 If there is a lasting merit to Nishitani’s wartime political writings and the Chūōkōron discussions, it might be found in part in their critique of the contradictions and hypocrisies of Western imperialism (see, for example, Kōsaka et al. 1943, 348ff.), together with their insistence that Japan’s “leading role” in Asia not become that of an imperialist or colonizer (see ibid., 204–5; also see Nishitani’s “My View of ‘Overcoming Modernity’,” reprinted in Kawakami &amp; Takeuchi 1979, 32). The lasting infamy of the Chūōkōron discussions, on the other hand, can be found not only in their idealistic political naïveté, but also in their idealization and even whitewashing of political realities (such as Japanese aggression in China and other parts of Asia), as well as in such disturbing specific suggestions as that of “Japanizing” or “half-Japanizing” some of the “more superior” ethnic groups in Asia in order to assist in instituting the Japanese led “Co-Prosperity Sphere” (Kōsaka et al. 1943, 262–63, 337).