Information on the Japanese Occupation of Malaya and Singapore is sparse, and Japanese-language materials are particularly difficult to ﬁnd because the Japanese military systematically destroyed war-related documents when the war ended. The contributors to this volume participated in a Forum that spent four years locating surviving materials relating to the Occupation of Malaya. The group had three objectives: to collect primary sources, to interview Japanese military and civilian officials who took part in the miliitary administration and people in Malaysia and Singapore who experienced the period, and to publish the results of the studies.
Based on interviews with Japanese, Malaysians and Singaporeans who lived through the war years and materials gathered from archives and libraries in Britain, Malaysia, Singapore, USA, Australia, and india, the Forum has produced a number of Japanese language publications. This book makes available some of their research findings in English. Topics covered include the Watanabe Military Administration, Japanese research activities in Malaya, Japan’s Economic Policies, Malayan Communist Party Leaders and the Anti-Japanese Resistance, the Massacre of Chinese in Singapore, Railway Transportation during the Japanese Occupations Period, The Singapore internment Camp for Allied Civilian Women, and the Japanese Surrender.
This volume is a revised version of Akashi Yoji, ed., Nippon Senryoka no Eiryo MarayaIShingaporu (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers, 2001).
About the editors: Akashi Yoji is Professor Emeritus of Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan and specialises in Southeast Asian Studies. He has published and edited numerous books and articles, particularly on the Japanese Occupation of Malaya.and Singapore 1941-45. He served as President of the Japan Society of Southeast Asian History.
Yoshimura Mako is Professor of Asian Studies at Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan. She received the Doctoral Degree on Economics from the University of Tokyo and specialises in Malaysian Studies. She has published numerous articles on labour/social issues in Southeast Asia (especially Malaysia) and is the author of Economic Development and Labour Structure in Malaysia: Ethnicity, Gender and Nationality (in Japanese) (Tokyo: Hosei University Press, 1998)