East Asia Development Board

The East Asia Development Board, or Kōain (興亜院), was a cabinet level agency in the Empire of Japan that operated between 1938 and 1942. It was created on 18 November 1938 under the first Konoe administration to coordinate the government's China policy. It was initially designed to sponsor industrial and commercial development in China to boost support for Japanese rule in occupied territories. However, the agency was quickly usurped by the Imperial Japanese Army and became a tool for forced labour and enslavement in mines and war industries. It was absorbed into the Ministry of Greater East Asia in 1942.

History

The

diplomatic relations, which remained within the purview of the Foreign Ministry

. It was intended that the Kōain would sponsor industrial and commercial development, creating jobs and infrastructure, and thus boost support for Japanese rule in the occupied territories.

The Kōain established branch offices throughout Japanese-occupied China; however, its activities were quickly usurped by the

Yanagawa Heisuke to oversee its operations. Per historian Timothy Brook, some military members of the Kōain spoke out against expansion of the conflict in China during 1939-1940, urging genuine independence for the Japanese-sponsored collaborationist states, and were consequently punished for their views by mainstream Army officials.^[1]

According to Chinese historian Zhifen Ju, the Kōain implemented a system of

Nanjing, Manchukuo and Mengjiang.^[3] This document corroborates evidence analyzed earlier by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East

which stated:

"Japan, having signed and ratified the opium conventions, was bound not to engage in drug traffic, but she found in the alleged but false independence of Manchukuo a convenient opportunity to carry on a worldwide drug traffic and cast the guilt upon that puppet state (...) In 1937, it was pointed out in the League of Nations that 90% of all illicit white drugs in the world were of Japanese origin...".^[4]

The Kōain was absorbed into the Ministry of Greater East Asia in November 1942.

References

Brook, Timothy (2001). Japanese Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China. Harvard University Press.
ISBN 0674023986
.

Sims, Richard (2001). Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868–2000. Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN 0-312-23915-7
.

Notes

^ Brook. Japanese Collaboration. page 36
^ Zhifen Ju, Japan's Atrocities of Conscripting and Abusing North China Draftees after the Outbreak of the Pacific War, Joint Study of the Sino-Japanese War, Harvard, 2002, http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/sino-japanese/minutes_2002.htm
^ Japan profited as opium dealer wartime China, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070830f1.html
^ HyperWar: International Military Tribunal for the Far East [Chapter 5] Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine

[1] Brook. Japanese Collaboration. page 36

[2] Zhifen Ju, Japan's Atrocities of Conscripting and Abusing North China Draftees after the Outbreak of the Pacific War, Joint Study of the Sino-Japanese War, Harvard, 2002, http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/sino-japanese/minutes_2002.htm

[3] Japan profited as opium dealer wartime China, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070830f1.html

[4] HyperWar: International Military Tribunal for the Far East [Chapter 5] Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine

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