Throughout World War II, the Empire of Japan created a number of puppet states that played a noticeable role in the war by collaborating with Imperial Japan. With promises of "Asia for the Asiatics" cooperating in a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Japan also sponsored or collaborated with parts of nationalist movements in several Asian countries colonised by European empires or the United States. [1] The Japanese recruited volunteers from several occupied regions and also from among Allied prisoners-of-war. [2]
This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (April 2023) |
This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (April 2023) |
The Japanese invaded Burma because the British had been supplying China in the Second Sino-Japanese War along the Burma Road. [3] [4] Burmese nationalists known as Burma Independence Army hoped for independence. [5] [6] They were later transformed into the Burma National Army as the armed forces of the State of Burma. Minority groups were also armed by the Japanese, such as the Arakan Defense Army and the Chin Defense Army. [7]
This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (May 2023) |
Hong Kong was a British crown colony before its occupation by the Japanese. During the Japanese rule, former members of the Hong Kong Police Force, including Indians and Chinese, were recruited into the Kenpeitai police force. [8]
The Indian Legion (Legion Freies Indien, Indische Freiwilligen Infanterie Regiment 950 or Indische Freiwilligen-Legion der Waffen-SS) was created in August 1942, recruiting chiefly from disaffected British Indian Army prisoners of war captured by Axis forces in the North African campaign. Most were supporters of the exiled nationalist and former president of the Indian National Congress Subhas Chandra Bose. The Royal Italian Army formed a similar unit of Indian prisoners of war, the Battaglione Azad Hindoustan . A Japanese-supported puppet state Azad Hind was also established with the Indian National Army as its military force. [9] [10]
After occupying British Malaya, Japanese occupation authorities reorganized the disbanded British colonial police force and created a new auxiliary police. Later on, a 2,000-men strong Malayan Volunteer Army and a part-time Malayan Volunteer Corps were created. Local residents were also encouraged to join the Imperial Japanese Army as auxiliary Heiho . There was a Railway Protection Corps as well. [11]
The British territory of the Straits Settlements (Singapore, Malacca, Penang and Dindings) came under Japanese occupation after the fiasco suffered by Commonwealth forces at the Fall of Singapore. The Straits Settlements Police Force came under the control of the Japanese and all vessels owned by the Marine Police were confiscated. [12]
The Japanese had previously set up several puppet regimes in occupied Chinese territories. The first was Manchukuo in 1932, under former Chinese emperor Puyi, [13] then the East Hebei Autonomous Government in 1935. Similar to Manchukuo in its supposed ethnic identity, Mengjiang (Mengkukuo) was set up in late 1936. Wang Kemin's collaborationist Provisional Government was set up in Beijing in 1937 following the start of full-scale military operations between China and Japan, and another puppet regime, the Reformed Government of the Republic of China, in Nanjing in 1938.
The Wang Jingwei collaborationist government, established in 1940, "consolidated" these regimes, though in reality neither Wang's government nor the constituent governments had any autonomy, although the military of the Wang Jingwei regime was equipped by the Japanese with planes, cannons, tanks, boats, and German-style stahlhelm, which were already widely used by the National Revolutionary Army, the "official" army of the Republic of China.
The military forces of these puppet regimes, known collectively as the Collaborationist Chinese Army, numbered more than a million at their height, with some estimates that the number exceeded 2 million conscriptees. Many collaborationist troops originally served warlords of the National Revolutionary Army who had defected when facing both Communists and Japanese. Although the collaborationist army was very large, its soldiers were very ineffective compared to NRA soldiers, and had low morale because they were considered "Hanjian". Some collaborationist forces saw battlefields during the Second Sino-Japanese War, but most were relegated to behind-the-line duties.
The Wang Jingwei government was disbanded after the Japanese surrendered to Allies in 1945, and Manchukuo and Mengjiang were destroyed in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.
This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (April 2023) |
This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (April 2023) |
Following its swift victory in the Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–1942, Imperial Japan was welcomed as a liberator by much of the native population of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), [14] [15] and especially by the Indonesian nationalists who since the early 20th century had begun developing a national consciousness. [16] [17] In the wake of the Japanese advance, rebellious Indonesians across the archipelago killed scores of European and pro-Dutch civilians (in particular from the Chinese community) [18] and informed the invaders on the whereabouts of others, [19] 100,000 of whom would be imprisoned in Japanese-run internment camps alongside 80,000 American, British, Dutch, and Australian prisoners of war. [20] Unlike in occupied French Indochina, where Imperial Japan worked alongside the French colonizer, the Japanese supplanted the Dutch administration of the East Indies and elevated native elites willing to work with them to power, [21] fueling Indonesian hopes of future self-rule. [20] Imperial Japan imposed a strict occupation regime on the archipelago, however, as to them the value of the archipelago lay mostly in its ample resources for the war effort (specifically oil, tin, and bauxite) and their initial use for the nationalists only extended to the pacification and organization of the sizeable population of Java. [14]
During the occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, respectively the inaugural president and vice president of the future Republic of Indonesia, became promoters of the Japanese rōmusha forced labor scheme through the Center of the People's Power (Pusat Tenaga Rakyat; Putera) and mobilized workers for Japanese production and construction projects across Southeast Asia, such as the strategic railways on Sumatra and West Java, and along the Burma–Thailand border. [22] In total, 4 to 10 million Indonesian laborers were recruited [23] and some 270,000 to 500,000 Javanese were sent abroad, of whom 70,000 to 135,000 returned after the war. [14] [24] In November 1943, the Japanese flew Sukarno and Hatta to Tokyo to receive the Order of the Rising Sun from Emperor Hirohito for their services. [25] Similarly, Indonesia's second president Suharto and first commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Sudirman began their military careers in the Japanese-sponsored Defenders of the Homeland (Pembela Tanah Air; PETA), which alongside the auxiliaries of the Heiho (兵補) was to assist the Imperial Japanese military in fighting off the expected Allied return to the East Indies. [26] Hundreds of thousands served in Japanese organizations such as the propaganda institution Keimin Bunka Shidōsho (啓民文化指導所), [27] the youth movement Seinendan (青年団), [28] and the auxiliary police forces of the Keibōdan (警防団). [29]
As its fortunes turned, Imperial Japan became faced with growing resistance to its increasingly repressive occupation and began catering to the Indonesian desire for self-rule. Already in September 1943, [17] the Javanese Central Advisory Council (Chūō Sangiin, 中央参議院) had been created around Sukarno, Hatta, Ki Hajar Dewantara, and Mas Mansur, and expanded to include notables such as Rajiman Wediodiningrat and Ki Bagus Hadikusumo. [30] Sumatran representation under Mohammad Syafei, Abdul Abas, and Teuku Nyak Arif would follow nearly two years later and included established nationalists such as Djamaluddin Adinegoro and Adnan Kapau Gani. [31] In January 1944, the Center of the People's Power was replaced by the less overtly Japanese-controlled Hōkōkai (奉公会; Himpunan Kebaktian Rakjat) in a renewed attempt to increase Javanese labor and produce for the Japanese war effort. [32] A paramilitary youth wing, the Suishintai (推進体; Barisan Pelopor), would be founded in August. [33] In July 1944, Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo was forced to resign and on 7 September his replacement Kuniaki Koiso made a promise of independence for "the East Indies" di kemudian hari (English: at a later date). [34] In spite of the deteriorating military situation and a disastrous famine on Java, [35] war enthusiasm had returned to the extent that the suicide attack corps Jibakutai (自爆隊; Barisan Berani Mati) could be formed on 8 December 1944. [36]
On 14 February 1945, a PETA battalion under Supriyadi launched a short-lived revolt against the Japanese in Blitar, East Java. [17] Although it was quickly put down and possibly misattributed to nationalist fervor, [37] it factored into the Japanese realization that their window on creating an Indonesian puppet state had closed. [38] Hoping to extend the occupation by redirecting nationalist energy towards harmless political squabbles, the military authority on Java announced the formation of the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence (Badan Penyelidik Usaha-usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan; BPUPK) on 1 March 1945. [39] Despite meeting only twice, the plenary sessions of the BPUPK would see the formulation of Pancasila and the Jakarta Charter that would later form the basis of the preamble to the Constitution of Indonesia. [40] On 7 August, the day after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japanese field marshal Hisaichi Terauchi approved the establishment of the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence (Panitia Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia; PPKI) and promised Indonesian independence would be granted on 24 August 1945. [39] As Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allies on 15 August, Sukarno instead proclaimed Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945. [20] In the Indonesian National Revolution that followed, 903 Japanese nationals volunteered for the Indonesian cause, of whom 531 wound up dead or missing. [41]
Japanese soldiers primarily used Laos to stage attacks on Nationalist China. [42]
On 22 September 1940, Vichy France and the Empire of Japan signed an agreement allowing the Japanese to station no more than 6,000 troops in French Indochina, with no more than 25,000 troops transiting the colony. Rights were given for three airfields, with all other Japanese forces forbidden to enter Indochina without Vichy's consent. Vichy signed the Joint Defense and Joint Military Cooperation treaty with Japan on 29 July 1941. [43] It granted the Japanese eight airfields, allowed them to have more troops present, and to use the Indochinese financial system, in return for a fragile French autonomy.
The French colonial government had largely stayed in place, as the Vichy government was on reasonably friendly terms with Japan. The Japanese permitted the French to put down nationalist rebellions in 1940.
The Japanese occupation forces kept French Indochina under nominal rule of Vichy France until March 1945, when the French colonial administration was overthrown, and the Japanese supported the establishment of the Empire of Vietnam, Kingdom of Kampuchea and Kingdom of Laos as Japanese puppet states. Vietnamese militia were used to assist the Japanese. [44] In Cambodia, the ex-colonial Cambodian constabulary was allowed to continue its existence, though it was reduced to ineffectuality. A plan to create a Cambodian volunteer force was not realized due to the Japanese surrender. [45] In Laos, the local administration and ex-colonial Garde Indigène (Indigenous Guard, a paramilitary police force) were re-formed by Prince Phetsarath, who replaced its Vietnamese members with Laotians. [42] The Hmong Lo clan supported the Japanese. [42]
The Second Philippine Republic (1943–1945) was a puppet state established by Japanese forces after their 1942 invasion of the United States' Commonwealth of the Philippines (1935–1946). The Second Republic relied on the re-formed Bureau of Constabulary [46] and the Makapili militia to police the occupied country and fight the local resistance movement and the Philippine Commonwealth Army. The president of the republic, Jose P. Laurel, had a presidential guard unit recruited from the ranks of the collaborationist government. When the Americans closed in on the Philippines in 1944, the Japanese began to recruit Filipinos, who mostly served in the Imperial Japanese Army and actively fought until Japan's surrender. After the war, members of Makapili and other civilian collaborators were subject to harsh treatment by both the government and civilians, because their actions had led to the capture, torture, and execution of many Filipinos. [47]
The Second Portuguese Republic under António de Oliveira Salazar was neutral during World War II, but its colony on Timor (present-day East Timor) was occupied by the Japanese to expel Australian troops. [48] The Japanese used the population for forced labor. [48] Local militiamen were organized into "black columns" to help Japanese forces fight Allies. [49]
Portuguese Macau became a virtual protectorate of Imperial Japan as its governor Gabriel Maurício Teixeira and local elite Pedro José Lobo attempted to maintain a balance between the demands of the Japanese consul Yasumitsu Fukui and the needs of the Macanese population, which had doubled in number due to the influx of refugees from Mainland China and Hong Kong. [50]
The Kra Isthmus railway was a rail line constructed for Imperial Japan during World War II linking Chumphon to Kra Buri in Thailand. [51] The railroad connected the Bangkok-Singapore Line westward to the west coast of the Kra Isthmus near Victoria Point (Kawthaung). [51] [52] Sir Andrew Gilchrist wrote a harrowing account of worker conditions. Malay and Tamil slave laborers were used and material moved from Kelantan. Allied bombing in 1945 ended the 11-month operation of the railroad and the Japanese switched their focus to the Thai-Burma Railway, also referred to as the Death Railway, for the large numbers of prisoners and effectively enslaved workers who died there. They moved equipment, track and personnel from the Kra Isthmus Railway to the Thai-Burma line. [52]
The 90 km line connected with the Southern Line at Chumphon. Work began on the line in June 1943 and was completed in November. Equipment and personnel from Kelantan were used. The line was in operation for 11 months until U.S. bombing ceased operation. The line was then abandoned and scrapped for use on the Thai-Burma Railway. The line connected to Ban Khao Fa Chi on the La-Un River where boats could continue transport to Ranong and on to Victoria Point (Kawthaung). [52]A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a state that is de jure independent but de facto completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders. Puppet states have nominal sovereignty, except that a foreign power effectively exercises control through economic or military support. By leaving a local government in existence the outside power evades all responsibility, while at the same time successfully paralyzing the local government they tolerate.
The Indonesian National Revolution, also known as the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcolonial Indonesia. It took place between Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and the Netherlands' transfer of sovereignty over the Dutch East Indies to the Republic of the United States of Indonesia at the end of 1949.
Sukarno was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, also known as the GEACPS, was a pan-Asian union that the Japanese Empire tried to establish. Initially, it covered Japan, Manchukuo, and China, but as the Pacific War progressed, it also included territories in Southeast Asia. The term was first coined by Minister for Foreign Affairs Hachirō Arita on June 29, 1940.
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast Pacific Ocean theater, the South West Pacific theater, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Soviet–Japanese War.
South East Asia Command (SEAC) was the body set up to be in overall charge of Allied operations in the South-East Asian Theatre during the Second World War.
The South-East Asian Theatre of World War II consisted of the campaigns of the Pacific War in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Indochina, Burma, India, Malaya and Singapore between 1941 and 1945.
The Wang Jingwei regime, officially the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in eastern China. It existed alongside the Nationalist government of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek, which was fighting Japan along with the other Allies of World War II. The country functioned as a dictatorship under Wang Jingwei, formerly a high-ranking official of the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT). The region it administered was initially seized by Japan during the late 1930s at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The proposed Japanese invasion of Sichuan was the Imperial Japanese Army's failed plan to destroy the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was to be a stepping stone for the Empire of Japan's final control of the Chinese mainland.
The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence was read at 10:00 on Friday, 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of the Indonesian National Revolution, fighting against the forces of the Netherlands and pro-Dutch civilians, until the latter officially acknowledged Indonesia's independence in 1949. The document was signed by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who were appointed president and vice-president respectively the following day.
The Netherlands Indies gulden, later the Netherlands Indies roepiah, was the currency issued by the Japanese occupiers in the Dutch East Indies between 1942 and 1945. It was subdivided into 100 sen and replaced the gulden at par.
Malaya, then under British administration, was gradually occupied by Japanese forces between 8 December 1941 and the Allied surrender at Singapore on 15 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.
The Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence, sometimes referred to as the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence, was an organization set up in March 1945 by the Japanese military authority in Java during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies as the initial stage of the establishment of independence for the area under the control of the Japanese 16th Army. The BPUPK held two plenary meetings; the first was from 28 May to 1 June 1945 and the second was between 10 and 17 July 1945.
The Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of the war in September 1945. It was one of the most crucial and important periods in modern Indonesian history.
The Imperial Japanese Army Nakano School was the primary training center for military intelligence operations by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
The Japanese 16th Army was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies, was a Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which declared independence on 17 August 1945. Following the Indonesian War of Independence, Indonesia and the Netherlands made peace in 1949. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the Dutch ceded the governorate of Dutch Malacca to Britain, leading to its eventual incorporation into Malacca (state) of modern Malaysia.
Bersiap is the name given by the Dutch to a violent and chaotic phase of the Indonesian National Revolution following the end of World War II. The Indonesian word bersiap means 'get ready' or 'be prepared'. The Bersiap period lasted from August 1945 to November 1947. In Indonesia, other terms aside from bersiap are commonly used, such as gedoran in Depok, ngeli in Banten and surrounding West Java, and gegeran and dombreng in Central Java.
Indonesia and Japan established diplomatic relations in April 1958. Both are two Asian nations that share historical, economic, and political ties. Both nations went through a difficult period in World War II when the then Dutch East Indies was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army for three-and-a-half years. Japan is a major trading partner for Indonesia. Japan is Indonesia's largest export partner and also a major donor of development aid to Indonesia through Japan International Cooperation Agency. Indonesia is a vital supplier of natural resources such as liquefied natural gas to Japan. Today in Indonesia, there are about 11,000 Japanese expatriates whereas in Japan, there are approximately 24,000 Indonesian nationals working and training.
The Hōkōkai were associations formed by the Empire of Japan on 8 January 1944 to replace the Pusat Tenaga Rakyat during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies in World War II. The original incarnation of the Hōkōkai was formed on Java by the commander of the Sixteenth Army, General Kumakichi Harada, after the Japanese realized that the Putera had exacerbated the desire for Indonesian independence rather than promote Japan's local interests in its war against the Allies.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Imperial Japan in 1943 had established a puppet state known as the Provisional Government of Free India
1942, the Japanese army set up "black columns" (columnas negras). Largely comprising people from the western part of Timor under Dutch rule, these columns of militiamen sowed violence and destruction. Here again, the East Timorese were the main victims. In November 1942, the Japanese placed the bulk of the remaining Portuguese community (600 people) in camps.