The China Incident as the Opening Act of the Liberation of East Asia

This article reexamines a confidential Japanese Army memorandum produced in June 1938 under the direction of Colonel Masazumi Inada, Chief of the Operations Section of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. The document defines the China Incident as “the opening act of the liberation of East Asia” and advocates the reconstruction of Eastern civilization and liberation from dependence upon the Western powers. Drawing upon original documents preserved in the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, this study examines the content and historical context of the memorandum. Particular attention is given to its concepts of East Asian liberation, reconstruction of Eastern civilization, and regional cooperation among Japan, Manchukuo, and China. The study argues that the memorandum demonstrates that ideas later associated with the New Order in East Asia and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere were already being discussed within sections of the Army General Staff before the outbreak of the Pacific War. Regardless of subsequent historical evaluations, the memorandum deserves attention as an important primary source for understanding Japanese strategic thought in 1938.