World War II and Southeast Asia
Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation

The first comprehensive account of the impact of Japanese occupation on Southeast Asian economies and societies during World War II.

Gregg Huff (Author)

9781107492011, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 June 2022

553 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 3 cm, 0.8 kg

'… author deserves high praise for his thorough scholarly reckoning of the occupation, a reckoning as important as it was overdue.' Peter A. Coclanis, Mekong Review

From December 1941, Japan, as part of its plan to build an East Asian empire and secure oil supplies essential for war in the Pacific, swiftly took control of Southeast Asia. Japanese occupation had a devastating economic impact on the region. Japan imposed country and later regional autarky on Southeast Asia, dictated that the region finance its own occupation, and sent almost no consumer goods. GDP fell by half everywhere in Southeast Asia except Thailand. Famine and forced labour accounted for most of the 4.4 million Southeast Asian civilian deaths under Japanese occupation. In this ground-breaking new study, Gregg Huff provides the first comprehensive account of the economies and societies of Southeast Asia during the 1941-1945 Japanese occupation. Drawing on materials from 25 archives over three continents, his economic, social and historical analysis presents a new understanding of Southeast Asian history and development before, during and after the Pacific War.

List of figures
List of tables
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Chronology of World War II in the Pacific
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Southeast Asia in the Pacific War
2. Administration and social control in Southeast Asia
3. Finance for Japan's occupation
4. National product and trade
5. Transport, public utilities and industrialization
6. Shortages, substitutes and rationing
7. Food and famine in Southeast Asia
8. Food and living standards in urban Southeast Asia
9. Labour and the Japanese
10 Costs of war and lessons of occupation
Epilogue and conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Asian history [HBJF]