Hirakawa Sukehiro argues that Japan’s war beginning on December 8 was a struggle against Western colonial empires — a challenge by a “have-not nation” against wealthy imperial powers. He introduces the perspective that the conflict, unlike the prolonged Sino-Japanese War, carried a sense of legitimacy for many Japanese at the time. This sentiment is reflected in a poem by Navy Air Corps Commander Ichimaru Toshinosuke, who saw the war as one against white colonial empires. Hirakawa seeks to reframe the Greater East Asian War through multiple lenses, including third-party viewpoints from countries such as India, to offer a more balanced historical understanding.

It was because the war was against the white colonial empires that Commander Ichimaru Toshinosuke of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Corps expressed emotional clarity in his poem.
June 23, 2024.

June 20, 2020.
There were many sections in this month’s issue of Seiron that I had not yet read.
This morning, while reading the long serialized essay by Professor Hirakawa Sukehiro, I found a passage that made me think, “This is exactly China today.”
In the notes that Professor Hirakawa placed at the end, I found a passage that proved my intuition had been right.
In this article, I will extract those passages and other parts that all Japanese should know.
Professor Hirakawa’s essay is essential reading not only for Japanese people but for people around the world.

There Is No Just War in the Spring and Autumn Annals
(Opening omitted.)
I believe that the war Japan fought was a war of “anti-imperialist imperialism.”
In world-historical terms, it was a challenge from a “have-not nation” against the wealthy “have nations.”
It was also a challenge by Japan, an Asian empire poor in resources but possessing colonies, against the great white empires of Europe and America, which held colonies throughout Asia.
And Japan was defeated.
The phrase “There is no just war in the Spring and Autumn Annals” is an apt saying, for in international war it is almost impossible for one side to be absolutely just and the other absolutely unjust.
What view, then, is appropriate regarding the “Greater East Asian War” and the Tokyo Trial?
In discussing the war and the Tokyo Trial—which was a different dimension of warfare that followed—I wish to cite materials, clarify various aspects, and appeal to the reason and sensibility of readers so that conclusions will naturally emerge from the intrinsic value of the materials themselves.
Whether this can open a new historical perspective, I do not know.
I also look forward to the reactions of foreign readers.

December 8
What was “that war,” the one that began for Japan on December 8?
Was it the “Pacific War,” or the “Greater East Asian War,” or is the attempt to divide it into one or the other itself the mistake?
With regard to that great war, I want to attempt a historical positioning that is neither Western-centered nor Japan-centered but more balanced, including perspectives from third countries such as India.
To look back with multiple lenses is my approach, though this remains only my personal view.
I will also include personal memories.
Born in July 1931, I was in fourth grade when December 8 came.
On that Monday morning in December 1941 (Showa 16), the sky over the Imperial capital was clear.
At the 7 a.m. news I learned that Japan had entered a state of war with the United States and Britain in the Western Pacific, and I went to school.
On the train, the tense faces of the Japanese passengers looked beautiful to me.
“The spirit of the divine now fills our heavens and seas.”
Even as a child, I could feel the sentiment expressed by poet Takamura Kōtarō.
And right after that, the war came to be called the “Greater East Asian War.”
Japan’s long war on the Chinese continent lacked a sense of just cause.
Many people were weary of the endless China Incident.
And because there were figures like Wang Jingwei who sided with Japan, many thought Chiang Kai-shek was anti-Japanese because of the backing of Britain and America.
With that perception, the war after December 8 was different: it was a war against the true enemies—the U.S. and Britain—and it seemed to carry a justification as a Greater East Asian War for the liberation of Asia.
The national sentiment of the time can be seen in the poem:

For five years clouds had hung over Japan
And now are swept away by the Imperial Rescript;
The time has come to rebuild anew,
And allow the colored peoples to attain their rights.

Because the war was against the white colonial empires, Commander Ichimaru Toshinosuke of the Navy Air Corps expressed that emotional clarity in his own poem.
Takamura Kōtarō was exhilarated by the victories in the opening stages:

Instantly destroying the great fleet at Hawaii,
Sinking the unsinkable giant off Malaya,
Forcing down Hong Kong with its rocks, concrete, and deep strategies,
Subduing Manila and restoring Luzon to its ancient state…
Crushing ironclad Singapore to fragments.

(To be continued.)