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Hakkō ichiu
Hakkō ichiu (八紘一宇, "eight crown cords, one roof", i.e. "all the world under one roof") or hakkō iu (Shinjitai: 八紘為宇, 八紘爲宇) was a Japanese political slogan meaning the divine right of the Empire of Japan to "unify the eight corners of the world." The slogan formed the basis of the empire's ideology. It was popularized in a speech by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on January 8, 1940 and weaponized to justify Japanese imperialism throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.
The term was coined early in the 20th century by the Nichiren Buddhist activist and nationalist Tanaka Chigaku, who cobbled it from parts of a statement attributed in the chronicle Nihon Shoki to legendary first Emperor Jimmu at the time of his ascension. The emperor's full statement reads: "Hakkō wo ooute ie to nasan" (八紘を掩うて宇と為さん) (in the original kanbun: 掩八紘而爲宇), and means: "I shall cover the eight directions and make them my abode". The term hakkō (八紘), meaning "eight crown cords" ("crown cords" being the hanging decorations of the benkan (冕冠), a traditional Chinese-style crown), was a metaphor for happō (八方), or "eight directions".
Despite its original universalist meaning, according to the principle of "ichi soku issai, issai soku ichi (one is inseparable from the whole and vice versa)", Tanaka interpreted it as justification for imperialism. To stop this imperialist reinterpretation from spreading, Koyama Iwao (1905–1993), disciple of Nishida, and drawing off the Flower Adornment Sutra, proposed to substitute the words "to be included or to find a place" for the last two characters ("to make them my abode"). That move was rejected by the military circles of the nationalist right.
There were enough Japanese in Western nations that suffered from racial discrimination issues that in 1919, Japan proposed a racial equality clause at the Paris Peace Conference. The proposal, intended to only apply to League of Nations members, received the support of a majority but was vetoed by US President Woodrow Wilson in violation of the rules of the Conference that allowed a majority vote. In 1924, the US Congress enacted the Asian Exclusion Act, outlawing immigration from Asia.
Worsened with the economic impact of the Shōwa financial crisis and the Great Depression in the 1930s, which led to a resurgence of nationalist, militarist and expansionist movement, Emperor Shōwa, known more commonly as Hirohito outside Japan, and his reign became associated with the rediscovery of hakkō ichiu as an expansionist element of Japanese nationalistic beliefs. The naval limitations treaties of 1921 and especially 1930 were seen as a mistake[clarification needed] in their unanticipated effect on internal political struggles in Japan, and the treaties provided an external motivating catalyst that provoked reactionary militarist elements to desperate actions, with their presence overtaking civilian and liberal elements in society.
The evolution of hakkō ichiu serves as a changing litmus test of those factional relationships during the next decade.
The term hakkō ichiu did not enter general circulation until 1940, when the second Konoe administration issued a white paper titled "Fundamental National Policy" (基本国策要綱, Kihon Kokusaku Yōkō), which opened with those words and in which Prime Minister Konoe proclaimed that the basic aim of Japan's national policy was "the establishment of world peace in conformity with the very spirit in which our nation was founded." and that the first step was the proclamation of a "new order in East Asia" (東亜新秩序, Tōa Shin Chitsujo), which later took the form of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". In the most magnanimous form, the term was used to indicate the making of a universal brotherhood implemented by the uniquely-virtuous Yamato. Because that would bring people under the emperor's fatherly benevolence, force was justified against those who resisted.
The Japanese additionally undertook many projects to prove that they supported racial equality. For example, on December 6, 1938, the Five Ministers Council (Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, Army Minister Seishirō Itagaki, Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai, Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita and Finance Minister Shigeaki Ikeda), the highest decision-making council at the time, took the decision to prohibit the expulsion of the Jews from Japan, Manchuria, and China. Thereafter, the Japanese received Jewish refugees despite the opposition of their ally Nazi Germany.
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Hakkō ichiu
Hakkō ichiu (八紘一宇, "eight crown cords, one roof", i.e. "all the world under one roof") or hakkō iu (Shinjitai: 八紘為宇, 八紘爲宇) was a Japanese political slogan meaning the divine right of the Empire of Japan to "unify the eight corners of the world." The slogan formed the basis of the empire's ideology. It was popularized in a speech by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on January 8, 1940 and weaponized to justify Japanese imperialism throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.
The term was coined early in the 20th century by the Nichiren Buddhist activist and nationalist Tanaka Chigaku, who cobbled it from parts of a statement attributed in the chronicle Nihon Shoki to legendary first Emperor Jimmu at the time of his ascension. The emperor's full statement reads: "Hakkō wo ooute ie to nasan" (八紘を掩うて宇と為さん) (in the original kanbun: 掩八紘而爲宇), and means: "I shall cover the eight directions and make them my abode". The term hakkō (八紘), meaning "eight crown cords" ("crown cords" being the hanging decorations of the benkan (冕冠), a traditional Chinese-style crown), was a metaphor for happō (八方), or "eight directions".
Despite its original universalist meaning, according to the principle of "ichi soku issai, issai soku ichi (one is inseparable from the whole and vice versa)", Tanaka interpreted it as justification for imperialism. To stop this imperialist reinterpretation from spreading, Koyama Iwao (1905–1993), disciple of Nishida, and drawing off the Flower Adornment Sutra, proposed to substitute the words "to be included or to find a place" for the last two characters ("to make them my abode"). That move was rejected by the military circles of the nationalist right.
There were enough Japanese in Western nations that suffered from racial discrimination issues that in 1919, Japan proposed a racial equality clause at the Paris Peace Conference. The proposal, intended to only apply to League of Nations members, received the support of a majority but was vetoed by US President Woodrow Wilson in violation of the rules of the Conference that allowed a majority vote. In 1924, the US Congress enacted the Asian Exclusion Act, outlawing immigration from Asia.
Worsened with the economic impact of the Shōwa financial crisis and the Great Depression in the 1930s, which led to a resurgence of nationalist, militarist and expansionist movement, Emperor Shōwa, known more commonly as Hirohito outside Japan, and his reign became associated with the rediscovery of hakkō ichiu as an expansionist element of Japanese nationalistic beliefs. The naval limitations treaties of 1921 and especially 1930 were seen as a mistake[clarification needed] in their unanticipated effect on internal political struggles in Japan, and the treaties provided an external motivating catalyst that provoked reactionary militarist elements to desperate actions, with their presence overtaking civilian and liberal elements in society.
The evolution of hakkō ichiu serves as a changing litmus test of those factional relationships during the next decade.
The term hakkō ichiu did not enter general circulation until 1940, when the second Konoe administration issued a white paper titled "Fundamental National Policy" (基本国策要綱, Kihon Kokusaku Yōkō), which opened with those words and in which Prime Minister Konoe proclaimed that the basic aim of Japan's national policy was "the establishment of world peace in conformity with the very spirit in which our nation was founded." and that the first step was the proclamation of a "new order in East Asia" (東亜新秩序, Tōa Shin Chitsujo), which later took the form of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". In the most magnanimous form, the term was used to indicate the making of a universal brotherhood implemented by the uniquely-virtuous Yamato. Because that would bring people under the emperor's fatherly benevolence, force was justified against those who resisted.
The Japanese additionally undertook many projects to prove that they supported racial equality. For example, on December 6, 1938, the Five Ministers Council (Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, Army Minister Seishirō Itagaki, Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai, Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita and Finance Minister Shigeaki Ikeda), the highest decision-making council at the time, took the decision to prohibit the expulsion of the Jews from Japan, Manchuria, and China. Thereafter, the Japanese received Jewish refugees despite the opposition of their ally Nazi Germany.
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