The six volumes that make up this set provide an overview of colonialism in South-East Asia. The first volume deals with Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch Imperialism before 1800, the second with empire-building during the 19th century, and the third with the imperial heyday in the early 20th century. The remaining volumes are devoted to the decline of empire, covering nationalism and the Japanese challenge to the western presence in the region, and the transition to independence - peaceful in the case of the Philippines, Burma and Malaysia, but violent in Indonesia and Vietnam. The authors whose works are anthologized include both official participants, and scholars who wrote about events from a more detached perspective.

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.

During the Pacific War the Japanese government used a wide range of methods to recruit workers for construction projects throughout the occupied territories. Mistreatment of workers was a major grievance, both in widely publicized cases such as the use of prisoners of war and forced Asian labor to construct the Thailand-Burma "Death" Railway, and in a very large number of smaller projects. In this book an international group of specialists on the Occupation period examine the labor needs and the recruitment and use of workers (whether forced, military, or otherwise) throughout the Japanese empire. This is the first study to look at Japanese labor policies comparatively across all the occupied territories of Asia during the war years. It also provides a graphic context for examining Japanese colonialism and relations between the Japanese and the people living in the various occupied territories.

During the Pacific War the Japanese government used a wide range of methods to recruit workers for construction projects throughout the occupied territories. Mistreatment of workers was a major grievance, both in widely publicized cases such as the use of prisoners of war and forced Asian labor to construct the Thailand-Burma "Death" Railway, and in a very large number of smaller projects. In this book an international group of specialists on the Occupation period examine the labor needs and the recruitment and use of workers (whether forced, military, or otherwise) throughout the Japanese empire. This is the first study to look at Japanese labor policies comparatively across all the occupied territories of Asia during the war years. It also provides a graphic context for examining Japanese colonialism and relations between the Japanese and the people living in the various occupied territories.

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 Southeast Asia between 1941 and 1945 brought with it severe food shortages, largely arising from organizational failures and inadequate transportation. the nine essays in this volume examine the situation in food exporting countries such as Burma, Thailand and Vietnam, in food deficit areas such as Malaya, the Philippines and Java, and in Sarawak which was largely self-sufficient. Two essays examine in detail the famine that struck the Tonkin area of northern Vietnam in 1945.

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 31/2 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.