Forgotten Wars
Authors: Tim Harper,Christopher Bayly
Forgotten Wars
BY THE SAME AUTHORS
Forgotten Armies: Britain’s Asian empire and the war with Japan
CHRISTOPHER BAYLY AND TIM HARPER
The End of Britain’s Asian Empire
ALLEN LANE
an imprint of
PENGUIN BOOKS
ALLEN LANE
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First published 2007
1
Copyright © Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, 2007
The moral right of the authors has been asserted
All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright
reserved above, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
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written permission of both the copyright owner and
the above publisher of this book
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-14-190980-6
The last journey of Subhas Chandra Bose
3. 1945: A Second Colonial Conquest
Liberal imperialism and New Democracy
‘Malaya for the Malays, not the Malayans’
4. 1945: The First Wars of Peace
Britain’s forgotten war in Vietnam
Britain and the birth of Indonesia
5. 1946: Freedom without Borders
The passing of the Malayan Spring
6. 1946: One Empire Unravels, Another Is Born
Britain’s terminal crisis in Burma
The crescent fragments: Bengal divided
The crescent fragments: orphans of empire
The strange disappearance of Mr Wright
‘Beware, the danger from the mountain’
The genesis of communist rebellion
10. 1948: The Malayan Revolution
11. 1949: The Centre Barely Holds
Britain, India and the coming of the Cold War
Epilogue: The End of Britain’s Asian Empire
1. Surrendered Japanese troops in Burma, August 1945 (Imperial War Museum)
3. Lt General Seishiro Itagaki signing the surrender, Singapore, 12 September 1945 (Empics)
4. Mountbatten announces the surrender of the Japanese in Singapore, September, 1945 (Corbis)
5. A forgotten army: surrendered Japanese in north Malaya, November 1945 (Empics)
6. Seagrave’s return, 1945 (Getty)
7. Leclerc and Gracey with Japanese sword of surrender, Saigon, 1945 (Corbis)
8. Soldiers of the Parachute Regiment, Java, 1945 (Imperial War Museum)
10. Imperialism’s return? Christison in Java, 1946 (Getty)
11. Sukarno addresses an ‘ocean’ rally, Java, 1946 (Getty)
12. Charisma and revolution: Sukarno, Java, 1946 (Getty)
13. Nehru’s arrival at Kalling Airport, Singapore, April 1946 (Imperial War Museum)
14. Macdonald inspects the Malay Regiment, Kuala Lumpur, 1946 (Imperial War Museum)
15. Dorman Smith leaves Burma, June 1946 (Imperial War Museum)
16. Muslim rioters and the corpse of a Hindu, Calcutta, August 1946 (Corbis)
17. India’s interim government at their swearing in, Delhi 1946 (Corbis)
18. Aung San and Attlee, London, January 1947 (Getty)
19. Aung San and family, 1947 (Popperfoto)
20. The Mountbattens in Delhi, eve of independence, August 1947 (Getty)
21. Celebrating independence in Calcutta, August 1947 (Getty)
22. Ending the Burmese days: Rance and Burma’s president, January 1948 (Corbis)
23. Communist suspect, Malaya
c
. 1949 (Imperial War Museum)
24. Bren gun and stengah: rubber planter in Malaya, 1949 (Getty)
25. Chinese peasants being arrested by Malay policemen, April 1949 (Getty)
26. Dyak trackers in Malaya,
c
. 1949 (Imperial War Museum)
28. Hearts and minds: a propaganda leaflet drop, 1948 (Imperial War Musuem)
29. Imperial Twilight: Drinks party at Malcolm MacDonald’s residence, Bukit Serene, 1949 (Getty)
30. Fighting during the Karen insurgency, 1949 (Getty)
31. The quiet man: Ne Win in London for military training, 1949 (Corbis)
32. The man with the plan: Templer with the Home Guard, Kinta, 1942 (Getty)
33. Bandung spirits: Nasser, Nu and Nehru celebrating the Burmese Water Festival, 1955 (Corbis)
34. Chin Peng at Baling, December 1955, with his old Force 136 ally, John Davis (Corbis)
Abdul Razak bin Hussein
(b. 1922). Malay politician. Served in the war as a district officer; studied law in London, where he became a close associate and political ally of Tunku Abdul Rahman. Succeeded him to become second prime minister of Malaysia, 1970–76.
Amery, Rt Hon. Leopold, MP
(b. 1873). Conservative politician. Secretary of state for India and Burma, 1940–45.
Attlee, Rt Hon. Clement Richard
(b. 1883). Labour politician. Deputy prime minister, 1942–5; prime minister, July 1945–1952; defence minister to 1946.
Auchinleck, General Claude
(b. 1884). Commander North African Front, 1940–42, Commander-in-Chief, India, 1943–7; co-ordinated India base for the Burma campaign.
Aung San, Thakin
or
‘Bogyoke’ (General)
(b. 1916). Leading Burmese revolutionary. Commander of Burma Independence Army, 1942; defence minister under Ba Maw, 1943–5. President of Anti-Fascist People’s Front Freedom League; member of Governor’s Executive Council 1946–7. Assassinated July 1947.
Ba Maw
(b. 1893). Lawyer, politician and prime minister of Burma, 1937–9. Emerged as main collaborator with Japanese in 1942 and became ‘Adipadi’ (first man) of independent Burma in 1943. Fled to Tokyo; imprisoned by Allies 1945; returned to Burma in 1946; interned following 1947 assassinations.
Boestamam, Ahmad
(b. 1920). Born Abdullah Sani bin Raja Kechil. Malay novelist, journalist and politician. Founder and leader of
Angkatan Pemuda Insaf, 1946–8. Detained 1948–55. Founder Partai Rakyat and leader of Socialist Front in parliament after 1959. Detained again during ‘Confrontation’ with Indonesia.
Bose, Subhas Chandra
(b. 1897). Bengali politician and radical leader within Forward Bloc of Congress. Arrested by British 1940, fled to Berlin 1941. Took over leadership of Indian National Army and Free India government 1943. Retreated from Imphal with Japanese in 1944. Presumed dead in plane crash, August 1945.
Burhanuddin al-Helmy, Dr
(b. 1911). Leader of Malay Nationalist Party, 1945–7. Detained after Nadrah riots and on release became leader of Parti Islam Se-Malaya. Detained again during ‘Confrontation’ with Indonesia.
Chiang Kai Shek
(b. 1887). Chinese nationalist leader and ‘generalissimo’ of Chinese armies fighting Japan since 1936; drawn into fighting in Burma during 1942 to keep the ‘Burma Road’ open. Pressed for Allied campaign against Burma, 1943–4. Fought and lost civil war with Mao Zedong, 1946–9.