ABSTRACT
The war came to an end in Southeast Asia in August 1945 with the capitulation of Japan to the Allies. But which war? And did it bring peace? During four years people had suffered military destruction, starvation, and forced labour but, no matter whether they were ‘resistance fighters’ or ‘collaborators’, World War II was not their war, really. Japan had swept the colonial regimes away, but this did not lead to independence as the war soon turned out to be a struggle between rival imperial powers. So while the international community was celebrating peace, a new war was in the making. Although more precisely it was a pattern of conflicts, I choose to call it ‘village war’ to emphasise its centre of gravity. The levels of violence were fluctuating, both from region to region and over time, but even when the situation appeared relatively calm, this was not peace.
