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Nanshin-ron

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Japanese expansion in the Asia-Pacific afterKantokuenwas cancelled

Nanshin-ron(Nam tiến luận,"Southern Expansion Doctrine" or "Southern Road" )was a political doctrine in theEmpire of Japanthat stated thatSoutheast Asiaand thePacific Islandswere Japan'ssphere of interestand that their potential value to the Empire for economic and territorial expansion was greater than elsewhere.

The opposing political doctrine wasHokushin-ron(Bắc tiến luận,"Northern Expansion Doctrine" ),largely supported by theImperial Japanese Army,which stated the same but forManchuriaandSiberia.After military setbacks atNomonhan,Mongolia;the start of theSecond Sino-Japanese Wartying down millions of Japanese troops in China; and negative Western attitudes towards Japaneseexpansionisttendencies, the Southern Expansion Doctrine became predominant. Its focus was to procure resources from European Southeast Asian colonies, eliminate supply routes to China, and neutralize the Allied military presence in the Pacific. The Army favored a "counterclockwise strike", while the Navy favored a "clockwise strike".[1]

Meiji-period genesis[edit]

In Japanesehistoriography,the termnanshin-ronis used to describe Japanese writings on the importance to Japan of theSouth Seasregion in thePacific Ocean.[2]Japanese interest in Southeast Asia can be observed in writings of theEdo period(17th–19th centuries).[3]

During the final years of the Edo period, the leaders of the Meiji Restoration determined that Japan needed to pursue a course ofimperialismin emulation of the European nations to attain equality in status with the West, as European powers were laying claim to territories ever closer to Japan.

After theMeiji Restorationof 1868, thenanshin-ronpolicy came to be advanced with the southern regions as a focus for trade and emigration.[3]During the earlyMeiji period,Japan derived economic benefits from Japanese emigrants to Southeast Asia, among which there wereprostitutes(Karayuki-san)[4]who worked in brothels inBritish Malaya,[5]Singapore,[6]thePhilippines,[7]theDutch East Indies[8]andFrench Indochina.[9]Nanshin-ronwas advocated as a national policy by a group of Japaneseideologuesduring the 1880s and the 1890s.[10]Writings of the time often presented areas ofMicronesiaand Southeast Asia as uninhabited or uncivilised and suitable for Japanese colonisation and cultivation.[11]In its initial stagesNanshin-ronfocused primarily on Southeast Asia, and until the late 1920s, it concentrated on gradual and peaceful Japanese advances into the region to address what the Japanese saw as the twin problems ofunderdevelopmentandWestern colonialism.[12]During the first decade of the 20th century, private Japanese companies became active in trade in Southeast Asia. Communities of emigrant Japanese merchants arose in many areas and sold sundry goods to local customers, and Japanese imports ofrubberandhempincreased.[4]Large-scale Japanese investment occurred especially in rubber,copra,and hemp plantations in Malaya and inMindanaoin the southern Philippines. The JapaneseForeign Ministryestablished consulates inManila(1888), Singapore (1889), andBatavia(1909).

With increasing Japaneseindustrializationcame the realization that Japan was dependent on the supply of many raw materials from overseas locations outside its direct control and was hence vulnerable to that supply's disruption. The Japanese need for the promotion of trade, developing and protecting sea routes, and official encouragement of emigration to ease overpopulation arose simultaneously with the strengthening of theImperial Japanese Navy,which gave Japan the military strength to protect its overseas interests if diplomacy failed.

Pacific Islands[edit]

The Japanese government began pursuing a policy of overseas migration in the late 19th century as a result of Japan's limited resources and increasing population. In 1875, Japan declared its control over theBonin Islands.[10]The formal annexation and incorporation of theBonin IslandsandTaiwaninto theJapanese Empirecan be viewed as first steps in implementation of the "Southern Expansion Doctrine" in concrete terms.

However,World War Ihad a profound impact on the "Southern Expansion Doctrine" since Japan occupied vast areas in the Pacific that had been controlled by theGerman Empire:theCaroline Islands,Mariana Islands,Marshall IslandsandPalau.In 1919, the island groups officially became aLeague of Nations mandateof Japan and came under the administration of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The focus of the "Southern Expansion Doctrine" expanded to include the island groups (theSouth Seas Mandate), whose economic and military development came to be viewed as essential to Japan's security.

Theoretical development[edit]

Meiji-period nationalistic researchers and writers pointed to Japan's relations with the Pacific region from the 17th-centuryred seal shiptrading voyages, and Japanese immigration and settlement inNihonmachiduring the period before theTokugawa shogunate'snational seclusionpolicies. Some researchers attempted to findarcheologicaloranthropologicalevidence of a racial link between the Japanese of southernKyūshū(theKumaso) and the peoples of the Pacific islands.

Nanshin-ronappeared in Japanese political discourse around the mid-1880s.[13]In the late 19th century, the policy focused on China,[14]with an emphasis on securing control of Korea and expanding Japanese interests inFu gian.Russian involvement in Manchuria at the turn of the century led to the policy being eclipsed byhokushin-ron(the "Northern Expansion Doctrine" ). The resultingRusso-Japanese War(1904–05) produced territorial gains for Japan inSouth Manchuria.[15]After the war, the expansionist aspects ofnanshin-ronbecame more developed, and the policy was incorporated into the national defense strategy in 1907.[16]

In the 1920s and 1930s, the "Southern Expansion Doctrine" gradually came to be formalized, largely through the efforts of the Imperial Japanese Navy's "South Strike Group," a strategicthink tankbased at theTaihoku Imperial UniversityinTaiwan.Many professors at the university were either active or former Navy officers, with direct experience in the territories in question. The university published numerous reports promoting the advantages of investment and settlement in the territories under Navy control.

In the Navy, the Anti-Treaty Faction (han-joyaku ha) opposed the Washington Treaty, unlike theTreaty Faction.The former set up a "Study Committee for Policies towards the South Seas" (Tai Nan'yō Hōsaku Kenkyū-kai) to explore military and economic expansion strategies and cooperated with theMinistry of Colonial Affairs(Takumu-sho) to emphasize the military role of Taiwan and Micronesia as advanced bases for further southern expansion.

Economic development[edit]

In 1920 the Foreign Ministry convened theNan-yo Boeki Kaigi(South Seas Trade Conference), to promote South Seas commerce and published in 1928Boeki, Kigyo oyobi imin yori mitaru Nan'yo( "The South Seas in View of Trade and Emigration" ). The termNan-yo kokusaku(National Policy towards the South Seas) first appeared.

The Japanese government sponsored several companies, including theNan'yō Takushoku Kabushiki Kaisha(South Seas Colonization Company), theNan'yō Kōhatsu Kabushiki Kaisha(South Seas Development Company), and theNan'yō Kyōkai(South Seas Society) with a mixture of private and government funds for development ofphosphatemining,sugarcaneandcoconutindustries in islands and to sponsor emigrants. Japanese Societies were established inRabaul,New Caledonia,FijiandNew Hebridesin 1932 and inTongain 1935.

The success of the Navy in the economic development of Taiwan and theSouth Seas Mandatethrough alliances amongmilitary officers,bureaucrats,capitalists,andright-wingandleft-wingintellectualscontrasted sharply with Army failures in the Chinese mainland.

Increasing militarization[edit]

TheWashington Naval Treatyhad restricted the size of the Japanese Navy and also stipulated that new military bases and fortifications could not be established in overseas territories or colonies. However, in the 1920s, Japan had already begun the secret construction of fortifications in Palau,TinianandSaipan.

To evade monitoring by the Western powers, they were camouflaged as places to dry fishing nets or coconut, rice, or sugar-cane farms, andNan'yō Kohatsu Kaisha(South Seas Development Company) in co-operation with the Japanese Navy, assumed responsibility for construction.

The construction increased after the even more restrictiveLondon Naval Treatyof 1930, and the growing importance of military aviation led Japan to view Micronesia to be of strategic importance as a chain of "unsinkable aircraft carriers"protecting Japan and as a base of operations for operations in south-west Pacific.

The Navy also began examining the strategic importance ofPapua and New GuineatoAustraliasince it was aware that the Australian annexation of those territories had been motivated in large part in an attempt to secure an important defense line.

Adoption as national policy[edit]

In 1931, the "Five Ministers Meeting" defined the Japanese objective of extending its influence in the Pacific but excluded areas such as thePhilippines,theDutch East IndiesandJava,which might provoke other countries.[4]Nanshin-ronbecame official policy after 1935[16]and was officially adopted as national policy with the promulgation of theToa shin Chitsujo(New Order in East Asia) in 1936 at the "Five Ministers Conference" (attended by the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Finance Minister, Army Minister and the Navy Minister), with the resolution to advance south peacefully.

By the start ofWorld War II,the policy had evolved in scope to include Southeast Asia.[16]The doctrine also formed part of the basis of theGreater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere,which was proclaimed byJapanese Prime MinisterKonoe Fumimarofrom July 1940. Resource-rich areas of Southeast Asia were earmarked to provide raw materials for Japan's industry, and the Pacific Ocean was to become a "Japanese lake." In September 1940, Japan occupied northern French Indochina, and in November, the Pacific Islands Bureau (Nan'yō Kyoku) was established by the Foreign Ministry. The events of the Pacific War from December 1941 overshadowed further development of the "Southern Expansion Doctrine", but theGreater East Asia Ministrywas created in November 1942, and aGreater East Asia Conferencewas held inTokyoin 1943. During the war, the bulk of Japan's diplomatic efforts remained directed at Southeast Asia. The "Southern Expansion Doctrine" was brought to an end by the Japanese surrender at the end of the war.

Nanshin-ron policy in action during the Second World War[edit]

After theattack on Pearl Harbor,Japan expected to capture the strategic islands across the Pacific to make it more challenging for the US to invade. Highly fortified islands would aim to inflict heavy casualties on the US troops and force America into signing a peace treaty. The Japanese strategy failed to considerisland hopping,in which US marines would skip heavily defended islands and capture easier targets, which left the Japanese troops in the fortifications without supplies.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Centrifugal Offensive".The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia.Retrieved21 December2015.
  2. ^Wong Lin Ken(June 1981). "Reviewed Work: Southeast Asia in Modern Japanese Thought: The Development and Transformation of" Nanshin Ron "by Shimizu Hajime".Contemporary Southeast Asia.3(1): 94–96.JSTOR25797650.
  3. ^abMendl, Wolf (2001).Japan and South East Asia: From the Meiji Restoration to 1945.Vol. 1. Taylor & Francis. pp. 11–12.ISBN9780415182058.
  4. ^abcMatthiessen, Sven (2015).Japanese Pan-Asianism and the Philippines from the Late Nineteenth Century to the End of World War II: Going to the Philippines Is Like Coming Home?.Brill's Japanese Studies Library. BRILL. p. 16.ISBN9789004305724.
  5. ^Shimizu, Hiroshi (1997). "Karayuki‐san and the Japanese economic advance into British Malaya, 1870–1920".Asian Studies Review.20(3): 107–132.doi:10.1080/03147539708713130.
  6. ^Warren, James Francis (1989). "Karayuki-San of Singapore: 1877–1941".Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.62(2): 45–80.JSTOR41493135.
  7. ^Terami-Wada, M (1986). "Karayuki-san of Manila: 1890-1920".Philippine Studies.34(3): 287–316.JSTOR42632950.
  8. ^Japanese Commodities and Formation of Japan Imagery in Colonial Indonesia: The Case Study of Jintan Pills and Its Trademark(PDF)(Dissertation). Keio University Graduate School of Sociology. 2017.Retrieved26 March2019.
  9. ^Warren, James Francis (2003).Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore, 1870-1940.NUS Press. p. 86.ISBN9789971692674.
  10. ^abYamashita, Bosco (2004).The Making of Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia.Berghahn Books. p. 96.ISBN9781571812599.
  11. ^Nanyo-orientalism.Cambria Press. p. 5.ISBN9781621968689.
  12. ^Lindblad, J. Th.; Post, Peter (2014).Indonesian Economic Decolonization in Regional and International Perspective.Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. Vol. 267. BRILL. p. 63.ISBN9789004253780.
  13. ^Kikuchi, Yuko (2007).Refracted Modernity: Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Taiwan.University of Hawaii Press. p. 75.ISBN9780824830502.
  14. ^Ramcharan, Robin (2002).Forging a Singaporean Statehood, 1965–1995: The Contribution of Japan.International Law in Japanese Perspective. Vol. 9. Martinus Nijhoff. p. 75.ISBN9789041119520.
  15. ^Kokubun, Ryosei; Soeya, Yoshihide; Takahara, Akio; Kawashima, Shin (2017).Japan–China Relations in the Modern Era.Taylor & Francis. pp. 10–11.ISBN9781351857949.
  16. ^abcRamcharan 2002,p. 75.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Beasley, W. G. (1991).Japanese Imperialism 1894–1945.London: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-822168-5.
  • Nish, Ian (1991).Japanese Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period.Praeger Publishers.ISBN978-0-275-94791-0.
  • Howe, Christopher (1999).The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy: Development and Technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War.University Of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-35486-6.
  • Peattie, Mark (1992).Nan'Yo: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese in Micronesia, 1885–1945 (Pacific Islands Monograph Series).University of Hawaii Press.ISBN978-0-8248-1480-9.
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