Japan’s Brutal Occupation Forged Southeast Asian Independence

The Japanese rampage across Southeast Asia from 1941–42 was a remarkable military feat by any metric, comparable to the early German blitzkrieg campaigns across Western Europe. In four months from the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December, the Japanese had occupied Malaya, Singapore, Borneo, and the Dutch East Indies. The Western colonial powers had been decisively defeated, the humiliation of surrender made all the worse by the ignoble way many of the colonists had fled the advancing Japanese, leaving their Asian subjects to face the invaders’ wrath.

The first essay in this four-part series discussed how the Japanese invasions permanently shattered Western prestige and legitimacy in Southeast Asia. This second essay takes a closer look at the nature of the Japanese occupation. The violence, terror, and hunger that characterised that occupation would leave an indelible mark on the social fabric of Southeast Asia. More importantly, it was under the aegis of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere that the kindling of the post-war decolonisation movement was first lit.  

The Old Order Upturned 

One of the most striking changes brought about by the Japanese occupation was the near-total purging of Western influence, starting with the physical removal of Westerners from public view. Besides the more than 100,000 American, British, Australian, and Indian POWs captured during the initial stages of the war, the Japanese also rounded up most European civilians, separating the men from the women and children. Much has been written about the plight of those interned in these camps and the appalling conditions they suffered. Thousands died from starvation, disease, and mistreatment. It is believed that 27 percent—35,756 out of 132,134—of the Western Allied prisoners lost their lives under the Japanese. Of the 130,000 Europeans interned in the Dutch East Indies—most of whom were civilians—30,000 are believed to have died.

In addition to interning Westerners en masse, the Japanese sought to eradicate Western cultural influence. Western languages like Dutch and English were prohibited in favour of Japanese, which became the new language of administration. The Western calendar was replaced by the Japanese one, which numbered years according to the reigns of Japanese emperors. Across the occupied territories, one single time zone was established, with clocks set to Tokyo time. British and American films and songs were proscribed; Japanese films and songs were promoted instead.

Under the new order, communities seen as having benefited from colonial rule or having been close to the colonisers, such as Eurasians and Christians, came under suspicion and were generally discriminated against by the Japanese. In Burma, communities like the Chinese, Anglo-Indians, Anglo-Burmese, and the Christian Karens were often the victims of Japanese persecution. In Indonesia, the Eurasian community (dubbed the Indos) had to prove their Indonesian bloodline in order to avoid being interned. Ironically, under Dutch rule, many Indos had attempted to prove their European identity in order to advance under the Dutch colonial order. 

One of the most consistently targeted groups, however, was the Chinese, loathed by the Japanese for their financial support of the anti-Japanese war effort back in mainland China. Many wealthier Chinese were soon forced to make financial “contributions” to the Japanese. Indeed, one of the less discussed impacts of the war in Southeast Asia is the exacerbation of ethnic tensions across the region—tensions that would continue to play out in the postwar period.