Hakko Ichiu

Hakkō ichiu (八紘一宇^?, "eight crown cords, one roof" i.e. "all the world under one roof") was a Japanese political slogan that became popular from the Second Sino-Japanese War to World War II, and was popularized in a speech by Prime Minister of Japan Fumimaro Konoe on January 8, 1940.

The term was coined early in the twentieth century by 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 Jinmu at the time of his ascension. The Emperor's full statement reads: "Hakkō wo ooute ie to nasan" (八紘を掩うて宇と為さん, or in the original Sino-Japanese: 掩八紘而爲宇), and means: "I shall cover the eight directions and make them my abode". The term hakkō (八紘), meaning "eight crown cords", was a metaphor for happō (八方) or "eight directions".

Ambiguous in its original context, Tanaka interpreted the statement attributed to Jinmu, as meaning that imperial rule had been divinely ordained to expand until it united the entire world. While Tanaka saw this outcome as resulting from the emperor's moral leadership, many of his followers were less pacifist in their outlook, despite some intellectuals' aware of the inherent nationalist implications, reactions to this term. Koyama Iwao (1905–93), disciple of Nishida, and drawing of Adornment Sutra Flower, proposed the interpretation "to be included or to find a place". This understanding was rejected by the military circles of the nationalist Right.

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