Southeast Asian Minorities in the Wartime Japanese Empire

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. Overall, the book provides a great deal of interesting new material on this complex subject from a range of Southeast Asian countries. The essays are grouped together by country: Japan and Southeast Asia, Burma/Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaya, Borneo, Thailand and the Philippines. The contributors include Lorraine V. Aragon, Cheah Boon Kheng, Gregory Clancy, Hara Fujio, Kawashima Midori, Paul H. Kratoska, Didi Kwartanada, Kaori Maekawa, Eiji Murashima, Ooi Keat Gin, E. Bruce Reynolds, and Elly Touwen-Bouwsma.

Table of Contents:
Prologue Paul H. Kratoska Japan and South-East Asia 1. The Japanese Imperium and South-East Asia: An Overview Gregory Clancey Burma/Myanmar 2. The Karen of Burma under Japanese Rule Paul H. Kratoska 3. Between China and the Japanese: Wartime Affairs in Kokang State and the Failure of the Spiers Mission Paul H. Kratoska Indonesia 4. Japanese Policy towards the Chinese on Java, 1942-1945: A Preliminary Outline Elly Touwen-Bouwsma 5. Chinese Leadership and Organization in Yogyakarta during the Japanese Occupation Didi Kwartanada 6. In Pursuit of Mica: The Japanese and Highland Minorities in Sulawesi Lorraine V. Aragon Malaya 7. Japanese Army Policy toward the Chinese and Malay-Chinese Relations in Wartime Malaya Cheah Boon Kheng Borneo 8. The 1943 Kinabalu Uprising in Sabah Hara Fujio 9. The Japanese Occupation and the Peoples of Sarawak Ooi Keat Gin 10. The Pontianak Incidents and the Ethnic Chinese in Wartime Western Borneo Kaori Maekawa Thailand 11. The Indian Community and the Indian Independence Movement in Thailand during World War II E. Bruce Reynolds 12. The Thai-Japanese Alliance and the Chinese of Thailand Eiji Murashima Philippines 13. The Battle of Tamparan: A Maranao Response to the Japanese Occupation of Mindanao Kawashima Midori