Mountbatten's Samurai: Imperial Japanese Army and Navy Forces under British Control in Southeast Asia, 1945-1948

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Mountbatten's Samurai: Imperial Japanese Army and Navy Forces under British Control in Southeast Asia, 1945-1948 ‘This is an important book that uncovers some remarkable secrets… Connor is an outstanding historian of wartime Asia and he tells his story well.’ Richard J. Aldrich, author of GCHQSix weeks after Japan’s surrender in August 1945, British and Japanese troops were fighting side-by-side against nationalist revolutionaries in ‘peacekeeping’ operations in Indonesia and Vietnam. In Java, Dutch civilians cheered as their former jailors, members of the infamous kenpeitai rescued them from what had seemed certain death at the hands of armed mobs. In November 1945 a Japanese Army officer was recommended for a British Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for services rendered to South-East Asia Command after his troops helped restore order and save thousands of civilian lives.‘The Japanese may be so deployed and…drastic action including shooting should be taken against any who refuse’.Adm Mountbatten (to War Office), Kandy, 24 August 1945‘The men concerned are surely Japanese prisoners-of-war and if the War Office, in order to evade compliance with the Geneva Convention, have decided to call them something else, this should not…avoid responsibility for decent treatment.’Foreign Office, London, 18 March 1946.In August 1945 Britain accepted responsibility for the care and repatriation of over 750,000 Japanese military personnel in Southeast Asia. Short of manpower and resources in Burma and Malaya, and with its French and Dutch Allies’ colonial territories of Indo-China (FIC) and the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) embroiled in revolution, Britain found it expedient to press the Japanese—who were denied Prisoner of War (PoW) status—into military operations in support of European colonial interests and then ignore repatriation commitments by deliberately retaining over