The cultural policy discussed in this article is confined to the policy imposed on colonial subjects.
Cultural policy has played an important role in the history of world colonialism. It is used to justify colonial rule by one race to another, to control and convert the colonial subjects, their culture, traditions and ideologies to that of the colonizing country. Through which thus to eliminate any possible challenge or resistance to the colonial control.
On the eve of Japan's southward invasion, the Japanese colonial enthusiasts began to urge the importance of a cultural policy for Southeast Asia. They emphasized that only by controlling the ideologies of the colonial subjects, could the supreme objectives of Japan's southward invasion (i.e. the obtaining of the natural resources) be accomplished. The explanation being, the colonial subjects were the manpower to excavate and transport the natural resources. The control of the people would mean the guarantee of the supply of the natural resources.
These cultural policy enthusiasts included many of the politicians, officials and scholars who had been involved in the Japanese colonial policy in Taiwan and Korea, Asianists like Okawa Shumei, various research organizations in Japanese imperialist policies, emigration and colonization organizations, and even extended to some social movement activists, theorists and anarchists.
Their opinions and ideas for the cultural policy can be summarized as follows:
1. Ways of enforcing Cultural Policy
Most of the enthusiasts suggested that a two-fold policy be adopted, that is: (a) a cultural propaganda policy to carry out strong propaganda and coercive measures immediately after the Japanese occupation. The purpose of this policy was said to arouse the feeling of respect for the Japanese colonial masters and encourage collaboration with colonialist policy.
(b) a cultural education policy to indoctrinate gradually in the colonial subjects the Japanese culture, to change the language, social systems and traditions of the colonial subjects to those of the colonial masters.
Apparently these two policies formed the two pillars of the cultural policy. Cultural propaganda policy was used as a herald, first to break through the indigenous culture and to establish the greatness and righteousness of the Japanese culture. It then coupled with the cultural education policy to accomplish their objective of the assimilation of the colonial subjects.
2. The Theoretical Basis of Cultural Policy
The enthusiasts claimed that emphasis should be placed on the establishment of the orthodoxy of the theory of the “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere”. It proclaimed Japan as the great leader because of her “superior status” in terms of race and culture as well as her political and military powers, in relation to the other people in the “Co-prosperity Sphere”. At the same time, it also stressed the elimination of Anglo-American influence. Accordingly, the enthusiasts put it bluntly that as the Japanese were the leaders of the Asians, they should be the planners and instructors for the creation of a new culture in the “Co-prosperity Sphere”. They also urged that the greater substance of the new culture was the adoption of the “superior” Japanese culture.
3. The Role of the Japanese Language in the Cultural Policy
The Japanese language had always been utilized as an instrument of assimilation of colonial subjects. It was the consensus view of the enthusiasts to make the Japanese language the Iingua franca of the “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere”.
Although the enthusiasts held different views as to the methods of diffusing the Japanese language, a “stick and carrot” tactic was agreed to be the solution.
4. The Ideal Policy-makers and Administrators
Various enthusiasts, particularly the Asianists proposed that military officer