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Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945

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Few events in the twentieth century did as much to shape the world in which we live than the fall of the British Empire. Every corner of the globe bears some stamp of its once-mighty presence, yet only now are we beginning to understand its true impact and legacy. In this book, Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper focus on British rule in southern Asia - India, Burma, Malaya, and Singapore - during the Second World War, showing not just how that conflict accelerated the collapse of their empire in the region but how it set the parameters of the subsequent course it took in history.

The authors chart this progress from events immediately prior to the Japanese invasions of 1941-2, depicting a region at the crossroads of change. On the surface, British rule continued in the routines of rule that had existed for decades, with colonists engaged in their intricate social rituals at the top of a racially stratified society. Yet beneath these placid assumptions, a growing nationalism was beginning to erode the sureties of the British presence. Bayly and Harper's coverage of this is one of the many strengths of the book, as they describe the numerous racial groups and the complicated politics of their interactions with impressive breadth and confidence.

Japan sought to exploit this nationalist sentiment by posturing as liberators seeking to create an "Asia for the Asians." Yet the success of their conquest was due more to British weakness than the success of any Japanese appeal. Stunned by the rapidity of the Japanese advance, British forces collapsed in a matter of weeks, irreparably damaging the imperial prestige upon which much of their rule rested. Racial attitudes only exacerbated tensions, as white colonials often "pulled rank" in their eagerness to escape the Japanese onslaught. The memory of this would color relations in the region for years after the war.

Though the Japanese advanced as far as northern Burma, overstretched supply lines and the annual monsoons brought an end to their offensive in the region. Yet with their forces shattered and their resources strained, initially the British could do little to dislodge them. Here the authors turn their attention to the suffering brought about by war, particularly a devastating famine in India, the result of wartime disruption, a devastating cyclone, and British misgovernment. With tensions high and many leaders of the Indian National Congress in prison, the Japanese tried to take advantage of the situation by sponsoring an Indian independence movement under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose. Yet this effort, like those in Burma and Malaya, soon fell victim to the brutality and abuse of Japanese rule, which alienated the native populations and fueled resistance throughout the region.

With the failure of their U-Go offensive in the spring of 1944, the end of Japanese rule was increasingly apparent to the peoples of the region. Yet even as the British prepared to reassert imperial rule, their former subjects were positioning themselves for independence. Here the authors illustrate both how much the experience of war had changed the region and how blind the British were to these changes. For all of the insincerity of Japanese motivations, the rhetoric of independence and the creation of local military forces had fanned nationalist hopes and accelerated what ultimately became an irreversible end to the British Empire in Asia.

Bayly and Harper have provided an excellent history of the war in southeastern Asia and its role in decolonization. The breadth of their coverage is impressive, particularly in their examination of Asian perspectives towards both British and Japanese rule - something all too often absent in histories of the conflict. Though the narrative often suffers from stilted writing, the insightful analysis the authors offer more than compensates for the lack of polish in the prose. In fact, the abrupt termination of their account with the end of the fighting left me hoping for a follow-up volume that tracks these developments to their eventual conclusion - independence and the creation of a new Asia.

This is an excellent book,from the standpoint of the authors doing a comprehensive job of detailing the history of the Japanese occupation of British Southeast Asia in WWII. The authors limit their narrative to the area of the "crescent" running from northeastern India down south to Singapore. This was a neglected theatre of the war in history, and the interplay of the Japanese conquest, the legacy of British colonialism, and the power plays of the various nationalistic and communist elements in the area are laid out with great detail. However, the emphasis is less on the actual battles and military manuvers of the allied and axis forces, with the greater detail being laid on the effects of the Japanese occupation on the economy, nationalistic attitudes, and political fortunes of the civilian populace. This is definitely a work of history, and it doesn't necessarily read like a novel, unlike some other historical works from the same era. If you are a student of WWII history and want expansion on the Pacific theatre that you weren't aware of before, then you will enjoy this. If you are a more military-minded reader of history and want to read about detailed battles and campaigns, then you will probably want to look at other books instead. Having said all of that, from an academic standpoint this is an important work on a neglected area of WWII history, which explains in great detail why this area of the world is what it is today.

Imagine British Asia on the eve of World War Two. Singapore, Burma, India. The Japanest struck swiftly and desicively, capturing Singapore in record time and sinking two of Englands greatest warships. The war as it developed in the jungles of Southeast Asia employed many fascinating characters and peoples. The Japanest claimed they were creating a 'co-prosperity' sphere where Asians would work together towards the common future. However the truth of the matter is more complicated. Despite the Japanese claim that imperialism was 'racist' the Japanese turned out to be as imperialistic and as condescending as Europeans had been, as they stripped countries of natural resources to feed their ambitions.

The British employed many Indian troops and other native troops to stem the Japanese tied. Recovering from the loss of Singapore, the defeats of the Dutch in Indonesia and the threat to both India and Australia the English waged an unending guerilla war in Burma, made famous not only by 'Bridge on the river Kwai' but also by the Chindits and Orde Wingates irregulars.

This is an excellent panorama, employing whit, history and stories of the characters and cultures bisected by the war. Most of all we are given a snapshot of Asia in a time of change. The war changed everything, it brought ambitions to colonized peoples, and created the circumstances of Vietnam.

Seth J. Frantzman

The Japanese rampage in the Pacific and the initial defeat of both the American and British forces in the region heralded the eventual death knell for all Empires involved in the Pacific war. The military political part of this story has been told many times. The cut and thrust of combat is not what this book is intended to do -- it rather covers those peoples and groups, whose absolute numbers were large, but whose history is often not factored into the momentous events in the region at this time.

The Overseas Chinese and their suppport for China made them an obvious target for the Japanese, their suffering (massacres) and response -- from quiet resistance to active and robust guerilla efforts in Malaya -- are something often left out of normal narratives on Malaya, which usually end after the fall of Singapore. How did the Malays, indigenous Indians, and Chinese react to the Japanese triumphs? How did events play them off against each other?

Ethnic Indians in Burma largely made up the civil service and trade industries before the war, they were mostly driven out by the Burmese who exacted a terrible toll for percieved injustice of this class foisted on them by the British. Their bones lined the escape routes out of Burma -- victims of Burmese pogroms. It is therefore ironic that Indian soldiers captured during the initial onslaught would forswear their alleigence to the King for one to the Emperor -- on the promise for eventual Indian independence. It is this devil's bargain that the authors detail very well: the training, demise, renewal, deployment and utter destruction of the Indian National Army. Ironically again, this Japanese-trained army was defeated by an overwhelmingly Indian denominated and increasing Indian-led army at the end of WWII. Indians gained their freedom not by fighting against the British, but precisely by fighting under and alongside the British. With the might of India unleashed by the British, Indian officers commanding white troops, it became apparent that even in allied triumph, the days of the Raj were limited.

Britain destroyed more Japanese landforces than the entire American island-hopping campaign. Indeed these battles were the largest in Asia and the political machinations underlying the movement and supply of great armies are of a degree that it is difficult to understand. Allied cooperation in Europe looks absolutely lovie-dovie compared with the acidic and vain personalities of this theatre: the bigotted but absolutely incorrigible Stillwell, the vain and effete Mountbatten, the absolutely-bonkers Wingate, not to mention the strange warlord like Chinese generals -- laws unto themselves.

The Japanese are another forgotten army. Their complete annihilation by military campaign and starvation, relegated them to the political sidelines in almost all countries. For the politicians the Japanese were defeated, what would follow -- every plan or strategem, even from early in the war seemed to be aimed at, as Churchill said "holding our own" -- ie, maintaining empire. All efforts that did not back that were to be discouraged, and the Americans were to be the either witting or unwitting supporters of such a strategy. This of course ran the British into trouble with both the Americans, who had other ideas, and the local independence movements. In all countries with the winds of war blowing against the Japanese, independence movements initially made alliances with the British based upon shifting needs. As the Japanese dissapeared as a threat full independence was really the only choice, Britain, huffing and puffing -- but it should be admitted, not largely shooting -- was preparing for the historical inevitable.

Bayly also admirably describes Empire just before the war. The almost surreal sense of superiority the locals felt, how they sipped their Gin and Collins confident that everything would and should continue even when Europe was falling apart. Both colonial and indegenious race consciousness is described. One of the most tragic forgotten armies, the story of the Eurasians who also made up the civil service of Malaya and Singapore, being accepted by no one but relied upon by everyone. Eurasian women were seen as taboo and strictly off limits to any self-respecting white who wanted to go further and be accepted in polite society. Chinese knew they were superior to Malays and Burmese Indians got it in the neck because Burmese felt they had had it too good in a land that was not theirs.

It does seem very strange indeed that our grandfathers and fathers were sometimes raised in this cultural environment that transitioned so swiftly into the post-war world of modern understanding and cultural acceptance of today. It is this consciousness of the age that Bayly reflects so well in his writing.

"Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia"

The War in Vietnam was intensified in part because of the protests, including self-immolation, of Buddhist monks. In l963, a 67-year-old Buddhist Monk, Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire at a busy interchange in Saigon, then the capital of South Vietnam. Duc was protesting the repressive measures of the US-backed Thieu regime. For the next twelve years, Vietnam occupied the attention of four American Presidencies and cost the nation billions and 60,000 lives.

Today, religious figures are protesting the repressive military regime in Burma. Burma, or "Myanmar" as its leaders prefer to call it (although the U.S refuses to recognize the name) has been under the control of military strongmen for years.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San, a nationalist hero who was assassinated by a rival in 1947, one year before Burma gained its independence. In 1988, during a visit from the UK, where she lived with her husband, she emerged as a political opposition leader. The following year she was placed under house arrest, where she has remained, on and off, for 12 of the last 18 years. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She is currently incarcerated in one of Burma's notorious political prisons.
With international sanctions and the attention of the world's press focused on it, the former British colony and scene of one of the Second World War's most intense battles has once again come to the forefront of world politics.
In their excellent history "Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia 1941-1945," Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper focus on the shameful British flight from Singapore and the political and human losses in Burma, Malaysia, India, and the rest of British Southeast Asia. Drawing on a wealth of sources including letters, diaries and records from the Japanese as well as British, they paint a discouraging picture of an empire on the brink of extinction.
They provide a detailed narrative of the flood of humanity...some say 600,000 strong...that was propelled through Asia by the advancing Japanese (or, in some cases, merely the rumor of the enemy) The Fall of Singapore was the nadir of the British Empire. Racism, elitism, ignorance, incompetence and plain stubbornness contributed to its demise.
`From the moment the first bomb fell on Rangoon on 13 December 1941 there began an exodus from Burma of the Indian, Anglo-Indian and Anglo-Burmese population which was at the time the largest mass migration in history. By the autumn of 1942 in the region of 600,000 people had fled from Burma into India by land and sea. As many as 80,000 may have perished of disease, exhaustion, or malnutrition." (Forgotten Armies: P. 167)

"Gin-swilling Sahibs" decided to destroy the Singapore compound's supply of booze before the enemy could get to it, and drank themselves silly in the process.

How often the mistakes of history are repeated when politicians ignore the past. The same scourges... war, pestilence, famine...that decimated Southeast Asia are threatening Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East today.

An excellent and well researched book on the events that spelt the begining of the end of the British Empire in Asia. The impact of the war on people who lived in the region is well depicted. Events resulting from the war such as the Fammine in West Bengal (1943-44) are given long overdue coverage they deserve. In reading this book one comes to understand why civilain casulaties were so much higher as the resutl of the war. For anyone who wants to understand how modern South East Asia was formed, a must read!

This book is a facinating retelling of the fall of the British Raj. The authors do not spare the Allies because of the misbehavior of the Japanese. One can see the consequences of the colonial attitude to the native southeast Asians--the British really did reap what they sowed. Also the authors do an excellent job of describing the terrible position of the people of Malaysia, Burma, and India--who do you support a known and hated oppressor or the new conqueror?

The Fall of British Asia is one of the better analyses of how the British Empire came under strain during the course of World War II. This accurately assesses the effect that the Japanese had on the Crescent of British power and a look at what happened to the British islands of the pacific. Although many colonial groups thought the Japanese would be their key to freedom they quickly realized how wrong they were and this book does a great job of not only showing the colonial side but the British and Japanese sides as well. These authors are two of the best within the field and they deliver another winner here. This is a great introduction to what happened to East Asia during world war II and is a great place to start.

This is a well written, fast reading work of the British Crescent. The authors comprehensively cover the actors, the decisions and the politics during the period. This book is not about detailed battle/campaign analysis, but it does offer a number of unknown pearls of information regarding the war, people and politics in general. For those studying guerrilla and or asymetrical war it offers some strategic insight. This is an excellent book that I highly recommend.

This is a very good social and political history of the region and period. However the title is extremly misleading as it, and the front cover (the paper back shows British artillerymen), suggests that the book will be about the soldiers who served and deal with the often forgotten campaign.

As it happens actual military information in this book is very thin on the ground and in my opinion several vague and unsubstantiated military assertions are made. The main content of the book is social - political information, and this part is extremely good and given the cost excellent value for money.