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Episode 587 – The All-Seeing Eye, Part 4
This week, conspiracism takes a new twist in Japan, from paranoid worries about Christianity to paranoid beliefs in “Western encirclement”. How did this new form of conspiracism help drive Japan’s descent into fascism, empire, and eventually the self-destructive decisions of the Second World War?
Sources
Duus, Peter. “The ‘Paranoid Style’ in Japanese Foreign Policy.” in Japan in the World, the World in Japan: Fifty Years of Japanese Studies at Michigan.
Duus, Peter. The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents
Driscoll, Mark W. The Whites are the Enemies of Heaven: Climate Caucasianism and Asian Ecological Protection
Sinh, Vin. “Tokutomi Soho and Japan’s Imperial Destiny.” Journal of Japanese Trade and Industry vol 2 (June, 2002)
Images
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-238" data-tf-not-load src="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mukden_1931_japan_shenyang-300x240.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="240" srcset="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mukden_1931_japan_shenyang-300x240.jpg 300w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mukden_1931_japan_shenyang.jpg 417w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Japanese troops entering Shenyang (a city in Manchuria) in 1931. Japan’s invasion of Manchuria was widely condemned in the West, but in Japan that condemnation was treated as further proof of the ABCD “conspiracy.”
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-9941" data-tf-not-load src="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ScreenShot2015-11-02at18.10.12-300x256.png" alt="" width="300" height="256" srcset="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ScreenShot2015-11-02at18.10.12-300x256.png 300w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ScreenShot2015-11-02at18.10.12.png 560w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />The political cartoon described at the start of this episode.
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-9942" data-tf-not-load src="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho-238x300.jpg" alt="" width="238" height="300" srcset="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho-238x300.jpg 238w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho-813x1024.jpg 813w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho-768x967.jpg 768w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 238px) 100vw, 238px" />The journalist Tokutomi Soho, once an avowed liberal, was so shaken by the events of 1895 and Russia’s intercession to force Japan to return territory to China that he became a right-wing nationalist and authoritarian for the rest of his life. He would go on to be a major promoter of the ABCD conspiracy theory.
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-9943" data-tf-not-load src="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/7b89e269ff5b992e1175ff4191c7806d50bd617f-thumb-autox808-53640-240x300.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="300" srcset="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/7b89e269ff5b992e1175ff4191c7806d50bd617f-thumb-autox808-53640-240x300.jpg 240w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/7b89e269ff5b992e1175ff4191c7806d50bd617f-thumb-autox808-53640.jpg 647w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" />A magazine article in the weekly “Shasshin Shuho” (Photography Weekly) depicting the “ABCD siege” of Japan’s “liberation campaigns” in Southeast Asia. From the August 13, 1940 edition.
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By This week, conspiracism takes a new twist in Japan, from paranoid worries about Christianity to paranoid beliefs in “Western encirclement”. How did this new form of conspiracism help drive Japan’s descent into fascism, empire, and eventually the self-destructive decisions of the Second World War?
Sources
Duus, Peter. “The ‘Paranoid Style’ in Japanese Foreign Policy.” in Japan in the World, the World in Japan: Fifty Years of Japanese Studies at Michigan.
Duus, Peter. The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents
Driscoll, Mark W. The Whites are the Enemies of Heaven: Climate Caucasianism and Asian Ecological Protection
Sinh, Vin. “Tokutomi Soho and Japan’s Imperial Destiny.” Journal of Japanese Trade and Industry vol 2 (June, 2002)
Images
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-238" data-tf-not-load src="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mukden_1931_japan_shenyang-300x240.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="240" srcset="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mukden_1931_japan_shenyang-300x240.jpg 300w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/mukden_1931_japan_shenyang.jpg 417w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Japanese troops entering Shenyang (a city in Manchuria) in 1931. Japan’s invasion of Manchuria was widely condemned in the West, but in Japan that condemnation was treated as further proof of the ABCD “conspiracy.”
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-9941" data-tf-not-load src="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ScreenShot2015-11-02at18.10.12-300x256.png" alt="" width="300" height="256" srcset="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ScreenShot2015-11-02at18.10.12-300x256.png 300w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ScreenShot2015-11-02at18.10.12.png 560w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />The political cartoon described at the start of this episode.
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-9942" data-tf-not-load src="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho-238x300.jpg" alt="" width="238" height="300" srcset="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho-238x300.jpg 238w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho-813x1024.jpg 813w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho-768x967.jpg 768w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tokutomi_Soho.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 238px) 100vw, 238px" />The journalist Tokutomi Soho, once an avowed liberal, was so shaken by the events of 1895 and Russia’s intercession to force Japan to return territory to China that he became a right-wing nationalist and authoritarian for the rest of his life. He would go on to be a major promoter of the ABCD conspiracy theory.
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-9943" data-tf-not-load src="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/7b89e269ff5b992e1175ff4191c7806d50bd617f-thumb-autox808-53640-240x300.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="300" srcset="https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/7b89e269ff5b992e1175ff4191c7806d50bd617f-thumb-autox808-53640-240x300.jpg 240w, https://isaacmeyer.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/7b89e269ff5b992e1175ff4191c7806d50bd617f-thumb-autox808-53640.jpg 647w" sizes="(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px" />A magazine article in the weekly “Shasshin Shuho” (Photography Weekly) depicting the “ABCD siege” of Japan’s “liberation campaigns” in Southeast Asia. From the August 13, 1940 edition.