space of the Yamato race", a very clear echo of the Nazi concept of Lebensraum
.
and the metaphor of the family to rationalize the “equitable inequality” of Japanese dominance over the other peoples of Asia. Just as a family has harmony and reciprocity, but with a clear-cut hierarchy, the Japanese, as a purportedly racially superior people, were destined to rule Asia “eternally” as the head of the family of Asian nations. The term "proper place" was used frequently throughout the document.
The document left open whether Japan was destined eventually to become head of the global family of nations.
In 1982 the Ministry of Health and Welfare re-issued the full 6 volume version along with another two volumes entitled The Influence of War upon Population as a reference work for historians.
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan)
The ' is a cabinet level ministry of the Japanese government. It is commonly known as Kōrō-shō in Japan. This ministry provides regulations on maximum residue limits for agricultural chemicals in foods, basic food and drug regulations, standards for foods, food additives, etc.It was formed with...
’s Population Problems Research Center, and completed on July 1, 1943.
The document, comprising six volumes totaling 3,127 pages, deals with race theory in general, and the rationale behind policies adopted by wartime Japan towards other races, while also providing a vision of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
under Japanese control.
The document was classified, had a print run of only a hundred copies, had little effect on the war, and was forgotten until 1981, when portions were discovered in a used bookstore
Used bookstore
Used bookstores buy and sell used and out-of-print books. A range of titles are available in used bookstores, including in print and out of print books. Book collectors tend to frequent used book stores. Large online bookstores offer used books for sale, too...
in Japan, and subsequently publicized by being used as source material for a chapter in historian John W. Dower
John W. Dower
John W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
’s book War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War.
The document was written in an academic style, surveying western philosophy
Western philosophy
Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies and the varieties of indigenous philosophies....
on race from the writings of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
to modern German social scientists, such as Karl Haushofer
Karl Haushofer
Karl Ernst Haushofer was a German general, geographer and geopolitician. Through his student Rudolf Hess, Haushofer's ideas may have influenced the development of Adolf Hitler's expansionist strategies, although Haushofer denied direct influence on the Nazi regime.-Biography:Haushofer belonged to...
. A connection between racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
was also claimed, with the conclusion, drawing by citing both British and German sources, that overseas expansionism was essential not only for military and economic security, but for preserving racial consciousness. Concerns pertaining to the cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
of second and third generation immigrants into foreign cultures were also mentioned.
Since the document was written by the Ministry of Health and Welfare
Ministry of Health and Welfare
-External links:*...
and not by the military or foreign policy establishment, it is unclear what type of political impact it would have had.
Colonization to provide living space for the Yamato race
Some statements in the document coincide with the then publicly espoused concept of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity SphereGreater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a concept created and promulgated during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers"...
; however, much of the work borrowed heavily from German National Socialist racial
Nazism and race
Nazism developed several theories concerning races. The Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict hierarchy of human race; at the top was the master race, the "Aryan race", narrowly defined by the Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race, followed by lesser races.At the bottom of this...
, political and economic theories, including mention of the “Jewish problem” and inclusion of racist anti-Jewish
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
political cartoons, although the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
had a rather negligible and largely overlooked Jewish minority. The term "blood and soil
Blood and soil
Blood and Soil refers to an ideology that focuses on ethnicity based on two factors, descent and homeland/Heimat...
" was frequently used, thought usually in quotes, as if to indicate its alien origin.
The authors rationalized of Japanese colonization of most of the eastern hemisphere
Eastern Hemisphere
The Eastern Hemisphere, also Eastern hemisphere or eastern hemisphere, is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that is east of the Prime Meridian and west of 180° longitude. It is also used to refer to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia, vis-à-vis the Western Hemisphere, which includes...
including New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, with projected populations by the 1950, as "securing the living space of the Yamato race", a very clear echo of the Nazi concept of Lebensraum
Lebensraum
was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...
.
Racially superior people
However, where the document deviated from Nazi ideology was in its use of ConfucianismConfucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
and the metaphor of the family to rationalize the “equitable inequality” of Japanese dominance over the other peoples of Asia. Just as a family has harmony and reciprocity, but with a clear-cut hierarchy, the Japanese, as a purportedly racially superior people, were destined to rule Asia “eternally” as the head of the family of Asian nations. The term "proper place" was used frequently throughout the document.
The document left open whether Japan was destined eventually to become head of the global family of nations.
In 1982 the Ministry of Health and Welfare re-issued the full 6 volume version along with another two volumes entitled The Influence of War upon Population as a reference work for historians.
Jinshu and Minzoku
The document drew an explicit distinction between jinshu and Rasse (English: race), and minzoku or Volk (English: people), describing a minzoku as "a natural and spiritual community bound by a common destiny." However, the authors went on to assert that blood mattered. It approved of Hitler's concern about finding the "Germanness" of his people. It made explicit calls, sometimes approaching Nazi attitudes, for eugenic improvements, calling for the medical profession not to concentrate on the sick and weak, and for mental and physical training and selective marriages to improve the population.See also
- Hakko ichiu - 'eight cords, one roof'Hakko ichiuwas a Japanese political slogan that became popular from the Second Sino-Japanese War to World War II, and was popularized in a speech by Prime Minister of Japan Fumimaro Konoe on January 8, 1940.-Outline:...
- Manifesto of Race
- Racial issues in Japan
- Scientific racismScientific racismScientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
- Shinmin no MichiShinmin no MichiThe was an ideological manifesto issued by the Ministry of Education of Japan during World War II aimed at Japan’s domestic audience to explain in clear terms what was expected of them "as a people, nation and race".- Origins :...
- Yamato peopleYamato peopleis a name for the dominant native ethnic group of Japan. It is a term that came to be used around the late 19th century to distinguish the residents of the mainland Japan from other minority ethnic groups who have resided in the peripheral areas of Japan, such as the Ainu, Ryukyuan, Nivkh, Ulta, as...
- Yamato-damashii - 'the Japanese spirit'Yamato-damashiiis a historically and culturally loaded word in the Japanese language. The phrase was apparently coined in the Heian period to describe the indigenous Japanese 'spirit' or cultural values as opposed to the cultural values imported into the country through contact with Tang dynasty China. Later, a...