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This study of the Japanese occupation of Malaya draws on archives, oral histories, and descriptive accounts by Japanese officers involved in the campaign. A picture emerges of a country struggling in the face of shortages of consumer goods, unemployment, high prices, a black market, and corruption.
Southeast Asia' calls to mind a wide range of images: tropical forests and mountains, islands and seas, and a multitude of languages, cultures and religions. The area has never formed a unified political realm nor has it ever developed a cultural or civilisational unity. Many academics have defined 'Southeast Asia' over the years as what is left after subtracting Australia, the South Pacific islands and China and India. Others have pointed at diversity—the variety and fluidity of the cultures, wide ranging forms of economic activity, and openness to external influences—as the defining feature of the region. But with area studies out of fashion, is 'Southeast Asia' even relevant any longe...
The Japanese invasion and occupation of southeast Asia provided opportunities for the peoples of the region to pursue a wide range of agendas that had little to do with the larger issues which drove the conflict between Japan and the allies. This book explores how the occupation affected various minority groups in the region. It shows, for example, how in some areas of Burma the withdrawal of established authority led to widespread communal violence; how the Indian and Chinese populations of Malaya and Thailand had extensive and often unpleasant interactions with the Japanese; and how in Java the Chinese population fared much better.
The Japanese Occupation of Malaya has been described as a major watershed, an event that put an end to the old order and created a new. This unique study examines the impact of the occupation on the local population and their initiatives in bringing about radical political and economic change.
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The six volumes that make up this unique set provide an extensive overview of colonialism in South-East Asia. In the majority of cases, authors chosen were specialists writing about their individual areas of expertise, and had first-hand experience in the region. Outline of contents: * I. Imperialism before 1800 [Edited by Peter Borschberg] * II. Empire-Building in the Nineteenth-Century * III. High Imperialism * IV. Imperial Decline: Nationalism and the Japanese Challenge * V. Peaceful Transitions to Independence * VI. Independence through Violent Struggle
The articles in this volume examine how, with its invasion of Southeast Asia at the end of 1941, Japan seized control of Burma, Thailand and Vietnam, the major rice exporting countries in the world. However, the region experienced severe food shortages, because the Japanese were unable to transport the rice into the needy areas.
The principal cause of the 1930s depression in Southeast Asia lay outside the region through a sharp contraction in demand for the regions major commodity exports. But it had important internal causes too: an oversupply of primary commodities and an increasing scarcity of new agricultural land leading to higher rents and lower wages, rising indebtedness and increasing landlessness. This work thoroughly analyses the pre-war depression. It also looks at the changes in the basic structures of the economies of Southeast Asia that were of long-term importance, such as the role of the state in the economy. The authors also draw similarities and contrasts between the 1930s depression and the 1990s Asian crisis.
Providing the basis for a reconceptualization of key features in Southeast Asia's history, this book examines evolutionary patterns of Europe's and Japan's Southeast Asian empires from the late 19th century through to the 1960s.
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.