ABSTRACT
Japan began to claim that it was creating the “New Order in East Asia” (To¯a shinchitsujo $0) after war with China erupted in 1937. This slogan was later modified into the “New Order of Greater East Asia” (Dai-To¯a shinchitsujo$0). Since Pearl Harbor (December 1941), the Japanese military had occupied a rapidly expanding portion of “the South,” making it necessary to create a unified policy within “Greater East Asia” (Dai-To¯a). In examining the history of Sho¯wa period to 1945, Kisaka Jun’ichiro¯ $ came up with the suggestion of a new term, “Asia-Pacific War” (Azia Taiheiyo¯ senso¯ ·- ), as he considers that neither “War of Greater Asia” nor “War of the Pacific” is sufficient to catch the distinctive quality of the War that took place in prewar Showa (Kisaka Jun’ichiro¯ 1985, 1994). Kisaka argues that the major feature of Japanese fascism lay in the fact that it was able to establish, via the power of the state, the “forced imposition of homogeneity,” and standardize various kinds of organizations. He also points to both hamlet associations and block associations as the backbone organization that supported this fascist structure of bureaucratic control.
