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Historical parallels of Japanese economic expansion

A dialog frm the H-Asia list
January 1998

Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 16:03:17 +0000
From: Andrea Campana, Dottore di ricerca <md3206@mclink.it>

From: Andrea Campana, Dottore di ricerca <md3206@mclink.it>

Dear contributors,

Here is a request for help in order to prepare an article-discussion for an Italian Historical Review.

Any contributions or suggestions are welcome on the following subject:

An historiographic assessment on "The [Japanese] Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" today. How was it different from the expansion of Nazi Germany in Europe? What can be the lesson from it looking to the economic expansion of Japan in East Asia today?

Can you send an original tought on this?

Thank you

Andrea Campana
Assistant Professor
University of Florence (Italy)

Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 22:52:55 -0500
From: "Andrea Campana, Dottore di ricerca" <md3206@mclink.it>
Subject: I: II Query: Historical Parallels - The Japanese Co-prosperity Sphere and Economic Expansion

Dear colleagues,

In order to ginger up the debate for the next number of an Italian Historical Review, could you comment on the following statements?: In History the expansion of influences by a leading civilization can have good effects or bad effects.

The expansion of a "peaceful" civilization is good.

The Japanese Co-prosperity project had in nuce strong (common) ethnic and economic elements.

Thus it was, as a result, a project for a "good expansion" to which today we can look in a different way than to, for instance, Nazi's experience in Eastern Europe. At least, we could give a positive judgement to its ethnic and economic aspects.

Had Japanese foreign policy in the 1930s and 1940s a relevant and positive racial and economic aspect aiming to integration? Can we say that these two elements are present also in current Japanese foreign policy?

Thank you in advance for your original thoughts.

Andrea Campana

January 24, 1998
From: Andrea Campana <md3206@mclink.it>

Dear Prof Leibo: I re-send my post of 9th January 1998 for GENERAL attention and for possible "public" debate

Andrea Campana
University of Florence

Dear colleagues,

In order to ginger up the debate for the next number of an Italian

Historical Review, could you comment on the following statements?:

In History the expansion of influences by a leading civilization can have good effects or bad effects.

The expansion of a "peaceful" civilization is good.

The Japanese Co-prosperity project had in nuce strong (common) ethnic and economic elements.

Thus it was, as a result, a project for a "good expansion" to which today we can look in a different way than to, for instance, Nazi's experience in Eastern Europe. At least, we could give a positive judgement to its ethnic and economic aspects.

Had Japanese foreign policy in the 1930s and 1940s a relevant and positive racial and economic aspect aiming to integration? Can we say that these two elements are present also in current Japanese foreign policy?

Thank you in advance for any original thoughts.

Andrea Campana"

Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:57:37 -0500
From: Michael Turton <mturton@ms1.showtower.com.tw>

> As M. Caprio underlines, in the 1920s the Japanese in Korea carried out
> infrastructural improvements. The attitude of Tokyo to the Koreans is
> another story but a moral judgement probably cannot be reached by only
> looking at the Japanese-Korean relationship and would have to be seen in
> a more international context.

What "more international context" is needed to make a moral judgement? The Japanese occupied Korea, an independent Kingdom for some centuries prior to that time. That is a morally unjustifiable act, regardless of your viewpoint.

> On Kinmonth's remark that it is an open question whether Japan really
> had "a Foreign Policy in the 1930s and 1940s" I would like to have,
> please, some bibliographical indications on this view or more
> information. I think Japan did have a foreign as
> one today. In the past, Tokyo initiated aggression, that was not even
by their revanchiste goals (as in the case of
> Germany). Today, Japanese fist.

Regardless of what you think, the vast majority of scholars writing on this issue have identified an inability to create, shape and implement coherent foreign policy as a major problem for Japan in the 1930s and 1940s. Reasons are too complex to go into at any length here, but fundamentally, the gov't lost control of the Army. I suggest you start with some of the more accessible works for general audiences on Japan in that period, such as Saburo Ienaga's _The Pacific War_ or John Toland's two-volume _Rise and Fall......._ Van Wolferen's _The Enigma of Japanese Power_ also discusses the period. Any decent biography of a major Japanese leader of the period, such as Tojo, will talk about this problem, as well as any history of the Japanese Army or Navy. All these works have their weaknesses, but further reading in scholarly works will clarify the issues.

> I am sorry that M. Turton misunderstood me, but I thank him for the
> references he sent. I would like to know more on the debate on Confucian
> values: he quotes an article by Harrell on the work ethic of the
> Chinese, but he doesn't attach a reference. May I have it? Thanks (all
> the other books he quotes have no precise references).

The ref for Harrel is: Harrell, Stevan. 1985. "Why do the Chinese Work So Hard?: Reflections on an Entrepreneurial Ethic." Modern China 11,2: 203-226. As for the others, title and author are generally sufficient info to find any book with modern search programs. The debate on Confucian ethics and development has been played out in numerous articles and books. I have a bibliography on small business and political economy in Taiwan with several works on the issue at:

http://www.showtower.com.tw/~mturton/bib.html

Silin, Wilmott, Hamilton (et al) are all good places to look for starters.

Judging by your comments on putting Korea in an international context to make a moral judgement, no, I haven't misunderstood you.

Mike Turton

From: Margherita Zanasi <zanasi@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>

I have to say that I am quite bewildered by Dr. Campana's message on the Japanese co-prosperity sphere. I found my argument totally misrepresented. Especially when he argues

>Dott. M. Zanasi does not distinguish colonialism and imperialism from
>political-economic-cultural influence.

I also don't remember having supported a subaltern-study approach to colonialism and denied "interplay between colonizers and colonized."

I know Dr. Campana from the times of my undergraduate studies at the University of Florence (IT) and I had sent him a personal message with some ideas on the query he submitted to H-Asia. I wouldn't mind his unauthorized use of my personal message in his latest posting, if it weren't for his misrepresentation of my thoughts.

Margherita Zanasi University of Texas at Austin
Garrison Hall 114
zanasi@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu