Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

The journal Liberation of East Asia (1939-1942) served as wartime propaganda advocating Sino-Japanese cooperation while incorporating the Wang Jingwei regime to legitimize Japan's continental expansion, revealing how intellectuals constructed Pan-Asian discourse.

Paper long abstract

Liberation of East Asia (Tōa Kaihō) was a Tokyo-based journal published from August 1939 to June 1942 by Yaegashi Hiroshi, with poet Kusano Shinpei as chief editor in the first year. This study examines its publication background and ideological characteristics.

After serving as a war correspondent in 1937, Yaegashi anticipated the prolonged Sino-Japanese War and established the Japan Youth Diplomacy Association. In 1939, he launched Liberation of East Asia, whose inaugural editorial rejected liberal accusations of Japanese imperialism, instead promoting a genuine "Sino-Japanese cooperative body." Scholars like Ozaki Hotsuki have positioned the journal within intellectual responses to Konoe Fumimaro's "Three Principles" and emerging Greater East Asia discourse.

The journal ceased publication due to two factors: the January 1941 Cabinet decision placing all "Kōa" (Asia-development) movements under state control, and wartime paper rationing. While initially recognized for regional studies envisioning new Sino-Japanese relations, it faced conservative criticism for leftist tendencies and supporting troop withdrawal arguments.

Limited deviations from government propaganda included: critical commentary on domestic policies and press freedom; translations of Chinese authors (Wei Jinzhi, Yu Pingbo, Shen Congwen, Bing Xin—not necessarily puppet regime writers) by scholar Masuda Wataru; and publication of troop withdrawal arguments by Nanjing government officials—a feature rarely seen in other contemporary journals.

However, these deviations were marginal and never challenged the fundamental wartime collaboration framework. The May 1942 issue's praise of the Yokusan election（翼賛選挙）and repeated use of "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" terminology reveal that the journal's apparent intellectual complexity ultimately served, rather than subverted, the regime's propaganda objectives.

Liberation of East Asia thus occupied a complex position: while exhibiting limited deviations from crude propaganda, it remained firmly within state-sanctioned ideological boundaries. It represents how contemporary intellectuals attempted constructing frameworks for Sino-Japanese relations through "cooperation" and "liberation" rhetoric while ultimately advancing wartime propaganda goals.