![]() This tactic was suggested by Japanese policy makers as one of the reasons for the currencies falling value as Japanese defeats increased. The unrestrained printing of banknotes in the final months of the war created hyperinflation with the Japanese money becoming valueless at the end of the war.ĭuring the war the Allies dropped propaganda leaflets stressing that the Japanese issued money would be valueless when Japan surrendered. When Malaya was liberated there was $500 million of uncirculated currency held by the Japanese in Kuala Lumpur. Some Japanese army units had mobile currency printing presses and no record was kept of the quantity or value of notes printed. ![]() ![]() Japanese currency officials estimated that they had put $7,000 to $8,000 million into circulation during occupation. Prior to occupation, in 1941, there was about Malaya $219 million in circulation. A ten dollar Japanese government-issued note used in Malaya and Borneoĭuring the occupation the Japanese replaced the Malayan dollar with their own version. The Allied blockade meant that both imports and the limited exports to Japan were dramatically reduced. It imported more than 50% of its rice requirements, a staple food for its population. Prior to the war Malaya produced 40% of the world's rubber and a high proportion of the world's tin. Real per capita income fell to about half its 1941 level in 1944 and less than half the 1938 level in 1945. Because Malaya produced more rubber and tin than Japan was able to utilize Malaya lost its export income. The Japanese also took the railway track from Malacca and other branch lines for construction of the Siam-Burma railway.Ībout 150,000 tons of rubber was taken by the Japanese, but this was considerably less than Malaya exported prior to the occupation. Some 73,000 Malayans were thought to have been coerced into work on the Thai-Burma Railway, with an estimated 25,000 dying. All three races were encouraged to assist Japanese war efforts by providing finance and labour. They also considered the Malays not to be a threat. The Japanese wanted the support of the Indian community to free India from British rule. Malaya's two other major ethnic groups, the Indians and Malays, escaped the worst of the initial Japanese maltreatment. A few of the Japanese occupation troops also came under attack from civilians during this period as they withdrew from outlying areas and some defected to the MPAJA.ĭuring the initial period of the Japanese occupation the Ethnic Chinese in Malaya were ill-treated by the Japanese because of their support for China in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In the period between the Japanese Emperor's announcement and the arrival of Allied forces in Malaya, the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army focused its efforts on seizing control of territory across Malaya and punishing "collaborators" of the Japanese regime. As a result, British arrangements for a gradual re-establishment of colonial administration over Malaya and the other territories were now obsolete and a vast area including Malaya, Singapore, Burma, Indonesia, British North Borneo, Thailand, Indo-China, Sarawak, and Hong Kong was free from colonial control. However, the Japanese surrendered on 15 August, weeks before the planned invasion. īy early 1945, the British had plans to invade Malaya on 9 September under the code name Operation Zipper. The first phase was to be a Military Administration that returned stability followed by a Malay Union that would bring together all the states under a single government to secure Britain's possessions in Malaya. The planning for the new administration was handled by the Civil Affairs, Malaya Planning Unit (CAMPU) and the Eastern Department of the Colonial Office under Gent. After the Japanese occupation, the British began to consider how to reconquer Malaya and reestablish colonial administration. In the 1930s, Edward Gent of the British Colonial Office was in favour of bringing these separate elements closer together. Prior to the Japanese occupation, British Malaya was divided into Federated and non-Federated states, and the Straits Settlements. North Borneo dispute ( Philippine militant attacks)
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