The South East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere was an attempt by Japan to dominate Asia by colonisation. It included the invasion of Manchuria, China, the Philipines, the Dutch East Indies, (Now Indonesia) Malaya ,Singapore, Burma and so on. To achieve this they had a superb Navy and an Army with a fanatical devotion to the Emporer, Hirohito. It began with the attack on the Hawaiian base of Pearl Harbor in Dec 1941, which is best depicted in the excellent film Tora Tora Tora. It ended in August 1945 with the destruction of the cities of Hiroshima & Nagasaki by Atomic bombing.