Page "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" Paragraph 13

As part of its war drive, Japanese propaganda included phrases like " Asia for the Asiatics!

" and talked about the perceived need to liberate Asian countries from imperialist powers.

The failure to win the Second Sino-Japanese War was blamed on British and American exploitation of Southeast Asian colonies, even though the Chinese received far more assistance from the Soviet Union.

In some cases local people welcomed Japanese troops when they invaded, driving out British, French, and other governments and military forces.

In general, however, the subsequent brutality and racism of the Japanese led to people of the occupied areas regarding the new Asian imperialists as equal to or ( more often ) much worse than Western imperialists.

The Japanese government directed that local economies be managed strictly for the production of raw war materials for the Japanese ; a cabinet member declared, " There are no restrictions.

They are enemy possessions.

We can take them, do anything we want.