Anti-Japanese resistance movement in Malaya during World War II

Last updated June 12, 2023

There were several anti-Japanese groups in British Malaya during the Japanese Occupation. During this period, multiple groups emerged in response to the purported mistreatment of locals by the Japanese, which resulted in widespread discontent throughout the region. These were called anti-Japanese groups, serving as the origin of numerous anti-Japanese movements that reflected the prevailing local resentment of the time.

Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army

The Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) was a paramilitary group that was active during the Japanese occupation of Malaya from 1942 to 1945. Composed mainly of ethnic Chinese guerrilla fighters, the MPAJA was the biggest anti-Japanese resistance group in Malaya. Founded on 18 December, 1941 during the Japanese invasion of Malaya, the MPAJA was conceived as a part of a combined effort by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), British colonial government, and various anti-Japanese groups to resist the Japanese occupation of Malayan territory. Although the MPAJA and the MCP were officially different organizations, many saw the MPAJA as the de facto armed wing of the MCP due to its leadership being staffed by mostly ethnic Chinese communists. Many of the ex-guerrillas of the MPAJA would later join the MCP in its open conflict with the BMA during the Malayan Emergency.^{[ citation needed ]}

Resistance movement

Because the MPAJA was the only local resistance to the Japanese during the war, Great Britain supplied it with officers and other resources. Upon British advice, the MPAJA avoided large-scale action against the Japanese. But after the war, its Communist-indoctrinated members emerged as heroes. This army attempted a brief, unsuccessful seizure of political power before the British military returned.^[1]^{[ unreliable source ]}

Strategies used to rebel against the Japanese

The MPAJA cooperated with the British to combat the Japanese occupation. The communists and the British, who were previously adversaries, joined forces to confront their shared enemy, the Japanese. They waged a guerrilla war against the Japanese Army in Malaya. On 1 January 1944, MPAJA leaders arrived at the Force 136 camp and entered into discussions with the Force 136 officers. "It was agreed that in return for arms, money, training, and supplies, the MPAJA would cooperate and accept the British Army's orders during the war with Japan..." The members from the MPAJA were provided training by the British to fight against the Japanese. After February 1945, more Force 136 groups were parachuted into Malaya to prepare for the Allied forces invasion of Malaya.

However, Force 136 was unable to keep several pre-planned rendezvous with its submarines, and had lost its wireless sets. As a result, the Allied command did not hear the agreement until 1 February 1945, and it was only during the last months of the war that the British were able to supply the MPAJA by air.^[2]^{[ unreliable source ]}

Support from the masses

In order to move towards independence after the Japanese were defeated, the MPAJA had to meet several conditions. The most important of which was to gain support from three primary ethnic groups - the Chinese, Malays and Indians. However, due to the different historical backgrounds of the three ethnic groups and due to the misunderstanding and bias view of each ethnic group (see below), this could not be achieved.^[3]^{[ self-published source? ]} They lacked any cohesive national view and, therefore, had little mass support from their own people.

In the case of the Chinese

A majority of them still identified with China rather than with Malaya at that time. The Japanese war in China had aroused strong anti-Japan sentiments and strengthened pro-China feelings among the Malayan Chinese. They resented the Japanese for their harsh treatment and the preferential treatment the Malays had received prior to the war.^[3]^{[ self-published source? ]}

In the case of the Malays

As for the Malays, except for a few who were close to the Chinese, most took no more than sympathetic or neutral stands toward the MPAJA. This means that the MPAJA would not have the majority support of the Malays.^[3]^{[ self-published source? ]} They were also treated less harshly by the Japanese compared to the Chinese. As civilian and POW deaths grew to tens of thousands, what sympathies they initially had for Japan evaporated. Most Malaysians would come to regard the occupation as "cruel" and "brutal".^[4]

In the case of the Indians

Their "temporary stay" thinking was even stronger than that of the Chinese, believing that one day they will return to their Homeland. They abhorred the British colonial authorities and longed for Indian independence. Neither the MCP nor the MPAJA really understood the situation of the Indians, therefore the Indians did not support MPAJA.^[3]^{[ self-published source? ]}

Success

The MPAJA claimed that they eliminated 5,500 Japanese troops while losing 1,000 themselves. The Japanese claimed that their losses (killed and wounded) were 600 of their own troops and 2000 local police, and that the MPAJA losses were 2,900. Mr.Cheah Boon Kheng thought that the Japanese's report was probably more reliable. The MPAJA engaged in reprisals against members of the local population who collaborated with the Japanese. Because of Japanese policy, these tended to be ethnic Malays, many of whom the Japanese employed as policemen. Although the MCP and MPAJA consistently espoused non-racial policies, the fact that their members came predominantly from the Chinese community the reprisals made against Malays, who had collaborated, became a source of racial tension. They have been criticized for this and also for occasionally wasting time attacking the Kuomintang instead of the Japanese.^{[ citation needed ]}

As there was a lack of mass support from their own people, they had fewer people to carry out the actions together. This led to defeat easily as there was no one to fight for the organizations and carry out anti-Japanese resistance movement. From these two situations, we can see that the movements were unsuccessful. The MPAJA was unable to remove Japanese troops from the region.^{[ citation needed ]}

Related Research Articles

The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War(1948–1960), was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces of the Federation of Malaya, British Empire and Commonwealth. The communists fought to win independence for Malaya from the British Empire and to establish a socialist economy, while the Malayan Federation and Commonwealth forces fought to combat communism and protect British economic and colonial interests. The term "Emergency" was used by the British to characterise the conflict in order to avoid referring to it as a war, because London-based insurers would not pay out in instances of civil wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chin Peng</span> Leader of the Malayan Communist Party (1924–2013)

Chin Peng, born Ong Boon Hua, was a Malayan communist politician, anti-fascist activist and long-time leader of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lim Bo Seng</span> Celebrated Chinese resistance fighter based in Singapore and Malaya during World War II

Lim Bo Seng was a Chinese-born resistance fighter based in Singapore and Malaya during World War II. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, he was a prominent businessman among the Chinese community in Singapore. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, he participated in anti-Japanese activities in Singapore and then at Malaya.

The Malayan Communist Party (MCP), officially the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), was a Marxist–Leninist and anti-imperialist communist party which was active in British Malaya and later, the modern states of Malaysia and Singapore from 1930 to 1989. It was responsible for the creation of both the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army and the Malayan National Liberation Army.

Force 136 was a far eastern branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Oriental Mission in April 1942. The man in overall charge for the duration of its existence was Colin Mackenzie.

The Briggs Plan was a military plan devised by British General Sir Harold Briggs shortly after his appointment in 1950 as Director of Operations during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960). The plan aimed to defeat the Malayan National Liberation Army by cutting them off from their sources of support amongst the rural population. To achieve this a large programme of forced resettlement of Malayan peasantry was undertaken, under which about 500,000 people were forcibly transferred from their land and moved to concentration camps euphemistically referred to as "new villages".

The then British colony of Malaya was gradually occupied by the Japanese between 8 December 1941 and the Allied surrender at Singapore on 16 February 1942. The Japanese remained in occupation until their surrender to the Allies in 1945. The first Japanese garrison in Malaya to lay down their arms was in Penang on 2 September 1945 aboard HMS Nelson.

Malay nationalism refers to the nationalism that focused overwhelmingly on the Malay anticolonial struggle, motivated by the nationalist ideal of creating a Bangsa Melayu. Its central objectives were the advancement and protection of Malayness: religion (Islam), language (Malay), and royalty. Such pre-occupation is a direct response to the European colonial presence and the influx of a foreign migrant population in Malaya since the mid-nineteenth century.

The Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), often mistranslated as the Malayan Races Liberation Army, was a communist guerrilla army that fought for Malayan independence from the British Empire during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) and later fought against the Malaysian government in the Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–1989). Their leader was a trade union activist known as Chin Peng who had previously been awarded an OBE by the British for waging a guerrilla war against the Japanese occupation of Malaya. Many MNLA fighters were former members of the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) which had been previously trained and funded by the British to fight against Japan during the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rashid Maidin</span>

Rashid Maidin, sometimes given as Rashid Mahideen, was a senior leader of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).

The All-Malaya Council of Joint Action (AMCJA) was a coalition of political and civic organisations in Malaya formed to participate in the development of a constitution for post-war Malaya in preparation for independence and to oppose the Constitutional Proposals for Malaya which eventually formed the basis of the Federation of Malaya Agreement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Too Chee Chew</span>

Too Chee Chew （杜志超 M.B.E., better known as C. C. Too, was a major exponent of psychological warfare in Malaysia.

The British Military Administration (BMA) was the interim administrator of British Malaya from August 1945, the end of World War II, to the establishment of the Malayan Union in April 1946. The BMA was under the direct command of the Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia, Lord Louis Mountbatten. The administration had the dual function of maintaining basic subsistence during the period of reoccupation, and also of imposing the state structure upon which post-war imperial power would rest.

The Communist insurgency in Malaysia, also known as the Second Malayan Emergency, was an armed conflict which occurred in Malaysia from 1968 to 1989, between the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and Malaysian federal security forces.

In 1948, the Communists and the British colonial government in Malaya entered a period of guerrilla fighting which has become known to history as the Malayan Emergency.

Eu Chooi Yip was a prominent member of the anti-colonial and Communist movements in Malaya and Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. Eu Chooi Yip was born in Kuantan, Malaysia.

Ferret Force was a counter-insurgency unit formed by the British and Malayan authorities as part of their response to the communist insurgency during the Malayan Emergency. The unit only existed for six months, but was to help establish doctrine for British operations in the jungle.

The Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) was a communist guerrilla army that resisted the Japanese occupation of Malaya from 1941 to 1945. Composed mainly of ethnic Chinese guerrilla fighters, the MPAJA was the largest anti-Japanese resistance group in Malaya. Founded during the Japanese invasion of Malaya, the MPAJA was conceived as a part of a combined effort by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and the British colonial government, alongside various smaller groups to resist the Japanese occupation. Although the MPAJA and the MCP were officially different organisations, many saw the MPAJA as a de facto armed wing of the MCP due to its leadership being staffed by mostly ethnic Chinese communists. Many of the ex-guerrillas of the MPAJA would later form the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and resist a return to pre-war the normality of British rule of Malaya during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960).

The Malaysian Communist Party (MCP) was an underground Malaysian communist party. MCP traced its roots to splinter groups amongst communist guerrillas in southern Thailand in the 1970s. The party conducted armed struggle in the Malaysian-Thai border areas between 1983 and 1987. It eventually accepted a deal for cessation of hostilities with the Thai military and its cadres were resettled in 'friendship villages'.

Anarchism in Malaysia arose from the revolutionary activities of Chinese immigrants in British Malaya, who were the first to construct an organized anarchist movement in the country - reaching its peak during the 1920s. After a campaign of repression by the British authorities, anarchism was supplanted by Bolshevism as the leading revolutionary current, until the resurgence of the anarchist movement during the 1980s, as part of the Malaysian punk scene.

References

↑ , MPAJA's Resistance Movement.
↑ Infopedia Archived December 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Information on MPAJA.
1 2 3 4 "Support for MPAJA". Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
↑ Spector, Ronald H. (2007). In the ruins of empire : the Japanese surrender and the battle for postwar Asia (1st ed.). New York. pp. 77–78, 86. ISBN 9780375509155.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[test-1] , MPAJA's Resistance Movement.

[MPAJA-2] Infopedia Archived December 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Information on MPAJA.

[support-3] 1 2 3 4 "Support for MPAJA". Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-08-30.

[4] Spector, Ronald H. (2007). In the ruins of empire : the Japanese surrender and the battle for postwar Asia (1st ed.). New York. pp. 77–78, 86. ISBN 9780375509155.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]