"The author's insights, based on extensive research, add depth to understanding of Japan's wartime decision-making process while also correcting misreadings of the role played by its erstwhile collaborators in Burma and the Philippines"

"No English-language monographs have [yet] explored the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere―Japan's wartime effort to impose a new regional order―from the vantage point of Japanese high policy. Jeremy Yellen has admirably filled this gap, offering innovative insights into Japan's abortive effort to redefine the international relations of East and Southeast Asia from the late 1930s to 1945."

"Drawing on what were then widely accepted ideas about racial hierarchies, regional economic blocs, and economic planning, the sphere's advocates envisioned Asia as a "familial community" that would free itself from European exploitation under the leadership of an advanced Japan."

"Yellen offers a useful examination of the changing and contested meaning of Japan's proclaimed 'Co-Prosperity Sphere.' [His] work helps inform about an important but opaque aspect of World War II history that influenced the receding of Asian empires after that war."

"The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is in fact a truly timely addition to the historiography of modern Japan in general and a fundamental contribution to the study of the Japanese wartime experience."

"Jeremy Yellen has made a notable contribution to the historical literature on the Pacific War in eastern Asia. Students and specialists alike will find his book to be a valuable resource and, hopefully, a springboard for further research into a lamentably understudied subject of great significance for postwar development of the region."

"In this outstanding new study of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Jeremy Yellen challenges the longstanding view that the Sphere was little more than a facade for Japan's predatory imperialism and that Asian leaders who collaborated with Japan were traitors to their countries. [E]ssential reading for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Japanese empire and its enduring legacy in Southeast Asia."

"A study based on broad and deep research and a conclusion that is persuasive"

"We had to wait forty-four years, but Yellen's The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War was worth the wait. In his masterful account regarding the Co-Prosperity Sphere, Yellen argues that it was nothing more than 'a failed dream'―an incoherent vision that was contested and an idea that never coalesced into a coherent policy that could be enacted."

"The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere offers a lucid, dynamic, and highly readable history of Japan's attempt to usher in a new order in Asia during World War II."

"With his excellent command of Japanese and use of rich Japanese sources, Yellen reveals the ambivalence evident in Japan's policy making and implementation of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere."

"Yellen's study is a welcome step toward a fuller understanding of GEACPS led by international scholars on a truly global basis."

"Military officers will find much to ponder in this well-written book―how idealism can come athwart reality and even the best-laid plans can go astray, how allies may prove illusory, and how victory does not mean peace."

"Yellen describes in his deep empirical analysis, showing mastery of the archival record in Japan and the long stretch of Japanese secondary scholarship, how Japan was attempting to shape its own new world order. The delicious banquet that [he] serves up is the complex and at times completely incongruous definition of the sphere."

"There is no comparable study in the English language. Yellen's readable approach makes this book an excellent teaching tool for courses on the Pacific War. It will also appeal to general readers interested in learning more about Japan's challenge to the Western Powers."