This article examines why the term “Greater East Asian War” was banned by the Allied occupation forces and replaced with “Pacific War.” It reveals how the Allied powers—especially the colonial nations—sought to suppress Japan’s anti-colonial narrative, leading to retributive war crime trials such as the executions of Generals Yamashita and Homma. It also analyzes the Netherlands’ unusually harsh postwar punishments, the continuation of psychological warfare in Tokyo, and how Japanese media internalized the Tokyo Trial narrative. Historical sources are used to expose the political intent behind shaping Japan’s postwar memory.

It would be inconvenient for the Allied powers—especially for those countries that wished to maintain their prewar colonies—if Japan continued to use the term “Greater East Asian War.”
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 Professor Hirakawa Sukehiro’s long serialized essay, I found a passage that made me think, “This is exactly China today.”
In the notes compiled at the end by Professor Hirakawa, I found a section that proved my intuition had been correct.
In this article, I will extract those passages and other parts that all Japanese people should know.
Professor Hirakawa’s essay is essential reading not only for the Japanese public but for people around the world.

Pacific War or Greater East Asian War
However, Japan’s overwhelming advantage ended there.
In August 1945 came defeat, followed by the occupation of Japan by American forces.
Before long, the name “Greater East Asian War” disappeared and was replaced by “Pacific War.”
Even a second-year middle-school student could see that this change reflected the will of the occupation authorities.
The term “Pacific War” comes from the American expressions the Pacific War or War in the Pacific, but if the Japanese were allowed to continue to say “Greater East Asian War,” the aspect of the war as one fought for the liberation of Asia would become apparent.
This would be inconvenient for the Allied powers—especially for those nations that wished to maintain their colonial possessions as they had existed before the war.
Thus, the use of the term “Greater East Asian War” was prohibited.
The Japanese military had once crushed the white colonial powers in many regions of the South.
The United States, Britain, France, and the Netherlands, in order to restore their damaged prestige and to make an example of Japan to the local peoples, had to turn the defeated Japanese officers and soldiers into “war criminals.”
General Yamashita Tomoyuki, who captured Singapore, was sentenced to death by hanging on December 7—the anniversary of the opening of the war.
General Homma Masaharu, who captured Manila, was sentenced to death by firing squad.
Whatever the charges were, these were clearly acts of vengeance disguised as trials.
Even Dr. Reischauer acknowledged this wrongdoing.

Note 2.
Lawrence Taylor, A Trial of Generals, 1982 (Japanese edition: 将軍の裁判 マッカーサーの復讐).
According to the words of Reischauer on the back cover of the Japanese edition:
“In this book, alongside Generals Yamashita and Homma—who were straightforward, honest, and even noble—General MacArthur himself is also judged.
MacArthur’s darker side, his narrow-mindedness, his pompousness, and his vindictiveness are laid bare.
This book also judges American justice—its ‘trials.’
And in the end, it proves that it was American justice that was defeated.”

While many Japanese were executed in various parts of the South, the war had not truly ended even after August 15.
—And during this postwar “war,” the heartless attitude of some Japanese also became visible.
The daughter of Lieutenant General Homma stood on the streets gathering signatures for a petition to save her father’s life.
A newspaper published a letter criticizing her for such behavior.

Indonesian Independence and the Netherlands
On March 1, 1942, when Japanese forces landed on Java, the Dutch army surrendered only eight days later on March 9 without putting up substantial resistance.
Although the Netherlands should have suffered the least damage, it executed the largest number of Japanese soldiers (225) in the former Dutch East Indies after the defeat.
Why?
General Imamura Hitoshi—commander of the Java campaign and later the highest authority in the military government of Java—explained this in his Memoirs.
“Other Allied nations felt pride and satisfaction in having defeated Japan.
The Netherlands, however, merely had the islands of the Dutch East Indies returned to them by British and Australian forces after the war.
They never experienced the superior feeling of having crushed the Japanese army themselves.
Naturally, their resentment did not dissipate, nor did their anger subside.
This national sense of frustration found an outlet in the form of war-crimes tribunals as instruments of revenge.
Thus the country that suffered the least damage carried out the most brutal executions.”
Note 3.
With the early defeats of American, British, and Dutch forces, independence movements rapidly accelerated across the region.