Восьмилучевая крыша: Имперская идеология Японии во Второй мировой войне.

Japanese imperialist slogan popular during World War II

"eight crown cords, one roof", i. e. "all the world under one roof"; 八紘一宇; Hakkō ichiu 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". Despite its original universalist meaning, according to the principle of "ichi soku issai, issai soku ichi (one is inseparable from the whole and vice versa)", Tanaka interpreted it as justification for imperialism. To stop this imperialist reinterpretation from spreading, Koyama Iwao (1905–1993), disciple of Nishida, and drawing off the Flower Adornment Sutra, proposed to substitute the words "to be included or to find a place" for the last two characters ("to make them my abode"). That move was rejected by the military circles of the nationalist right.

As the Second Sino Japanese War dragged on without conclusion, the Japanese government turned increasingly to the nation's spiritual capital to maintain fighting spirit. Characterization of the fighting as a "holy war" (聖戦), similarly grounding the current conflict in the nation's sacred beginnings, became increasingly evident in the Japanese press at this time. In 1940, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association was launched to provide political support to Japan's war in China. The general spread of the term hakkō ichiu, neatly encapsulating this view of expansion as mandated in Japan's divine origin, was further propelled by preparations for celebrating the 2,600th anniversary of Jimmu's ascension, which fell in the year 1940 according to the traditional chronology. Stories recounted that Jimmu, finding five races in Japan, had made them all as "brothers of one family".

After Japan declared war on the Allies in December 1941, Allied governments produced several propaganda films citing the hakkō ichiu as evidence that the Japanese intended to conquer the entire world. To win the support of the conquered, Japanese propaganda included phrases such as "Asia for the Asians!" and emphasized about the perceived need to liberate Asian countries from imperialist powers. The failure to win the war in China was blamed on British and American exploitation of Southeast Asian colonies, even though the Chinese received far more assistance from the Soviet Union. In some cases local populations welcomed Japanese troops when they invaded, driving out British, French and other colonial powers. The official translation offered by contemporary leaders was "universal brotherhood", but it was widely acknowledged that that expression meant that the Japanese were "equal to the Caucasians but, to the peoples of Asia, we act as their leader". Hence hakkō ichiu could be seen as a euphemism for Japanese supremacy. In fact, the brutality and the racism of the Japanese led the conquered to view the Japanese imperialists as being equal to or sometimes worse than Western imperialists.

Hakkō ichiu meant the bringing together of the corners of the world under one ruler, or the making of the world's one family.

Since the end of the Pacific War, some have highlighted the hakkō ichiu slogan as part of a context of historical revisionism. The hakkō ichiu monument was renamed Tower of Peace; 平和の塔; Heiwa no tou in 1958 and still stands today. The writing "Hakkō ichiu" was removed from it after the Japanese defeat at the insistence of the U. S. military. The tower was the inception point for the torch relay of the 1964 Summer Olympics. After the Olympics, which coincided with worldwide interest in the Japanese Imperial family, the local tourism association successfully petitioned the Miyazaki Prefecture to reinstall the "Hakkō ichiu" characters.