 It explicitly laid out that the superior position of Japan in the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, showing the subordination of other nations was not forced by the war, but part of explicit policy.This was also justified on the grounds that the resource-poor Japanese could not count on any sources of raw material that they did not control themselves.Propaganda stated that Japan was being strangled by "ABCD" – America, Britain, China, and Dutch East Indies—through trade embargoes and boycotts.