"Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" read by ego document August 10, 19:24

"Ego documents" are currently attracting attention among experts.

It refers to diaries, memoirs, personal letters, etc. that record the "true feelings" that people could not express openly in an era when people's freedom of speech was restricted.

During the Pacific War 80 years ago, Japan occupied countries in Southeast Asia that had been colonized by Europe and the United States one after another, advocating the construction of a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" with itself as the leader.

What was the ideal and reality of coexistence and co-prosperity with Asia?

This time, we obtained not only the diaries of military personnel involved in military administration in Asia, but also many ego documents of Asian people.

It is a valuable document for understanding those days, while many of the witnesses are registered as demons.

What did the Japanese people involved in the occupation and the local people who were forced to live under the occupation see, think and live?

I traced the appearance of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”.

(NHK Special "New Document Pacific War" coverage group Yukako Sakai Anne Takase)

"The day of peace in the East is near" 26 years old "Occupation scenery" seen from a soldier

At a university in Tokyo, a huge amount of materials left behind by a certain Japanese soldier were stored.

Over 1,200 letters and photographs left by Junsuke Hitomi, an army lieutenant who was involved in the occupation of the Philippines on the front lines 80 years ago.

Hitomi was 26 years old at the time.

In January 1942, immediately after the Japanese army captured Manila, the capital of the Philippines, he wrote a letter to his parents as follows.

(Hereafter, the old kanazukai has been changed to the modern kanazukai.)

"Early in the New Year, we entered the castle with great emotion. The fierce progress during this period was admirable, and we advanced through the shade of palm trees day and night, and finally threw our enemies away (sic). The intense Nankai sea. I'm tanned in the sun and I'm fine as I become a 'South Sea Beauty'."

Born in Kyoto as the third son of a farmer, Hitomi was originally an elementary school teacher.

After that, he volunteered to become a soldier, spent three years and five months in Manchuria, and was dispatched to the Philippines.

The letters Hitomi wrote during his military service in Manchuria describe the harsh days when he was unable to gain the understanding of the local residents and faced severe resistance.

Hitomi, who was ordered to fight in the Philippines, thought that this time he would like to gain the understanding of the residents and proceed with his rule.

In December 1941, Japan went to war with the United States and Great Britain after Operation Malaya and the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In search of resources such as petroleum, which until then had relied on imports from the United States, they expanded into Southeast Asia.

One of the aims of the war was the construction of a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" to liberate Southeast Asia, which had been colonized by the West.

There were various reactions in Asian countries to Japan as a new “ruler”.

In Java, Indonesia, which was a colony of the Netherlands, some people welcomed the Japanese army with joy, taking the Japanese occupation as "liberation."

On the other hand, Hitomi went to the Philippines, which was originally promised independence from the United States, so many people criticized the Japanese occupation.

In the occupied Philippines, Hitomi takes on the difficult task of preaching to local residents the cause of Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

He led a "propaganda team," distributing leaflets, holding rallies, and showing propaganda films.

(A letter to his parents immediately after the occupation of Manila in 1942)

"A bunch of bananas costs about 10 sen. The natives (original mom) are fond of the Japanese. The day of peace in the East is near.

" We are fighting with a vengeful spirit to finally and completely crush the only and last aggression base of the rebellious United States in the East.”

The words that Hitomi left at the beginning of the occupation were full of hope.

He believed that the ideal of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, in which Asia would prosper with Japan as the leader, would be accepted by the local people.

“Why is Japan the Leader of Asia?” Women’s Lives Changed by the Occupation

On the other hand, what were the locals, who seemed friendly to the public, thinking in their hearts?

We proceeded to collect ego documents in the Philippines where Hitomi was.

There was a reality that was completely different from the world seen from Japanese records.

Pasita Pestaño Jacinto (27 years old at the time) was living in Manila.

She began writing in her diary in December 1941, when the Japanese began bombing the Philippines from the air in order to occupy it.

(From Pasita's diary, 'Living with the Enemy', December 9, 1941)

"For us, war has always been something we read about in newspapers and see on newsreels and movies. This is the reality. "

We tried to carry on with our usual lives, but it was no longer normal. The atmosphere of war took hold of our minds. We were constantly anxious and wary of the bombs that Japan would drop."

Under American rule, Pasita had a child with her husband, who works as a doctor, and lived a peaceful life.

She was a bookworm, she was a woman who liked to write and discuss society.

The sudden outbreak of war changes her life forever.

She changed from her daily life of being pregnant and looking forward to the birth of her child to being wary of the Japanese army invading Manila.

(Pasita's diary dated January 1, 1942)

"We heard about Japan's atrocities in rural areas. At first, we tried not to believe it, but an acquaintance told her husband directly, so we didn't realize it was a lie. He said, 'The Japanese locked the women up in the town church for a whole day. ’ Fear grew in my heart, how could a good God allow all this to happen?”

The fact that there were many rapes by the Japanese military in the early days of the operation in the Philippines is described in top-secret documents on the Japanese side.

A document written by the chief of staff of the local Japanese army about ``military morals''.

The military strictly prohibited looting and rape, but this was not enforced during the occupation.

Furthermore, Japan, which had replaced the West, did not have the national power to establish a new economic zone.

Severe inflation and shortages of food and daily necessities put pressure on people's lives, making Japan's cause of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere obscure.

However, the Japanese leaders simply repeated to the people of Gungo that "the construction of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is progressing steadily" without telling them the reality.

Pasita's distrust of Japan grew stronger.

(Pasita's diary, February 1942)

"'Asia for the Asians' is the slogan of the new war. But why should the Japanese be the leaders?"

Under the occupation, writing critical words about Japan in diaries and letters was feared as dangerous to one's health.

Pasita's husband told her to stop writing criticism of Japan in her diary.

But she still kept her diary until 1945, when the Japanese occupation ended.

Passita wrote her thoughts in her diary as follows.

(December 1, 1942, Pasita's diary)

"The words you write down what you saw and felt will play a role in conveying the events more vividly than relying solely on memory."

At this time, there was still a newborn baby beside Pasita.

Her daughter Mert.

Nearly 80 years later, it turns out she is still alive.

We were able to track down Ms. Mert and listen to her story.

After reading her mother's diary, she was worried about how she felt about Japan, but Mert loves Japan and she welcomed us warmly.

“I read my mother’s diary for the first time since I was a high school student. It shocked me. There were many other big problems, so I thought that I couldn't just be happy about the birth of my child."

Melt told us about his feelings for his mother, who left an ego document of the days under Japanese occupation.

"It teaches us that it is really important to write down what we believe to be true. If we see it, we must write it down."

A Filipino Soldier Diary of Perseverance

For those who lived through wartime, the act of writing a diary was also an act of leaving their own existence behind.

Felipe Buencamino (22), an aspiring journalist, is one of them.

The eldest of four brothers, Felipe was a young man with a strong sense of justice.

When he heard the news that Japan was landing in the Philippines, he volunteered to defend his country and joined the battle of the American forces.

His diary describes the harsh realities of the battles he participated in.

(Diary of Felipe Buencamino, February 1, 1942)

"The Japs [sic] bombed the civilians who were with the army. It was like a picture of hell. Panic. Men, women, children killed. Of the dead. I saw a long procession being carried out through a small gate on a long line of stretchers."

Some Filipinos, along with the American forces, resisted the Japanese forces, barricading themselves in some areas and continuing to fight.

Felipe wrote in his diary that the Filipinos were given poorer weapons and less food than the American soldiers.

Felipe was driven physically and mentally.

(Diary of Felipe Buencamino, February 2, 1942)

"Life is getting harder and harder here. I've noticed that people are getting more and more angry. I think it's nerves. It's terribly short.The bombings are getting harder and more frequent.The general is always short-tempered.And I...I want to go home."

There was no sign of the arrival of supplies from the United States.

The 22-year-old vacillates between his ideal of defending his country and the fear of fighting for the first time.

Eventually, his unit surrendered.

Felipe, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese army, was waiting for a further situation.

It was the so-called “Bataan Death March” that would later lead Japan to be severely questioned as a “war crime”.

Felipe's diary shows that he walked about 100 kilometers from the southern tip of the Bataan Peninsula where he was taken prisoner to the prisoner of war camp in the north.

(Diary of Felipe Buencamino, April 10)

"The Japanese said, 'You are free because you are Filipinos.' I also saw a soldier being bayoneted by an angry Japanese soldier.He fell to the ground and lay there with his eyes begging for help.I cursed everyone who didn't help him.But I must curse myself, and I didn't care either."

After the war, Felipe's diaries were preserved in bound form, self-published by his family.

Felipe's younger brother Victor Buencamino (100 years old) is still alive and well and responded to our interview.

Felipe, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese army, is said to have lost 24 kilograms when he returned home after being released from the camp for about three months.

But when he recovered a little, he began to turn to his typewriter.

He was trying to write down the experience while his memory was still fresh.

Victor Buencamino, 100.

“Even when I tried to fall asleep, my brother kept typing on the typewriter. It seemed that he was afraid of being killed, so he continued working beside me.

Felipe died shortly after the war at the age of 29 in an accident.

His younger brother Victor decided to compile the diary left after his brother's death into a book after consulting with his relatives.

Victor Buencamino (100 years old)

“My brother was trying to leave a legacy for future generations by writing.

A Japanese Army Officer Confronted with Reality Continued to Write "Ego Document"

Burning with the ideals of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the activities of Junsuke Hitomi, who led the propaganda team, gradually hit a wall.

This was because the Filipino people became guerrillas out of dissatisfaction with the occupation by the Japanese military, and their resistance increased.

At the beginning of the occupation, Hitomi wrote a letter to his parents saying, "The day of peace in the East is near." However, the letter he later sent to his fiancé in the mainland expresses a completely different feeling.

(December 1942 letter)

"Is there no change? Day after day, I continue to engage in a fierce and bloody battle of ideas. The future of the Greater East Asia War will be even more difficult. Even if it turns into a skin, we must fight through and win without fail.”

After that, in the Philippines, the Japanese army was defeated by the reversal offensive of the Allied forces led by General MacArthur, who had once lost the war.

Total Japanese casualties in the Philippines amounted to about 500,000.

After Japan's defeat in the Philippines, Hitomi became a prisoner of war in the United States.

Even in the POW camp, Hitomi continued to write ego documents in a small notebook.

Even after he returned to Japan, he continued to carefully store all of his records, entrusting them to Professor Satoshi Nakano of Hitotsubashi University, a researcher whom he trusted during his lifetime.

It is said that he repeatedly said, ``Anyway, we mustn't start a war.

Hitomi's ego document and Filipino ego document.

Professor Nakano says that it is an important task to recapture that era through the ego-documentation of both positions of occupation and being occupied.

“War is a relationship where each other is an enemy, and without mutual sympathy it becomes a war. Ego

documents can transcend ally or foe to know each other's experiences.There are ego documents left by people in various positions regardless of nationality or gender during the war. From this point of view, a common thought emerges: ``We must not go to war,'' or ``Peace is the best time.'' I think there is great value in that."

Inherited memories The importance of knowing

This time, we wanted to express the atmosphere of the era in which the people who wrote the ego document lived, so we traveled around the Philippines to shoot.

The owner of a large two-story private house had heard from his grandfather that the house had been requisitioned by the Japanese army 80 years ago.

The old and large houses in the area are said to have been requisitioned and used by the Japanese military.

On Panay Island in the central Philippines, where Hitomi once led a propaganda team, he met a 91-year-old woman who remembered those days.

Her name is Evangeline Cyson.

Guerrilla activities against the Japanese army were active on this island, and the Japanese military units stationed on the island strictly carried out subjugation of the guerrillas.

From Evangeline's mouth, the officer's name "Captain Watanabe" still comes out naturally.

He still cannot forget the sight of another Japanese soldier cutting off the head of a Filipino who had become a guerilla by the riverside, claiming that he had been executed.

Mr. Bungie's expression darkens as he speaks, and he seems unable to wipe away his fear.

Evangeline says he occasionally tells young people on the island stories from 80 years ago.

Japan's war with the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is remembered in this way by ordinary people.

Many of the ego documents written by Filipinos about the Japanese occupation that I obtained this time have been published in English and are available in local libraries.

However, many of them are difficult to obtain in Japan and are not available in libraries.

In Japan, there are still few opportunities to experience the wartime memories of Asian people.

Even today, there are still conflicts around the world.

It is not easy for those who are caught in the whirlpool of conflict to imagine the story that flows between them.

The ego documents written by people from all over the world 80 years ago are valuable materials that allow us to share the experiences and thoughts of others regardless of their position.

I would like to continue searching for the words left by my predecessors.

Director of News Program Center　

Yukako Sakai Joined　

in 2009　 Worked at

the Okinawa Bureau in Tokyo and Osaka before joining the current position in 2020

Director, Metropolitan Area Bureau　

An Takase

Joined in 2017　

After working at the Osaka Bureau, current position since 2021 Interested in issues of discrimination and diversity.

#80 Years of the Pacific War (NHK Plus Playlist)

Click here for war related programs

A museum that conveys war

This is a site that conveys information about the Pacific War in an easy-to-understand manner, from the "originally" to "deeper" knowledge.