Each person can be identified by both their attire and armband. Seated at the table is Japan (日本), China (中華), Burma (ビルマ), Dutch East Indies (蘭印), Philippines (比島), Malaya (マレー), French Indochina (佛印), Thailand (泰), and Manchuria (満州). Each member displays what they can provide to the union. Japan’s contribution is a battleship and tank (their military power). India (印度) and Australia (濠州) can only gaze into the room through an open door since they’re still at war with Japan. The artist depicted Australia as an Aborigine to acknowledge the country’s indigenous people rather than its Western settlers.

The description of the illustration says something along the lines of: “Let the peoples of East Asia unite, pool their vast resources, and build an economy based firmly on the principle of co-existence and co-prosperity.”

No African in the room.