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Concept
Hakkō ichiu
Summary
"eight crown cords, one roof", i.e. "all the world under one roof" or hakkō iu (Shinjitai: 八紘為宇, 八紘爲宇) was a Japanese political slogan meaning the divine right of the Empire of Japan to "unify the eight corners of the world." The slogan formed the basis of the empire's ideology. It was prominent from the Second Sino-Japanese War to World War II and was popularized in a speech by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on January 8, 1940.
The term was coined early in the 20th century by the Nichiren Buddhist activist and nationalist Tanaka Chigaku, who cobbled it from parts of a statement attributed in the chronicle Nihon Shoki to legendary first Emperor Jimmu at the time of his ascension. The emperor's full statement reads: 八紘を掩うて宇と為さん (in the original kanbun: 掩八紘而爲宇), and means: "I shall cover the eight directions and make them my abode". The term 八紘, meaning "eight crown cords" ("crown cords" being the hanging decorations of the 冕冠, a traditional Chinese-style crown), was a metaphor for 八方, or "eight directions".
Ambiguous in its original context, Tanaka interpreted the statement, attributed to Jimmu, as meaning that imperial rule had been divinely ordained to expand until it united the entire world. While Tanaka saw that outcome as resulting from the emperor's moral leadership, many of his followers were less pacifist in their outlook, despite some intellectuals' awareness of the inherent nationalist implications and reactions to the term. Koyama Iwao (1905–1993), disciple of Nishida, and drawing off the Flower Adornment Sutra, proposed the interpretation "to be included or to find a place" for the last two characters ("to make them my abode"). That understanding was rejected by the military circles of the nationalist right.
There were enough Japanese in Western nations that suffered from racial discrimination issues that in 1919, Japan proposed a racial equality clause at the Paris Peace Conference. The proposal, intended to only apply to League of Nations members only, received the support of a majority but was vetoed by US President Woodrow Wilson in violation of the rules of the Conference that allowed a majority vote.
Official source
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