ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 starts out with an account of the Battle of Imphal and the Japanese alliance with Subhas Chandra Bose, then turns to Philippine President Jose P. Laurel’s steadfast diplomacy refusing to actively collaborate with Japan, before presenting a summary of the Indonesian “independence” issue from the beginning to aftermath. Then a couple of armed revolts—the Blitar Rebellion in Java and the Burmese National Army Uprising—are discussed as examples of attempts to undermine and overthrow the Japanese empire by colonial nationalists who had been collaborating with Japan. The author comes to the conclusion that the dissolution of the Japanese empire should be portrayed as the result of Japan not only being overpowered by the Allied forces, but also being deeply shaken by the occupiers with their stubborn colonial nationalism. Lastly, the author discusses the significance of the occupation of Southeast Asia for possibly opening the way for Japanese to reconstruct their country after the war by accepting and even embracing Western modernity, concluding that one may then wonder if the occupation was a story not so much about Japan’s liberating Southeast Asia, but about the Japanese themselves being liberated from the gridlock imposed by their own imperial bondage.
