Southeast Asia 1900-45: The Rise of Nationalism

1
Southeast Asia 1900-45The Rise of Nationalism

• March 13, 2014

2
Review

• How is Communism different from Fascism?
• When did the Chinese Nationalist Party and the
  Chinese Communist Party Split?
• How did the growing war with the Japanese
  influence the images of the Nationalist Party and
  the Communist Party?

3
Korea and Taiwan in wartime

• Japan created comfort stations for its troops
  overseas. Most of the comfort women were
  Korean. (p. 419)
• Both Koreans and Taiwanese were drafted into the
  Japanese military. Some volunteered for the
  officer corps.
• There was little resistance within Taiwan or
  Korea to the war effort.

4
Cost of the war to China

• Possibly as many as 3 million soldiers killed.
• Possibly as many as 15 to 20 million civilians
  died.
• Tens of millions had become homeless over the
  course of the war.
• The economy was bankrupt, and therefore so was
  the Nationalist Party.

5
The Battle for Okinawa

• In spring, 1945, the US invaded the Japanese
  homeland, picking Okinawa as the place to
  establish a beachhead. (p. 423)
• What was the impact of the Battle of Okinawa on
  the Okinawans? Did it make them feel more
  Japanese?
• What was the impact of the Battle of Okinawa on
  the Japanese? Did it convince them to surrender?
• What was the impact of the Battle of Okinawa on
  the Americans? Did it lead to the A-bomb?

6
Two cities obliterated

• For a photo-essay on the dropping of atomic bombs
  on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, go to
• http//www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lev
  ine/bombing.htm
• For a short video of the bombing of Hiroshima, go
  to
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vNF4LQaWJRDg
• You can watch a short video on the Bombing of
  Nagasaki  The US Justification at 
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vncq_Wye43TM

7
The Atomic Bomb

• Why did the US drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
  Nagasaki?
• Were the atomic bombs worse than the
  fire-bombings that preceded them? (p. 423)
• Were such attacks on civilians justified?
• What convinced the Japanese to surrender on
  August 15? (p. 423)
• What role did the Soviet attack play in that
  decision?

8
Southeast Asia in 1940

• http//images.classwell.com/mcd_xhtml_ebooks/2005_
  world_history/images/mcd_mwh2005_0618377115_p363_f
  01.jpg

9
Japans Empire

• See map on p. 422

10
Rise of Nationalism

• Lockard defines nationalism as follows
• nationalism involved a sense of common feeling
  transcending class and ethnicity among people who
  desire to express that wider community by
  establishing an independent country. (p. 135)
• But isnt ethnicity, newly defined, an important
  feature of nationalism? And doesnt that make it
  possible for nationalism to shade over into
  racism?
• Did Japanese rule inspire nationalism in
  Southeast Asia? (Lockard, p.145)

11
the Philippines

• Under US control, the Philippines became the
  first colony to promote mass education. 65 of
  Filipinos were literate in one language or
  another by 1935. Tagalog (Filipino) was declared
  the national language in 1939.
• In 1936, the US government promised to grant the
  Philippines complete independence by 1946.
• The Japanese did not find as much support in the
  Philippines as they did in much of the rest of
  Southeast Asia.
• During the Japanese occupation, resistance to the
  Japanese took two forms a pro-American
  underground movement, and a Communist underground
  movement. The latter wanted to seize land from
  rich landlords, some of whom collaborated with
  the Japanese, and give it to landless peasants.
  (Lockard, 147)

12
Indonesia (Lockard, 135-39)

• The Dutch finally conquered Aceh in the early
  part of the 20th century, with the help of
  Javanese troops.
• In the last decades of colonial rule, a Muslim
  League and an Indonesian Communist Party
  appeared, but the lead in the nationalist
  movement was taken by Sukarnos Indonesian
  Nationalist Party. However, there were also
  movements to purify Islam as practiced by
  Indonesians. (p. 136)
• A unifying language (Bahasa Indonesian) appeared
  (p. 136)
• Sukarno was a charismatic speaker who worked hard
  to create an inclusive Indonesian identity One
  Nation, Indonesia One People, Indonesian One
  Language, Indonesian (He ignored religious
  differences) (p. 138) None of these were an
  accurate depiction of the Dutch East Indies
  before 1900.

13
Sukarno as Independence Fighterhis trial in
1930.

• http//www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.
  php/t15208.html

14
Malaya

• Most of the people on the Malay peninsula today
  are the descendants of people who immigrated from
  Indonesia, China, or India starting in the late
  19th century. The population of the Federated
  Malay states was 218,000 in 1891 but 1.7 million
  by 1931, 41 of whom were Chinese.
• Weak nationalism because Chinese identified with
  China, Malays with other Malays, Indians with
  India, etc. Imagining a new nation of Malaysia
  did not bring those three groups together.
  (Lockard, p. 144)
• The Malays began emphasizing their religion
  (Islam) and their purported local roots to
  distinguish themselves from the Chinese and the
  South Asians, and to claim that Malaysia is their
  country. A Malay Communist Party emerged, but
  the vast majority of its members were Chinese.

15
Burma (Myanmar)Lockard, pp. 141-43

• There was a long history of kingdoms in what is
  now Myanmar, but it was under the British that
  the Burmese were placed together with tribal
  peoples under one government. (Until 1937, the
  British also treated Burma as a province of India
  rather than as a separate colony) The British
  begin offering some local autonomy from 1937.
• For the Burmese, just as we will see with the
  Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, Buddhism became a vehicle
  for asserting a distinctive national identity.
  This caused tension with the Christian tribal
  peoples in the north, as well as with Chinese and
  Indians living in Burma.
• Some young Burmese formed a Burma Independence
  Army, which sought Japanese help in expelling the
  British. (p. 145)

16
Siam (Thailand) pp. 143-44.

• Changed name from Siam to Thailand in 1939
• The modernizing Thai government (especially the
  king Rama VI) used Buddhism to unify the country,
  creating a national Buddhist hierarchy. It also
  build modern schools to teach Thai identity. This
  was in the 20th century, not the 19th century.
• The military seized control of the country in
  1932 and created a constitutional monarchy. Under
  military rule, we see Thailand moving closer to
  Fascism. There was also some official
  anti-Chinese sentiment until the government
  realized it needed Chinese help in running the
  economy.

17
Indochina pp. 139-141

• Five separate administrative regions under
  overall French colonial rule Cochinchina
  (south), Annam (central), Tonkin (north),
  Cambodia, and Laos.
• Vietnamese nationalists formed a Vietnamese
  Nationalist Party modelled after the Guomindang
  (KMT) in China. It was crushed when it rose up in
  revolt in 1930.
• Then a new nationalist party arose the
  Indochinese Communist Party, led by Ho Chi Minh.
  Ho Chi Minh was able to link nationalism and
  Communist and, by doing so, create a powerful
  anti-Japanese force. (To do that, he formed a
  united front called the Viet Minh. p. 145, and p.
  148)
• Japanese did not assume direct control of
  Indochina until 1945. Before that the pro-German
  French regime ruled Indo-China.

18
Two Asian Revolutionaries

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileHo_Chi_Minh_Mao_
  Zedong_meeting.jpg
• Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh

19
The Appeal of Communismto Some Nationalists

• Communism criticized imperialism.
• It promised a chance to jump ahead of capitalist
  countries and take the lead in human history
• It offered techniques for creating highly
  disciplined revolutionary (Leninist) parties.
• However, it wasnt successful in countries in
  which one religion (Islam, Catholicism, Theravada
  Buddhism) was dominant.

20
Impact of Japanese rule
in Southeast Asia

• Showed that the West was vulnerable --The
  British, the Dutch, the Americans, and the French
  had all been defeated by an Asian people.
• The Japanese claimed to be liberating Southeast
  Asians from Western domination, and they actually
  brought some local people into their puppet
  governments.(They claimed to be promoting a
  Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere.) This
  gave local leaders a taste of self-government,
  which stimulated an even greater desire for
  self-rule.