Collaboration with Imperial Japan

[2] Some of the leaders in various Asian and Pacific territories cooperated with Japan as they wanted to gain independence from the European colonial overlords, as seen in Burma and Indonesia.

Some other collaborators were already in power of various independent or semi-independent entities, such as Plaek Phibunsongkram's regime in Thailand, which desired to become a major player in Asian politics but were restrained by geopolitics, and the Japanese maximised it to some extent.

Like their German and Italian counterparts, the Japanese recruited many volunteers, sometimes at gunpoint, more often with promises that they later broke, or from among POWs trying to escape appalling and frequently lethal conditions in their detention camps.

[19][20] In the wake of the Japanese advance, rebellious Indonesians across the archipelago killed scores of European and pro-Dutch civilians (in particular from the Chinese community)[21] and informed the invaders on the whereabouts of others,[22] 100,000 of whom would be imprisoned in Japanese-run internment camps alongside 80,000 American, British, Dutch, and Australian prisoners of war.

[17] During the occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, respectively the inaugural president and vice president of the future Republic of Indonesia, became promoters of the Japanese rōmusha forced labor scheme through the Center of the People's Power (Pusat Tenaga Rakyat; Putera) and mobilized workers for Japanese production and construction projects across Southeast Asia, such as the strategic railways on Sumatra and West Java, and along the Burma–Thailand border.

[28] Similarly, Indonesia's second president Suharto and first commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Sudirman began their military careers in the Japanese-sponsored Defenders of the Homeland (Pembela Tanah Air; PETA), which alongside the auxiliaries of the Heiho (兵補) was to assist the Imperial Japanese military in fighting off the expected Allied return to the East Indies.

[29] Hundreds of thousands served in Japanese organizations such as the propaganda institution Keimin Bunka Shidōsho (啓民文化指導所),[30] the youth movement Seinendan (青年団),[31] and the auxiliary police forces of the Keibōdan (警防団).

[32] As its fortunes turned, Imperial Japan became faced with growing resistance to its increasingly repressive occupation and began catering to the Indonesian desire for self-rule.

[33] Sumatran representation under Mohammad Syafei, Abdul Abas, and Teuku Nyak Arif would follow nearly two years later and included established nationalists such as Djamaluddin Adinegoro and Adnan Kapau Gani.

[34] In January 1944, the Center of the People's Power was replaced by the less overtly Japanese-controlled Hōkōkai (奉公会; Himpunan Kebaktian Rakjat) in a renewed attempt to increase Javanese labor and produce for the Japanese war effort.

[36] In July 1944, Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo was forced to resign and on 7 September his replacement Kuniaki Koiso made a promise of independence for "the East Indies" di kemudian hari (English: at a later date).

[37] In spite of the deteriorating military situation and a disastrous famine on Java,[38] war enthusiasm had returned to the extent that the suicide attack corps Jibakutai (自爆隊; Barisan Berani Mati) could be formed on 8 December 1944.

[20] Although it was quickly put down and possibly misattributed to nationalist fervor,[40] it factored into the Japanese realization that their window on creating an Indonesian puppet state had closed.

[41] Hoping to extend the occupation by redirecting nationalist energy towards harmless political squabbles, the military authority on Java announced the formation of the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence (Badan Penyelidik Usaha-usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan; BPUPK) on 1 March 1945.

[42] Despite meeting only twice, the plenary sessions of the BPUPK would see the formulation of Pancasila and the Jakarta Charter that would later form the basis of the preamble to the Constitution of Indonesia.

[48] In Laos, the local administration and ex-colonial Garde Indigène (Indigenous Guard, a paramilitary police force) were re-formed by Prince Phetsarath, who replaced its Vietnamese members with Laotians.

The Second Republic relied on the re-formed Bureau of Constabulary[50] and the Makapili militia to police the occupied country and fight the local resistance movement and the Philippine Commonwealth Army.

[53] Portuguese Macau became a virtual protectorate of Imperial Japan as its governor Gabriel Maurício Teixeira and local elite Pedro José Lobo attempted to maintain a balance between the demands of the Japanese consul Yasumitsu Fukui and the needs of the Macanese population, which had doubled in number due to the influx of refugees from Mainland China and Hong Kong.

[56] During the Kumul Rebellion in 1932, the Japanese secretly set up a plan to create an Islamic state with the Ottoman Prince Şehzade Mehmed Abdülkerim to be the head of the new Islamic Caliphate that spanned from Soviet Central Asia to Chinese Turkestan, with support from pro-Japanese collaborationists drawn from the Kazakh, Uzbek, Uyghur and Kyrgyz population, aiming to undermine the Soviet influence.