The Japanese Occupation of Malaya and Singapore, 1941-45

The Japanese Occupation of Malaya and Singapore, 1941-45
Author: Paul H. Kratoska
Publisher: NUS Press
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2018-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 997169638X

Japanese forces invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941 and British forces surrendered in Singapore 70 days later. Japan would rule the territory for the next 3½ years. Early efforts to maintain pre-war standards of comfort gave way to a grim struggle for survival as the vibrant economy ground to a halt and residents struggled to deal with unemployment, shortages of consumer goods, sharp price rises, a thriving black market and widespread corruption. People were hungry, dressed in rags, and falling victim to treatable diseases for which medicines were unavailable, and there was little reason to hope for better in the future. Using surviving administrative papers, oral materials, intelligence reports and post-war accounts by Japanese officers, this book presents a picture of life in occupied Malaya and Singapore. It shows the impact of war and occupation on a non-belligerent population, and creates a new understanding of the changes and the continuities that underlay the post-war economy and society. The book was first published in 1998 and is now re-issued in new edition that incorporates information from newly translated Japanese documents and other recent discoveries.

The Japanese Occupation of Malaya

The Japanese Occupation of Malaya
Author: Paul H. Kratoska
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780824818890

Japan attacked British-ruled Malaya on 8 December 1941 as part of a wave of military actions that toppled the British, Dutch and American colonial regimes in Southeast Asia. Within seventy days, the conquest of Malaya was complete, and British forces in Singapore surrendered on 15 February 1942. The three and a half years of Japanese rule are generally considered to mark a profound transition in the history of the Malay peninsula, but little is known about this period. This book uses the limited administrative papers that survived in Malaya, oral sources, and accounts written by Japanese officers involved in the Malayan campaign to flesh out the story.

A Bibliography of Military and Political Aspects of the Malayan Emergency, the Confrontation with Indonesia, and the Brunei Revolt

A Bibliography of Military and Political Aspects of the Malayan Emergency, the Confrontation with Indonesia, and the Brunei Revolt
Author: Justin J. Corfield
Publisher:
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN:

The Malayan Emergency, the confrontation with Indonesia and the Brunei Revolt are fundamental to an understanding of Southeast Asia during the 20th century. This bibliography brings together 4575 sources which should provide useful information for scholars researching these developments and Southeast Asian history in general. Sources include books, theses, newspaper and magazine articles and unpublished manuscripts.

World War II in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with General Sources

World War II in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with General Sources
Author: Loyd Lee
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 546
Release: 1997-08-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0313033145

A broadly interdisciplinary work, this handbook discusses the best and most enduring literature related to the major topics and themes of World War II. Military historiography is treated in essays on the major theaters of military operations and the related themes of logistics and intelligence, while political and diplomatic history is covered in chapters on international relations, resistance movements, and collaboration. The volume analyzes themes of domestic history in essays on economic mobilization, the home fronts, and women in the military and civilian life. The book also covers the Holocaust. This handbook approaches each topic from a global viewpoint rather than focusing on individual national communities. Except for nonprint material, the literature, research, and sources surveyed are primarily those available in English. The volume is aimed at both experts on the war and the general academic community and will also be useful to students and serious laymen interested in the war.

The British Indian Army

The British Indian Army
Author: Rob Johnson
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2014-06-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1443862851

The British Indian Army was a distinctive phenomenon, a curious combination of Western imperial and South Asian military cultures. It was first and foremost a military instrument for garrison duties, but it was rarely used in internal security and most of its history is concerned with expeditionary wars. While the British regarded the Indian Army as a source of pride and a vital source of imperial manpower, it was not a simple case of exploitation of local indigenous labour by an indifferent colonial system, but rather an evolving and often imperfect partnership, with shared identities, varying degrees of proficiency, and a particular ethos. The Indian Army was transformed under British direction, and arguably enjoyed its greatest triumph in defeating Imperial Japan in 1945. Paradoxically, at the same time, the Indian Armed Forces were also the most potent vehicles for the concept of a free and independent India. This new edited work is a selection of the Indian army’s long history of development and modernisation, drawing out themes such as leadership, discipline, racial categorisation, mechanisation, and operational performance. It ranges from the campaigns of the eighteenth century to the agonized decisions to break up the old army between the new nations of South Asia. Chapters also cover the operations in Afghanistan, Persia and China in the nineteenth century; the gruelling conditions of Mesopotamia and Gallipoli in the First World War; auxiliaries on the North West Frontier; ambiguities over internal security in the Inter-War Years; air power and armoured warfare; the paradoxes of race; and operations in Malaya during the army's nadir in 1941–42. The collection represents renewed interest in the Indian armed forces during the British period and offers a wide range of themes for consideration.

Approach to Battle

Approach to Battle
Author: Alan Jeffreys
Publisher: Helion and Company
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2017-01-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1913336913

The Indian Army was the largest volunteer army during the Second World War. Indian Army divisions fought in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy - and went to make up the overwhelming majority of the troops in South East Asia. Over two million personnel served in the Indian Army - and India provided the base for supplies for the Middle Eastern and South East Asian theatres. This monograph is a modern historical interpretation of the Indian Army as a holistic organisation during the Second World War. It will look at training in India - charting how the Indian Army developed a more comprehensive training structure than any other Commonwealth country. This was achieved through both the dissemination of doctrine and the professionalism of a small coterie of Indian Army officers who brought about a military culture within the Indian Army - starting in the 1930s - that came to fruition during the Second World War, which informed the formal learning process. Finally, it will show that the Indian Army was reorganised after experiences of the First World War. During the interwar period, the army developed training and belief for both fighting on the North West Frontier, and as an aid to civil power. With the outbreak of the Second World War, in addition to these roles, the army had to expand and adapt to fighting modern professional armies in the difficult terrains of desert, jungle and mountain warfare. A clear development of doctrine and training can be seen, with many pamphlets being produced by GHQ India that were, in turn, used to formulate training within formations and then used in divisional, brigade and unit training instructions - thus a clear line of process can be seen not only from GHQ India down to brigade and battalion level, but also upwards from battalion and brigade level based on experience in battle that was absorbed into new training instructions. Together with the added impetus for education in the army, by 1945 the Indian Army had become a modern, professional and national army.