I speak as Head of the Special Research Commission, Burma, appointed by the personal order of the Head of the State of Burma. This commission has been charged with the task of studying methods adopted in the different countries constituting the co-prosperity sphere for the national civilian war effort and reconstruction as a part of that sphere. The real object is to utilize to the uttermost the national strength and resources of Burma as an integral
part of the greater East Asiatic sphere.
In the ultimate analysis the work entrusted to the commission is an extension or rather an application of the basic principles for the construction of greater East Asia unanimously adopted at the historic Assembly convened at Tokyo on November 5, 1943. Put shortly, those principles are rooted in the necessity of co-existence and co-prosperity of the different members of greater East Asia. These principles are really the foundations of the new order in the East.
The present East Asiatic war is the challenge of this new order. It marks the end of an epoch of thought. What is more, it opens an entirely new page in the history of making. The satiated Powers who are engaged in the present struggle against the Axis Powers only claim to be fighting for the defence of the freedom of the other European States. They do not even pretend to be fighting for the common human rights to which one thousand million people of the East can lay an equally valid claim. The East under the leadership of Nippon has made a lasting protest with all the ardours of a religious faith against the grinding repression of the West with all its pathetic faith in mechanical science.
Nippon has pursued with unrelenting purpose and religious fervour her basic policy of establishing world peace through the new order in greater East Asia which has as its foundation the solidairty [sic] of the Asiatic peoples. She was, however, entirely misundertsood [sic]. Even the peoples of the East under the narcotic influence of the West saw in Nippon's East Asia order the first step toward her bid for world hegemony. The disillusionment, however, came. The independence and sovereignty of China and Manchoukuo have been fully recognized by Nippon. Burma has been declared a sovereign and independent State. And so the Phillippines [sic]. The Provisional Government of Free India has also been formed.
The Special Research Commission takes as an established fact the existence of a co-prosperity sphere. The equalitarian principles for the construction of greater East Asia, excellent as they are, need to be supplemented by each nation in the reconstruction of its own country. The reason is that every State is tormented with its own peculiar problems. Burma bleeding with the wounds of war feels that her national and economic life needs to be reintegrated. She has the will and the strength to carry on this war to the finish. But her national resources must be utilized according to a definite plan. Just as a general cannot win a war without a plan of campaign, a nation cannot win through its period of stress and strain without a national plan.
It is for this reason that this commission has been sent during the period of war. The commission has hitherto met with every offer of help, and the commission is determined to explore all avenues that lie within the scope of its mission and to formulate in very explicit terms its proposals for rebuilding Burma again out of her present ruins. The commission is confident that its efforts will leave a permanent impress on the history of Burma.