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This article examines how the national question and the issue of East Asia were dealt with in two prominent proposals concerning the East Asian community that were presented as part of the Japanese government’s 1938 declaration. Not only Japanese intellectuals but also colonial socialists joined in the debates following the announcement of the New Order of East Asia. Colonial advocates of each approach (that of the East Asian Community and that of the East Asian League) suggested different understandings of “the nation” and “East Asia,” which were intermingled and cannot be assigned uniquely to the proponents of one group. Even though the relationship between these two conceptions was not always aligned, it is interesting to find a correlation between the support for a definite national identity and the universalistic presentation of East Asia. The debates between colonial socialists on the New Order of East Asia illustrates how ideas of nationhood lead to the understanding of East Asia and how such an approach extended beyond East Asia to the global arena.
