This study focuses on Japanese wartime policies and their implementation, and the consequent effects these policies had on the local population. Each ethnic group, including the European community, is examined to evaluate its reaction and response to the Japanese military government and Japanese policies towards these. The group effects of the Japanese period on post-war developments help to evaluate the significance and influence of this short domination by a non-Western.

The Japanese occupation of both British Borneo – Brunei, Sarawak and North Borneo – and Dutch Borneo in 1941 to 1945 is a much understudied subject. Of particular interest is the occupation of Dutch Borneo, governed by the Imperial Japanese Navy that had long-term plans for ‘permanent possession’. This book surveys Borneo under Western colonialism, examines pre-war Japanese interests in Borneo, and analyses the Japanese military invasion and occupation. It goes on to consider the nature of Japanese rule in Borneo, contrasting the different regimes of the Imperial Japanese Army, which ruled the north, and the Navy. A wide range of issues are discussed, including the incorporation of the economy in the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere and the effects of this on Borneo’s economy. The book also covers issues such as the relationship with the various indigenous inhabitants, with Islam and the Muslim community, and the Chinese, as well as topics of acculturation and propaganda, and major uprisings and mass executions. It examines the impact of the wartime conditions and policies on the local multiethnic peoples and their responses, providing an invaluable contribution to the greater understanding of the significance of the wartime Japanese occupation in the historical development of Borneo.

This study focuses on Japanese wartime policies and their implementation, and the consequent effects these policies had on the local population. Each ethnic group, including the European community, is examined to evaluate its reaction and response to the Japanese military government and Japanese policies towards these. The group effects of the Japanese period on post-war developments help to evaluate the significance and influence of this short domination by a non-Western.

This book examines Borneo, both British Borneo – Brunei, Sarawak and North Borneo – and Dutch Borneo in the period 1945-1950. Borneo then was at the crossroads. Following the Japanese Occupation, the likely future status of the various Bornean territories was not at all clear, and the book discusses the various factions and powers, both local and international, who were contending for control in this period. It examines the effects of the Japanese surrender, the impact of the subsequent interregnum and Australian and British military administrations, the reassertion of Dutch control, the struggle for Indonesian independence, and movements for local autonomy, reassertion of ethnic rights, interests and identity. It charts developments throughout this volatile and uncertain period, up to the point at which the newly independent Republic of Indonesia emerged and a more settled period began.