Christopher Alan Bayly - Forgotten Armies: Britains Asian Empire and the War with Japan

PENGUIN BOOKS

FORGOTTEN ARMIES

An essential and stimulating account of this crucial time
Patrick French

A spellbinding account of Britain's Asian campaigns during World War II. Drawing on a rich trove of diaries, archives and personal accounts, the authors successfully evoke the ambience and human tragedies of an empire at ebb tide Forgotten Armies is much more than a narrative of military history; it excels at lampooning the pretensions of colonial society
Jeff Kingston, Japan Times

A model of history the book's scope is panoramic, its pace breathless Forgotten Armies answers back for those whose silence was an essential part of their servitude
Asad Latif, Sunday Times (Singapore)

Dazzling a vivid picture of the complacency and folly of British rule Herald

An original and comprehensive account of one of the least understood aspects of the War with Japan. The book will be a worthy successor and complement to Christopher Thorne's classic Allies of a Kind
Ronald Spector, author of Eagle Against the Sun: the American War with Japan

A must-read The authors deserve our congratulations
Asian Review of Books

A masterful account of the fate of British Asia during the Second World War. Far more than military or political history, the book presents a fascinating account of how individual lives and social relations changed from the heyday of the British Raj to the rise and fall of Japan's Asian empire
Akira Iriye, Charles Warren Professor of American History, Harvard University

Forgotten Armies now takes its rightful place as the definitive history of the Second World War in Southeast Asia
Roger Spiller, George C. Marshall Professor of Military History, US Army Command and General Staff College

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper are acknowledged as two of the world's leading historians of India and Southeast Asia, having written and researched widely in their respective fields.

Christopher Bayly is Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge. His books include Imperial Meridian, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire and The Birth of the Modern World, 1780 1914.

In June 2005 Christopher Bayly won the Wolfson Prize for History for his contribution to historical writing.

Tim Harper is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He is the author of the End of Empire and the Making of Malaya.

Britain's Asian Empire and the war with Japan

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

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Published by Allen Lane 2004

Published in Penguin Books 2005

Copyright Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, 2004

All rights reserved

The moral right of the authors has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-192719-0

Abdul Razak bin Hussein (b. 1922). A student at the elite Raffles College in Singapore on eve of fall of Malaya; then worked as an official in his native Pahang, where he secretly aided resistance. Second Prime Minister of Malaysia, 1970 76.

Amery, Rt Hon., Leopold, MP (b. 1873). Conservative politician and Secretary of State for India and Burma, 1940 45.

Auchinleck, General Sir Claude (b. 1884). Commander North African Front, 1940 42; Commander in Chief India, 1943 7; co-ordinated India base for the Burma campaign.

Aung San, Thakin or Bogyoke (General) (b. 1916). Leading Burmese revolutionary; commander of Burma Independence Army, 1942; Minister of Defence under Ba Maw, 1943 5. President of Anti-Fascist People's Front Freedom League. Assassinated 1947.

Ayer, S. A. Propaganda and Information Minister in Subhas Bose's Government of Free India; accompanied him on the 1945 campaigns in Burma and wrote Unto him a witness after the war.

Ba Maw (b. 1893). Lawyer, politician and Prime Minister of Burma, 1937 9. Emerged as main collaborator with Japanese 1942 and became Adipadi (First Man) of independent Burma 1943. Fled to Tokyo, imprisoned by Allies 1945.

Bennett, Major-General Henry Gordon (b. 1887). Gallipoli veteran and successful businessman. Commander of Australian Imperial Force in Malaya, 1941 2. Escaped Singapore in controversial circumstances.

Bose, Rash Behari (b. 1880 or 1886). Indian radical anti-colonialist; escaped to Japan following 1905 10 radical movement in Bengal; leader of Indian Independence leagues, East and Southeast Asia. Died 1945.

Bose, Subhas Chandra, or Netaji (leader) (b. 1897). Bengali politician and radical leader within Forward Bloc of Congress. Arrested by British 1940, fled to Berlin 1941; took over leadership of Indian National Army and Free India Government 1943. Retreated from Imphal with Japanese 1944; presumed dead in plane crash September 1945.

Bower, Ursula Graham (b. 1914). British anthropologist working among the Naga hill people of eastern Assam; helped co-ordinate local resistance; known as the Naga Queen.

Brooke-Popham, Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert (b. 1878). Brought from retirement after Governorship of Kenya, 1937 9, to become Commander in Chief, Far East, 1940 41. Replaced by Wavell in January 1942.

Chapman, F. Spencer (b. 1907). Well-known author; surveying and film-making in Arctic and Tibet. Appointed to 101 Special Training School in Singapore, and senior stay-behind officer in Malaya until arrival of Force 136. After the war, worked for the Outward Bound Trust and as a schoolmaster. He shot himself in 1973.

Chennault, Claire (b. 1890). Commander of American Air Volunteer Group (the Flying Tigers) fighting with Chiang Kai Shek against Japanese; leader of the air defence of Burma, 1942.

Chin Peng (b. 1924). Nom de guerre of Ong Boon Hua. Communist liaison officer with Force 136 in Perak, Malaya. Secretary-general of the Malayan Communist Party, 1947. Led rebellion against the colonial government in 1948 and became the most wanted man in the British Empire.