Organizer: Yoji Akashi, Aichi Shukutoku University
Chair and Discussant: Henry Fry, Tsukuba Women’s Junior College
Japan occupied Malaya for three-and-a-half years (1941–45). The period under the Japanese military administration is generally considered to mark a profound transition in the history of Malaya/Malaysia, but little is known about the period because of difficulties with limited date/materials/information and other reasons. Fifty-three years have already passed since the surrender of the Japanese and it is necessary to look back at this period to argue the twentieth-century history of Malaya/Malaysia and to look ahead toward the next millennium. This panel is organized by Malay/Malaysian specialists in Japan, and will include discussions about various aspects of the Japanese occupation in Malaya and Singapore; Japanese military administration; economic policy; and women’s internment camps.
Watanabe Wataru, The Architect of the Malay and Military Administration, 1941–43
Yoji Akashi, Aichi Shukutoku University
Watanabe, the first executive director of the Military Administration, was the principal figure in drafting and implementing administrative policies. As a hardline administrator, Watanabe was primarily responsible for the harsh and severe policies towards the Chinese and Sultans, and other problems in occupied Malaya and Singapore with his unique political philosophy which he had extracted from his eleven years of experience in China as a political officer.
Japanese Occupation and Economic Policy in Malaya: Exploitation of Materials and Japanese Rubber Estates
Mako Yoshimura, Hosei University
Japan invaded Southeast Asia to obtain natural resources and labor to continue the war against China and the Allied Powers, and their violent exploitation of goods and materials brought chaos to the local communities. Japan, however, could not utilize the rubber and tin in Malaya due to damage at the start and the lack of transportation at the following stage as well as the lack of industries to consume the volume in the home country. The paper discusses the economic policy of the Japanese military administration in Malaya and Singapore and examines the situation of the rubber industry with cases of estates and rubber manufacture including the reparation for war damage.
Civilian Women in Internment Groups in Singapore
Michiko Nakahara, Waseda University
During the Japanese occupation in British Malaya, all of the civilian population, including men, women, and children, of enemy countries were interned, first of all in the Changi Gaol and then the Siam Road Camp. After the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, the civilian internees were interned in the camps and they were forced to live under under the extremely poor conditions for almost three-and-a-half years. The European colonists often ignored the suffering of the people in their colonies and the people in the colonies are also ignorant of the suffering of Europeans, especially civilians. This paper will describe what happened to the civilian internees, especially women and children, in Singapore using materials written by them including the weekly newspaper POW-WOW published in the women’s internment camp.