The substance of this paper has also been incorporated in an essay by the present author in a volume of the 21-volume series, The British Trials of the Japanese in the Far East, ed. John R. Pritchard (New York: Garland Publishing Inc., forthcoming). The author is indebted to Oka Kazuaki, Nguyên Thi Bích Ha and Vu Quôc Ca who translated with efficiency the Japanese material used in this article.

¹ Long, Ngô Vinh, Before the Revolution: The Vietnamese Peasants under the French (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London: The MIT Press, 1973), 132.Google Scholar

² Témoinages et documents français relatifs à la Colonisation français au Vietnam (Hanoi: Association Culturelle pour le Salut du Vietnam, 1945), 1:15, as quoted in Tao, VanGoogle Scholarand Thanh The Vy, Binh, Nguyên Công, Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Tám [History of the August revolution] (Hanoi: Nha Xuât Ban Su Hoc [History publishing house], 1960), 71;Google ScholarLong, Ngô Vinh, Before the Revolution, 133Google Scholarand Dam, Nguyên Khác, Su That Vê Hai Triêu Nguoi Chêt Dói Nam 1945 [The truth about the two million starved to death in 1945] (Hanoi: Viên Su Hoc Viet Nam, 1988), 126.Google ScholarThough valuable by setting out a Vietnamese version of the story as well as being so far one of the most comprehensive attempts on the subject, Nguyên Khác Dam fails to appreciate the resource-flow-mechanism within the ‘Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere’ during the ‘Greater East Asia War’. A great deal of factual information available from Vietnamese on-the-spot investigation reports is neglected while he also lacked access to relevant Japanese sources (either in Japanese or in English and French).Google Scholar

³ Tønnesson, Stein, The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1345: Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh and de Gaulle in a World at War (London: Sage, 1991), 302.Google Scholar

⁴ Though these reports pay more attention to the way Viet Minh's policy was implemented successfully or unsuccessfully in different provinces rather than the local socio-economic conditions, a comparison of their contents may shed light on the various degrees of seriousness of starvation in different localities. In that they referred to failures as well as successes with a view to drawing internal lessons, useful information might be carefully inferred from them. The series done chiefly during the Vietnam War is incomplete and several of them are in preliminary form. See also, Furuta, Motoo, ‘Tinh Hinh Nghiên Cúu O Nhât Ban Vê Tôi Ác Chiên Tranh Cua Phát Xít Nhât Tai Viêt Nam,’ [State of Researches in Japan on Japanese fascism's war crimes in Vietnam] Tap Chí Khoa Hoc—Khoa Hoc Xà Hôi [Research Bulletin — Social Sciences] (Hanoi University, 05 1988): 35–43 and 64, for the mention of how study of the above material could provide further information about the starvation in Vietnam.Google Scholar

⁵ Hatano, Sumio and Asada, Sadao, ‘From the Sino-Japanese War to the Pacific War’, in Japan and the World, 1853–1952: A Bibliographic Guide to Japanese Scholarship in Foreign Relations, ed. Asada, Sadao (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), 310–11.Google Scholar

⁶ For an example of death registration complications, see Tô, Ngô Tât, Tat Den [when the Light's Put out] (Hanoi: Mai Linh, 1938; 5th ed.Hóa, Van, 1962), in Ngô Vinh Long, Before the Revolution, 171–3.Google Scholar

⁷ See, for example, Long, Ngô Vinh, Before the Revolution, 62–4.Google Scholar

⁸ The Thanh Nghi magazine in its issue of 26 May 1945, for example, could only gather that according to a preliminary investigation in Thuong-Câm village of Thái-Ninh district of Thái-Binh province, South of Tonkin, out of a total of 900 men above the age of eighteen, 500 had starved to death whereas out of a total of 4000 old and young males, 2000 had died of starvation by May 20 1945. See Thanh Nghi, no. 110, 26 May 1945, as quoted in Tao, Van, Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Tám, 72. There was no mention of female victims in that passage. Ironically, it seemes possible that there may have been more women who had starved to death than men did.Google ScholarSee, for example, Bose, Sugata, ‘Starvation amidst Plenty: The Making of Famine in Bengal, Honan and Tonkin, 1942–45’, Modern Asian Studies 24, 4 (1990), p. 724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹ Even in a highly developed country like Great Britain, for example, a person simply declared as ‘missing’ may have actually died of other causes. See, for instance, Reid, Robert, ‘Missing Girl file reopened’, The Daily Telegraph, 25 03 1993.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Trong kim, Trân, ‘Loi Tuyên-Cáo Cua Nôi-Các Vói Quôc-Dán’ [Proclamation of the cabinet to the people], 8 05 1945, in Thanh Nghi, no. 108, 12 05 1945, p. 24.Google Scholar

¹¹ Co Giai Phóng, No. 14, 28 June 1945, as quoted in Tønnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 302.Google Scholar

¹² Nông, Viêt, Trung Bác Chu Nhât [Central-North Sunday], No. 255, 19 July 1945, as quoted in Nguyên Khác Dam, Su That Vê Hai Triêu Nguoi Chêt Dói Nam 1945, 125. Tønnesson thinks that ‘The figure of two million was mentioned by Ho Chi Minh in the Vietnamese declaration of independence on 2 September 1945, and subsequently became commonplace in Vietnamese publications’. Tønnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 293.Google Scholar

¹³ Tønnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 293.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Son, Pham Van, Viel-Su Toan-Thu [A Complete History of Vietnam] (Saigon: Thu Lân Ân Thu Quán, 1960; reprint, Taiwan: Co So Xuât Ban Dai Nam), 703.Google ScholarSmith, Ralph refers to … ‘The two million deaths which appears in communist accounts of the period … ’Google ScholarSee Smith, Ralph B., ‘The Japanese Period in Indochina and the Coup of 9 March 1945’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies [JSAS] 9, 2 (1978), p. 202.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Shiraishi, Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence and the August Revolution’ in Shiraishi, Masaya and Nish, Ian, 1945 in South-East Asia — Part Two, London: Suntory Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines & London School of Economics and Political Science, 1985, 16.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Anh, Nguyên Thé, ‘La Campagne Nord-Vietnamienne de la dépression économique de 1930 à la Famine de 1945’, in The Vietnam Forum 9 (Winter-Spring 1987): 134.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Marr, David, ‘Vietnam 1945: Some Questions’, The Vietnam Forum 6, (Summer-Fall 1985), p. 159,Google Scholarnote 7 and Vietnam 1945: the Quest for Power (forthcoming), chapter 2, unpublished manuscript, p. 28, as cited in Tønnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 293.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Decoux, Amiral, A la barre de l'Indochine, Histoire de mon gouvernement général (1940–1945) (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1949), 267.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Havens, R. H. Thomas, Fire Across the Sea: The Vietnam War and Japan, 1965–1975 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), 17.Google Scholar

²⁰ For a related review, see also, Furuta, Motoo, ‘Tinh Hinh Nghiên Cúu O Nhât Ban Vê Tôi Ác Chiên Tranh Cua Phát Xít Nhât Tai Viêt Nam’.Google Scholar

²¹ For reference to arguments in Japan, differentiating between the nature of the war in China and that in Southeast Asia, see Sumio, Hatano, ‘Japanese Foreign Policy: 1931–1945 Historiography’, in Japan and the World, 1853–1952, ed. Asada, Sadao, 223Google Scholar. For a recent balanced discussion of Japanese attitudes towards war responsibility in general, see Large, Stephen S., Emperor Hirohito and Showa Japan (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 204–22.Google Scholar

²² The fact that the Defence at the the International Military Tribunal for the Far East endeavoured to draw parallels between the Japanese occupation of French Indochina and the Allied Occupation of Iceland and the British invasions of Norway and Madagascar [Pritchard, R. John, ‘What the Historians can Find in the Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East’, in Japan and the Second World War, Discussion Paper IS/89/197, ed. Nish, Ian (London: Suntory Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines & the LSE, 1989), 9–10]Google Scholar, seemed to be one of the indications that the Pacific War was often seen as primarily a matter between Japan and other Western powers as well as China, rather than a matter between the Japanese and the Southeast Asians.

²³ Japan-Vietnam relations during the Second World War as seen from a Vietnamese angle, seem to be rather neglected. Hosoya Chihiro, for example, speaks of the present state of research in Japan and collaborative projects between Japanese and Western scholars as follows: ‘It is to be regretted, however, that these joint undertakings have been limited to collaboration with American and British colleagues. Ideally, there should be opportunities for joint research and discussions with historians from other countries in multinational projects … I should add in passing that, so far as research on bilateral relations is concerned, studies on Sino-Japanese relations are the most advanced, perhaps followed by those on Japanese-American relations … several issues have appeared that examine bilateral relations, such as Japan's relations with China, the United States, Korea, Russia and the Soviet Union, Britain, and (more recently) Australia and Canada’.See Hosoya, Chihiro, ‘Introduction: An Overview’, in Japan and the World, 1853–1952, ed. Asada, Sadao, 7–8 and 11–12.Google Scholar

²⁴ See also, for example, Thuy, Hoang Co, Viêt Su Khao Luân [Discourse on Vietnamese history], vol. 8 (Paris: Association Culturelle d'Outre-Mer, 1991), pp. 1833 and 1837.Google Scholar

²⁵ Long, Ngô Vinh, Before the Revolution, 233–8 and Sugata Bose, ‘ Starvation amidst Plenty’, 701.Google Scholar Sugata Bose perceptively points out that her study of the starvations in Bengal [of India], Honan [of China] and Tonkin [of Vietnam], in 1942–45, ‘puts into bold relief the role played by the state, fluctuations in wider economic systems and varying social structures in the translation of chronic hunger into dramatic famine and the uneven social distribution of its costs. It also highlights the role of famine in undermining the legitimacy of the state and the pre-existing social structure’, ibid., 726–7. Though the ripe conditions for revolution in Vietnam come out well in her comparative analysis, Sugata Bose tends to generalize what she sees as similarities between the starvations in Bengal, Honan and Tonkin, rather than actually pointing out fundamental differences among them. What seems neglected is that at the time that starvations rampaged, 1942–43 in Honan, March-November 1943 in Bengal, and 1943–1945 in Tonkin, only Tonkin had been under Japanese military occupation for quite a long time.

²⁶ See also Lance, , ‘Government Famine Relief in Bengal, 1943’ in The Journal of Asian Studies 47, 3 (1988), 541.Google ScholarIn one of his messages, for example, Hô Chí Minh appealed to the people in September 1945 as follows: ‘Dear Compatriots! From January to July this year, in the North, two million people have starved to death … How painful we are at our meals when we think of those who are dying of hunger! Therefore I propose to you and I will do it first: To do without a meal every ten days, that is three meals every month, and spare this rice (one tin each meal) for the poor. Thus these people will have something to eat while waiting for the next crop, and escape death. I am confident that all our compatriots out of charity are eager to respond to my proposal. Thank you on behalf of the poor.’ See ‘Letter by Ho Chi Minh to the Vietnamese People to Fight Famine, September 1945’, in Porter, Gareth (ed.), Vietnam: The Definitive Documentation of Human Decisions, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Publishers International Corporation, 1979), 72.Google Scholar

²⁷ Marr, ‘Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power’, Introduction, unpublished ms. p. 3, as cited in Tønnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 29.Google Scholar

²⁸ See, for example, Office of Strategic Services, Research and Analysis Branch, R & A No. 1715, ‘Indochina's War-time Government and Main Aspects of French Rule’, pp. 70–1. In O.S.S./State Department Intelligence and Research Reports, Part I: Japan and Its Occupied Territories during World War II (Washington, D.C.: A Microfilm Project of University Publications of America, Inc., 1977) (hereafter OSS/SDI and R Reports pt 1), Reel 12, Item 5. According to Japanese regulations, farmers were allowed to retain only a minimum amount of rice. The rest had to be sold to the Japanese at extremely low price as what was called ‘dépot rice.’ Apart from Japanese delegated food agencies, nobody was allowed to either accumulate or deal in cereals. See Quyêt, Nguyên, Ha Nôi — Tháng Tám: Hôi Ky [Hanoi — August: Memoirs] (Hanoi: Nha Xuât Ban Quân Dôi Nhan Dan, 1980), 9.Google Scholar

²⁹ James Scott, for example, applies the view of R. H. Tawney, who is referring to the Chinese circumstances in 1931, though, to help reason the Vietnamese famines in 1943–45: ‘There are districts in which the position of the rural population is that of a man standing permanently up to the neck in water, so that even a ripple is sufficient to drown him’ Scott, James C., The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1976), vii and 1–2.Google ScholarHe cites that metaphor mainly to tackle the ‘Nghê Tinh Soviets’ phenomenon in Vietnam and the ‘Saya San rebellion’ in Burma in 1930–31, however.Google Scholar See ibid., 118–49. Scott's reference to the subsistence crisis seems useful in that it helps explain why ‘There were attempts to create similar Soviets in other areas of Trung Ky [Annam or Central Vietnam] such as Quang Tri, Dong Hoi, and Quang Ngai, but they were unsuccessful.’ Khành, Huynh Kim, Vietnamese Communism, 1925–1945 (Ithaca and London: Published under the Auspices of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, by Cornell University Press, 1982), 152–4.Google Scholar

³⁰ Tønnesson, , The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 293.Google Scholar

³¹ Ministère de l'Économie Nationale, Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques, Statistique Générale de la France, Annuaire Statistique, Cinquante-sixième volume, 1940–45 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1946), 360.Google Scholar

³² République Française, Ministère des Finances et des Affaires Économiques, Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques, Direction de la Statistique Générale, Annuaire Statistique Abrégé Deuxième volume, 1949 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1950), 321 and 324.Google Scholar

³³ Annuaire Statistique Cinquante-sixième volume, 1940–1945, p. 360.Google Scholar

³⁴ Annuaire Statistique Abrégé, Deuxième volume, 1949, pp. 321 and 324.Google Scholar

³⁵ Ibid., p. 320.

³⁶ Yuichi, Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu Yonjiu Nen No Omoide [40 years of life in military uniform remembered] (Tokyo: Keiso Shuppan Saabisu Senta, 1985), 547.Google Scholar

³⁷ Shiraishi, Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence', 15–16. Shiraishi Masaya is one of the few authors that pay particular attention to the impact of Japan's policy in his meritoriously comprehensive paper. But, at the same time, the way Shiraishi organizes his narration tends to suggest that two million people perished under a seemingly confused combination of many causes, none of which were clear enough to be of prime importance.Google Scholar See Ibid., 8–16.

³⁸ For divergent emphases in appreciating the August General Insurrections, see Khánh, Huynh Kim, Vietnamese Communism, 1925–1945Google Scholarand Tønnesson, , The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945.Google Scholar

³⁹ For an ex post-facto witness account of the August General Insurrections, see Yuichi, Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu, 555–7.Google ScholarFor a recent overview of political developments in Vietnam in perspective, see Williams, Michael C., Vietnam at the Crossroads, Chatham House Papers (London: Pinter Publishers for The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1992).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Uy Ninh Binh [Ninh Binh province Party executive committee's study committee of Party history], Cuôc Van Dông Câch Mang Thdng Tarn O Ninh Binh [The preparation for and carrying out of the August revolution in Ninh Binh], (Ninh Binh: Ban Nghien Cuu Lich Su Dang Tinh Uy Ninh Binh, 1970), 44–9 and 58,Google Scholarand Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Quân Dôi, [Study committee of history of the army], Lich Su Quân Dôi Nhân Dan Viêt Nam—Tâp I (Du Thao Tóm Tàt) [History of Vietnam people's army—volume I (brief draft)] (Hanoi: Nha Xuât Ban Quân Doi Nhân Dân, 1974), pp. 147–8, for example, to see how people of a locality seriously struck by famine reacted.Google Scholar

⁴¹ To Sugata Bose, ‘The extent of crop damage occasioned by the Tonkin typhoons is indetermintate’. Sugata Bose, ‘Starvation amidst Plenty’, 702. Tønnesson also notes: ‘Bad harvests had been a recurrent phenomenon in northern Indochina, while famines were not’. Tønnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 293.

⁴² Department of State, Office of Research and Intelligence, Report No. 3499, ‘The World Rice Situation, 1945–46, With Particular Reference to the Far East’, Preliminary Confidential, Washington, D. C, 2 03 1946, Appendix L: Indochina, p. 56. In OSS/SDI and R Reports, Part II: Postwar Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia (Washington, D.C.: A Microfilm Project of University Publications of America, Inc., 1977), Reel 1, Item 1.Google Scholar

⁴³ Cúu Quôc, 4 01 1946 and Su Thât, 13 April 1946, as quoted in Van Tao, Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Tám, 178.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Cúu Quôc, 14 05 1946 and 19 July 1946,Google Scholar as quoted in ibid.

⁴⁵ Ibid.

⁴⁶ ‘The World Rice Situation, 1945–46’, (see fn 42), p.22.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Cúu Quôc 14 05 1946 and 19 July 1946 as quoted in Van Tao, Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Tám, 178.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Tønnesson, , The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 293.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Ibid., 294.

⁵⁰ Marr, ‘Vietnam: The Quest for Power’, ch. 2, unpublished ms. p. 23, as quoted in Ibid., 303.

⁵¹ Decoux, , A la bam de I'Indochine, 267.Google Scholar

⁵² See, for example, Office of Strategic Services, Research and Analysis Branch, R & A No. 2644, ‘Rough Summary of Information on Inflation in Southeast Asia’, 13 10 1944. In OSSISDI and R Reports, Part I, Reel 9, Item 18. According to Lê Hông Lân, ‘In the capital of Hanoi, prices, especially the rice price was rocketing. In October 1944, one hundred kilograms of rice cost 150 piastres. In December 1944, it was 500 piastres. In February 1945, it was 800 piastres.Google ScholarAfter the Japanese coup d'état it was up to 1000 piastres.’ Lân, Lê Hông, Nhung Ngay Khoi Nghia O Ha Nôi [Insurrection days in Hanoi] (Hanoi: Nha Xuât Ban Thanh Niên, 1975), p. 32.Google Scholar

⁵³ Office of Strategic Services, Research and Analysis Branch, R & A No. 1715, ‘Indochina's Wartime Government and Main Aspects of French Rule’, pp. 70–1.Google ScholarIn OSSISDI and Reports, 1, Reel 12, Item 5 and Marr, David G., ‘World War II and the Vietnamese Revolution’ in Southeast Asia Under Japanese Occupation, ed. McCoy, Alfred W. (New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1980), 133–4.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ See, for example, ‘Extract from the Report to the Combined Chiefs of Staff by the Supreme Allied Commander, South-East Asia, 30 06, 1947’ in [British] Foreign Office, Documents relating to British Involvement in the Indo-China Conflict, 1945–65, Command Papers 2834, December 1965, pp. 48–50 for more details.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ See, for example, Spector, Ronald H., United States Army in Vietnam—Advice and Support: the Early Years, 1941—1960 (Washington, D. C: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1983), pp. 56–65.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Yuki, Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu 547.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ See, for example, Office of Strategic Services, Research and Analysis Branch, R & A No. 1007, ‘Japanese Use of Land Transport in Southeast Asia’, 15 05 1944, p. 24. In OSSISDI and R Reports pt I, Reel 9, Item 16; ‘Rough Summary of Information on Inflation in Southeast Asia’ (see fn. 52).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Decoux, , A la bane de l'Indochine, 267. H o a n g Co Thuy considers American air raids only as an additional factor.Google ScholarCo, Hoang, Viêt Su Khao Luân, p. 1837.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ See, for example, Tønnesson, , The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 294.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Yuki, Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu, 547.Google Scholar

⁶¹ ‘Japanese Use of Land Transport in Southeast Asia’, 15 05 1944, p. 28 (see fn 57);Google Scholarand Shiraishi, Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence’, 9.Google Scholar

⁶² Yuki, Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu, 547.Google Scholar

⁶³ Ibid., 502.

⁶⁴ Department of State, Office of Intelligence Coordination and Liaison (OCL), Intelligence Research Report, OCL-3794 ‘Economic Reconstruction in the Far East’, 08 10, 1946, Secret/control, US Officials Only, p. 99. In OSS/SDI and R Reports pt II, Reel 1, Item 2. By the time the above report was made, the French had been able to transport only 1,600 tons of rice to famine-threatened Tonkin, ‘and most of this was requisitioned by Chinese or stolen by dock workers’, whereas ‘rice stocks in Saigon-Cholon have been almost exhausted’. Also, ‘Incoming shipments are small because of the scarcity of lighters, the necessity for French patrols to protect each shipment from guerrilla raids, and actual guerrilla control of a portion of the rice area’. See ‘The World Rice Situation, 1945–46’ (see fn 42), pp. 57–8.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Shiraishi, Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence’, 17;Google ScholarTønnesson, , The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 295.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Tønnesson, , The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 295.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Ky-Nam, Nguyên, Hôi-Ky 1925–1064, Tâp II: 1945–1954, [Memoirs 1925–1964, volume II: 1945–1954] (Saigon: Nhut-báo Dân Chu Mói, 1964), 65–6.Google Scholar

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⁶⁹ ‘Japanese Use of Land Transport in Southeast Asia’, 15 05 1944, p. 28 (see fn 57).Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Ibid., p. 25.

⁷¹ Hattori, Colonel Takushiro and others, ‘History of Imperial General Headquarters, Army Section,’ [Japanese Monograph No. 45,] pp. 49–53 in War in Asia and the Pacific, ed. Detwiler, Donald S. and Burdick, Charles B. (New York: Garland, 1980), vol. 3.Google Scholar

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⁷³ An American intelligence report later also observed: ‘In the early days of occupation, Japanese firms were interested in promoting trade among the countries of southern Asia, and the Japanese administration encouraged the conclusion of trade agreements between various countries’. ‘Japanese Use of Land Transport in Southeast Asia’, p. 28 (see fn 57).Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Gaimusho Futsu In Shigen Chyosa Dan [Delegation of the Foreign Ministy for investigation of French Indochinese resources], ‘Futsu In Shigen Chyosa Sokatsu Hookoku Sho’ [General report on the investigation of resources in French Indochina], 07 1942, p. 5. Tokyo, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Archives.

⁷⁵ Ibid., p. 5.

⁷⁶ For figures, see, for example, Foreign Trade of Japan: A Statistical Survey (Tokyo: The Oriental Economist, 1935;Google ScholarFacsimile reprint, Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Shimposha, 1975), pp. 349–50 and 359–60;Google ScholarBoekikyoku, Shokosho [Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Foreign Trade Bureau], ‘Hompo Tai—Indoshina—Boeki shinho—Shisetsu Ni Kansuru Kosatsu’ [Investigation of the base for promotion of Japanese trade with Indochina], 1938, p. 14,Google Scholarand Roth, Andrew, ‘French Indochina in Transition, 1938–1941’, in Roger Levy, Guy Lacam and Andrew Roth, French Interests and Policies in the Far East (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, International Secretariat, 1941; AMS reprint edition, 1978), 202.Google Scholar

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⁷⁹ Regarding rubber and tin, for example, at the 36th Liaison Conference of 06 30, 1941, Chief of the Bureau of Military Affairs Muto opposed Foreign Minister Matsuoka's insistence on attacking the Soviet Union instead of occupying Southern French Indochina, by reasoning that: ‘It is by occupying southern French Indochina that we can acquire rubber and tin’.Google ScholarRecord of the 36th Liaison Conference of June 30, 1941, in Japan's Decision for War: Records of the 1941 Policy Conferences, translated and edited by Ike, Nobutaka (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967), 72. Testifying to the International Military Tribunal after the Pacific War, Japanese leaders explained that the main reason for their occupation of French Indochina was to ensure that they obtained its rice, rubber and tin.Google ScholarSee Feis, Hebert, The Road to Pearl Harbor (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950; Seventh Hardcover Printing, 1971), 233–4.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Futsu, Gaimusho In Shigen Chyosa Dan, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Ibid., p. 6.

⁸² Ibid., pp. 17–18.

⁸³ Ibid., p. 19.

⁸⁴ Khánh, Huynh Kim also mentions: ‘Meanwhile, to fulfill military requirements, farmers in Bac Ky [Tonkin] were made to plant oil seeds and peanuts (to produce hydrocarburants), cotton, and jute instead of rice. Ironically, most of the conversion occurred in Bac Ky, which had to depend on rice supply from Nam Ky [Cochinchina]. Only early in 1944 was the conversion mandated in Nam Ky.’ Huynh Kim Khánh, Vietnamese Communism, 1925–1945, 299.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Futsu, Gaimusho In Shigen Chyosa Dan, p. 31.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Annuaire Statistique, Cinquante-sixième volume, 1940–1945, 360.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Futsu, Gaimusho In Shigen Chyosa Dan, p. 19.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Shiraishi, Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence’, 15.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ See Murakami, Sachiko, ‘Japan's Thrust into French Indochina 1940–1945’ (Ph. D. diss., New York University, 1981), 387–401, for more details.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ It was noted in his memorandum of 03 21, 1942 to the British War Cabinet: ‘Her [Japan's] conquests have already secured to her all the raw materials she needs except lead (which is available in Burma and Australia), wool (which is available in Australia, Chile, Peru and Argentina), cotton (which is available in India, Peru and Brazil) and copper (which is available in Chile and Peru)’. Memorandum by the Minister of Economic Warfare ‘Allied Economic Warfare Strategy in 1942’, W. P. (42) 126 March 21, 1942, CAB 66/23, London, Public Record Office.

⁹¹ Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Ha-Tây, [Ha-Tay province study committee of party history], So Thao Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Ha-Dông—Son-Tây [Brief history of the August Revolution in Ha-Dông—Son-Tây province] (Ha Tay: Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Ha-Tây, 1967), 71.Google Scholar

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⁹³ See also Ienaga, Saburo, The Pacific War, 1931–1945 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, 1968; English translation, New York: Pantheon Books, 1978), 178.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Shiraishi, Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence’, 15.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Marr, , ‘Vietnam 1945: the Quest for Power’, ch. 2, ms. p. 22, note 89,Google Scholaras cited in Tønnesson, , The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 293 and 302.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Ministére de la France d'Outre-Mer, Service des Statistiques & Ministére des Finances et des Affaires Économiques, Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques, Annuaire Statistique de l'Union Française Outre-Mer, 1939–1946, Chapitre F—Agriculture, Élevage, Forêts (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale de France, 1949), F-76,Google Scholarand Ministère de la France d'Outre-Mer & Ministère Chargé des Relations avec les États Associés, Service des Statistiques & Ministére des Finances et des Affaires Économiques, Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques, Annuaire Statistique de l'Union Francaise Outre-Mer, 1939–1949, Tome Premier (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale de France, 1951), F-371.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Shiraishi, Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence’, 15.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Ministère de la France d'Outre-Mer (see fn 96), F.77.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Ibid., F-76, 77, 78, 79.

¹⁰⁰ Annuaire Statistique, Cinquante-sixiéme volume, 1940–45, 360.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Annuaire Statistique Abrégé, Deuxième volume, 1949, 324.Google Scholar

¹⁰² From around 1943, more and more Japanese companies in French Indochina, which hitherto had carried out mainly trading activities, began to switch to production. The Japanese companies began to cultivate jute, castor beans, hemp, flax, cotton. In early 1943, the Japanese Jute Cultivation Association was organized under the guidance of the Japanese Embassy in Hanoi. See Murakami, , ‘Japan's Thrust into French Indochina 1940–1945’, 387–401 for more details. The ‘Indochina Jute Planting Association’, comprising of twenty-two Japanese firms, was responsible for ‘the cultivation and manufacture of jute and ramie’. The ‘North Indochina Timber Control Guild’ comprising of six firms; the ‘Indochina Lacquer Exporters Guild’ and the ‘Indochina Pinegums Federation’ were responsible for ‘the Japanese purchase and supply of their respective products’. ‘Indochina's War-time Government’, pp. 71–2 (see fn 28). Several Vietnamese provincial studies, as referred to earlier, indicated that crop shifting was forced on the peasants from essentially 1943. See also Table 1.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Duc, Hoang Van, Comment la révolution a triomphé de la famine, 1946, p. 6, as quoted in Nguyên Khác Dam, Su That Vê Hai Triêu Nguoi Chêt Dói Nam 1945, 121. See also Marr, ‘World War II and the Vietnamese Revolution’, 154.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ See also Son, Pham Van, Viet-Su Toan-Thu [A Complete History of Vietnam] (Saigon: Thu Lân Ân Thu Quán, 1960; reprint, Taiwan: Co So Xuât Ban Dai Nam), 703Google Scholarand Thuy, Hoang Co, Viêt Su Khao Luân (see fn 24), vol. 8, p. 1837.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Uy Ninh Binh [Ninh Binh province Party executive committee's study committee of Party history], Cuôc Van Dông Cách Mang Tháng Tam O Ninh Binh [The preparation for and carrying out of the August revolution in Ninh Binh], (Ninh Binh: Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Uy Ninh Binh, 1970), 22–3.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., 23.

¹⁰⁷ Ibid., 23. Several natives were executed at Nam Dan market (Kim Son district,) and Rông market in Ninh Binh's provincial capital, Ibid., 42. Airfields and military bases in French Indochina claimed large areas of cultivated land. In late 1943, for example, the Japanese intended to appropriate the Ngoc-Trúc field, comprising the lands of five villages: Ngoc-Trúc, Van-Phúc, La-Ca, La-Khê, Dai-Mô (Hoai Dúe district, Ha Dông province) to set up an aerodrome. With the backing of the communists, local people from landless to land owners and junior local officials staged a big protest movement, during which more than seven thousand objection letters signed by individuals and groups were forwarded to the provincial administraton. See Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Ha-Tay [Ha-Tay province study committee of party history], So Thao Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Tam Ha-Dong—Son-Toy [Brief history of the August Revolution in Ha-Dong—Son-Tay province] (Ha Tay: Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Ha-Tay, 1967), 72.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Cuôe Van Dong Cách Mang Tháng Tam O Ninh Binh, 24.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ As cited in Ibid., 24. For a long account of the Vietnamese starvation in verse, see, for example, Lân, Bàng Bá, ‘Dói’ [Hunger] in Hôàg Bay Mây Lá [Pink Leaves Flying] (Paris: Lá Bôi, 1975), 13–17.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Cuôc Van Dong Cách Mang Tháng Tam O Ninh Binh, 43.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Mitsubishi Shioji Kabushiki Gaishia [Mitsubishi trading limited company], Kinbubu Bu Kooseki Ka [Metal department, mineral section], ‘Futsuryo Indo narabinhi Ranryo Indo no Koosan Shigen Gaikyo Hookoku’ [Approximate report of mineral resources of French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies], Top Secret, June 1940, pp. 2–7, Tokyo, Defence Agency, Military History Department.

¹¹² Futsu, Gaimusho In Shigen Chyosa Dan, p. 6.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Ibid., p. 23. In Bác-Thái province and 1941 alone, for example, 168 tons of manganese ore and 5, 500 of lead ore were exploited. Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Bác Thai [Bác Thai province study committee of Party history], Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Tarn Tinh Bác-Thai [History of the August Revolution in Bác-Thái province] (Bac-Thai: Ban Nghiên Cún Lich Su Dang Bác Thai, 1978), 16.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ It was pointed out in 1938 that 70% of all Japanese import items from Indochina went out through Saigon port. Shokosho Boekikyoku, ‘Honpo Tai—Indoshina—Boeki shinho—Shisetsu Ni Kansuru Kosatsu,’ 15.

¹¹⁵ ‘Japanese Use of Land Transport in Southeast Asia’ (see fn 57), p. 24.

¹¹⁶ Ibid., pp. 24–5.

¹¹⁷ Ibid., p. 25.

¹¹⁸ Office of Strategic Services, Research and Analysis Branch, R & A No. 1286, ‘Selection of S. O. Objectives in the Southeast Asia Theatre’, 11 November 1943, Appendix, p. 15. In OSS/SDI and R Reports, Reel 9, Item 14.

¹¹⁹ ‘Japanese Use of Land Transport in Southeast Asia’, p. 16.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Ibid., pp. ii-iii.

¹²¹ In so far as a comparable case of Malaya was concerned, for example, it was observed: ‘The most important land movement might occur in rice going south to Malaya but this southward flow could be regulated so as not to conflict with the movements of raw materials out of Malaya by rail if that should ever become necessary. Ibid., pp. 28–9.

¹²² [British] Naval Intelligence Division, Indo-China (B. R. 510 [Restricted] Geographical Handbook Series), December 1943, 353.

¹²³ For more details, see Foreign Trade of Japan: A Statistical Survey, pp. 390–1.Google Scholar

¹²⁴ [British] Naval Intelligence Division, Indo-China, 353.

¹²⁵ Nguyên Khác Dam, Su That Vê Hai Triêu Nguoi Chêt Dói Nam 1945, pp. 70–1.Google ScholarSee also Gauthier, Julien, L'Indochine au travail dans la paix française (Paris, 1949), p. 290Google Scholarand Annuaire Statistique Abrégé, Deuxiéme volume, 1949, 327.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ Gauthier, , L'Indochine au travail dans la paix française, p. 290.Google Scholar

¹²⁷ Decoux, , A la barre de l'Indochine, 430.Google ScholarSee also Dam, Nguyên Khác, Su That Vê Hai Triêu Nguoi Chêt Dói Nam 1945, pp. 70–1, for related information.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ By the summer of 1943, American submarines along the French Indochina coast sank more and more Japanese ships en route from Saigon and Sumatra, laden with rice, oil, tin and rubber. On all fronts, the average was one ship sunk a day. Hoyt, Edwin P., Japan's War (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986), 376.Google ScholarGeneral Yuki, Tsuchihashi, for example, cites one example in his memoirs: ‘On 01 10, 1945, an American mobile fleet suddenly appeared in the waters of the South China Sea, attacked and sank a whole group of Japanese transport vessels which were anchoring at Cap Saint Jaques, south of Saigon.’ Tsuchihashi Yuki, Gunpuku Seikatsu, 517.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ By late 1944, Japan had been suffering from a severe lack of supplies. Not much rice could be safely transported from French Indochina and Thailand through the American blockade. The modest supply of shipping was now almost completely devoted to military purposes. Hoyt, P., Japan's War, 367.Google Scholar

¹³⁰ See also Son, Pham Van, Viêt-Su Toan-Thu, 703Google Scholarand Thuy, Hoáng Co, Viêt Su Khao Luân, pp. 1833 and 1837.Google Scholar

¹³¹ ‘Copy of telegram from Commander-in-Chief, China to Admiralty, timed 0325/1st 05, 1941.’ F. E. (41) 67, 6th May, 1941, CAB 96/3, London, Public Record Office. The importance of supplies of rice from Indochina to Hong Kong was also pointed out in that an alternative supply of rice to Hong Kong was available in Burma, ‘but there are clear advantages in getting it from Indo-China from point of view of saving shipping’Google Scholar.See ibid.

¹³² Daito A Sho, Nan Po Jimukyoku [Ministry of Greater East Asia, Secretariat for the ‘South’], ‘Futsu In Shigen Chyosa Dan Hookoku Dai Nhi Shiuu (Kono Ichi):Nosan Shigen’ [Report on the investigation of resources in French Indochina—Volume II (Part I): Agricultural resources], 03 1943, p. 41.Google Scholar

¹³³ ibid.

¹³⁴ ibid. pp. 41–3.

¹³⁵ Ibid., pp 40–1.

¹³⁶ Katayanagi, Shinkichi, Nippon senji shokuryo seisaku [Japan's wartime food supply] (Tokyo: Ito Shoten, 1942), p. 264, as quoted in Yukichika Tabuchi, ‘Indochina's Role’, 98.Google Scholar

¹³⁷ Weekly Resume (No. 128) of the Naval, Military and Air Situation from 0700 February 5th, to 0700 February 12th, 1942, W.P.(42)74 (also COS, (42) 104), February 12, 1942, CAB 66/22, London, Public Record Office.

¹³⁸ Lt. Sukai, Colonel Tateki and others, ‘French Indo-China Area Operations Record,’ [Japanese Monograph No. 25,] pp. 10–11 in War in Asia and the Pacific, vol. 6.Google Scholar

¹³⁹ ibid.

¹⁴⁰ See Shiraishi, Masaya and Furuta, Motoo, ‘Taiheiyo Senso Ki No Tai Indoshina Seisaku: Sono Futatsu No Tokuisei o Megutte’ [Two features of Japan's Indochina policy during the Pacific War], in Ajia Kenkyu [Asian Studies] 23, 3 (1976), 1–37.Google Scholar

¹⁴¹ Nguyên Khác Dam, Su That Vê Hai Triêu Nguoi Chit Ddi Nam 1945, 57.

¹⁴² Yuki, Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu, 516.Google Scholar

¹⁴³ Kido's diary entry of 01 24, 1941, in transcripts of the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, in The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, vol. 13: Transcript of the Proceedings in Open Session/Pages 30, 421–32, 971, annotated, compiled and edited by Pritchard, R. John and Zaide, Sonia Magbanua (New York & London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1981), p. 30, 917.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁴ Joint Army-Navy Intelligence Study of Indochina: People and Government (see fn. 92).

¹⁴⁵ Fukai, Eigo, Sumitsuin juyo giji oboegaki [Memoranda on important Privy Council matters] (Tokyo: Iwami Shoten, 1953), p. 160, as quoted in Yukichika Tabuchi, ‘Indochina's Role’ (see fn 92), 101.Google ScholarSee also Decoux, , A la barre de l'Indochine, 427–8;Google ScholarTranscripts of the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, in The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol.3, p. 6725;Google Scholarand Nguyên Khác Dam, Su That Vê Hai Triêu Nguoi Chêt Dôi Nam 1345, 56–9 and Hoang Co Thuy, Viêt Su Khao Luân, p. 1833 for related discussion about the treaties.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁶ Document No. 51021, by Major General Okada, Kikusaburo, ‘Japan's Prewar Material Potential and the Resolve to Fight the United States and Great Britain,’ 24 and 26 in War in Asia and the Pacific, vol. 2.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁷ ‘Economic Policies for the Southern Areas adopted by the Liaison Conference of 12 December 1941,’ in Lebra, (ed.), Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in World War II, pp. 116–17.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁸ Tsuchihashi, , Gunpuku Seikatsu, 547.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁹ ibid.

¹⁵⁰ See for example, État Français, Ministère de l'Économie Nationale et des Finances, Service National des Statistiques, Statistique Génerale, Annuaire Statistique Abrégé, Premier Volume (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1943), 194.Google Scholar

¹⁵¹ Annuaire Statistique, Cinquante-sixième volume, 1940–45, 360.Google ScholarThe low Cambodian and Lao yields may help explain why it is noted by Bastin, John and Benda, Harry J. that Laos and Cambodia were ‘marginal to Japanese designs’. John Bastin and Harry J. Benda, A History of Modern Southeast Asia (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1968), 136.Google Scholar

¹⁵² A Japanese of some present political influence, who had lived in Vietnam and witnessed the starvation there during the Greater East Asia War, expressed his opinion to the present author that ‘The War must be won first!’

¹⁵³ The Ministry of Greater East Asia, which took over the task of the Foreign Ministry's investigation mission, subsequently noted that in Cochinchina and Cambodia there were still new lands not previously cultivated, the state of which was due to the lack of labour. Commenting on the French colonial administration's plan to move people from the densely-populated Tonkin area to the South to create domestic colonies, the Ministry of Greater East Asia mission contended that: ‘The opening up of such a vast area by a people who possess no will and determination like the Annamese seems fictitious. It is therefore best to have the Taiwanese, who are richly experienced with tropical agriculture, moved there together with Taiwanese entrepreneurs’. Daito A Sho, Nan Po Jimukyoku, ‘Futsu In Shigen Chyosa Dan Hookoku Dai Nhi Shiuu (Kono Ichi): Nosan Shigen’, p. 21.

¹⁵⁴ Murakami, Sachiko, ‘Japan's Thrust into French Indochina 1940–1945’, 365–6 and 375–6.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁵ The delegation of the Japanese Foreign Ministry for ‘Investigation of French Indochinese Resources’, which had been formed in September 1941 and arrived in the colony in November 1941, as partly referred to earlier, noted in its report of 30 July 1942 the possibility of expanding both the rice cultivation area in the Tonkin delta and that surrounding Saigon. Gaimusho Futsu In Shigen Chyosa Dan, p. 16.

¹⁵⁶ ‘Indochina's War-time Government’, pp. 71–2 (see fn 28).Google Scholar

¹⁵⁷ ibid. Ironically Mitsui stores were where the indigenous starved to death. Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu, 547.

¹⁵⁸ ‘Indochina's War-time Government’, pp. 71–2 (see fn 28).Google Scholar

¹⁵⁹ See Murakami, , ‘Japan's Thrust into French Indochina 1940–1945’, 387–401 for details.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁰ Decoux, , A la bane de l'Indochine, 430.Google Scholar

¹⁶¹ ‘Indochina's War-time Government,’ p. 70.Google Scholar

¹⁶² Ibid.,

¹⁶³ The cultivation of caster-oil plants was forcibly implemented in Vinh Phúc province, for example, as early as 1942, however. See Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Vinh-phúc [Vinh-phúc province study committee of Party history], So Thao Lich Su Cdch Mang Thdng Tarn Tinh Vinh Phuc (1939–1945) [Brief history of the August Revolution in Vinh Phuc province (1939–1945)] (Vinh-phúc: Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang, 1966), 32–3 and 54 for more details.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁴ Further, wherever the Japanese troops were stationed, the practice of intimidations, pillage, killings and rapes were common. See Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Ha-Tay, [Ha-Tay province study committee of party history], So Thao Lich Su Cách Mang Thdng Tarn Ha-Dong-Son-Tay [Brief history of the August Revolution in Ha-Dong-Son-Tay province] (Ha Tay: Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Ha-Tay, 1967), 69.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁵ Ibid., 207.

¹⁶⁶ ‘Indochina's War-time Government–1.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁷ Ibid., p. 68. See also Marr, ‘World War II and the Vietnamese Revolution’, 133–4.

¹⁶⁸ TsuchihashiYuki, , Gunpuku, Seikatsu, 504–5.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁹ Gallagher saw this ‘as a lie’, however. See ‘memorandum of conversation by Richard L. Sharp, division of Southeast Asian Affairs, 01 30, 1946,’ in Vietnam: The Definitive Documentation of Human Decisions, vol. 1, ed. Porter, Gareth, 93.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁰ See also Headquarters of Japanese Southern Army, ‘History of the 38th Army’ Exhibit No. 663 in transcripts of the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, in The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, vol. 3, p. 7181 for related information.Google Scholar

¹⁷¹ Dũng, Búi Minh, ‘Japan-Vietnam Relations: French Indochina in Japanese Geopolitical-Strategic Perspectives During the Second World War’ (M.A. thesis, International University of Japan, 03 1991), p. 119.Google Scholar

¹⁷² Tabuchi, Yukichika, ‘Indochina's Role’ (see fn 92) 99.Google Scholar

¹⁷³ [United States Army], Headquarters, Far East Command, Military History Section, Special Staff, Lt. Sukai, Colonel Tateki and others, ‘French Indochina Area Operations Record’ [Japanese Monograph No. 25], Tokyo, 1952, pp. 12–13, in War in Asia and the Pacific, vol. 6.Google Scholarsee also See Dũng, Búi Minh, ‘Japan-Vietnam Relations’ pp. 119–20.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁴ Tabuchi, Yukichika, ‘Indochina's Role’, 100.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁵ Ministére de la France d'Outre-Mer, Service des Statistiques & Ministére des Finances et des Affaires Économiques, Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques, Annuaire Statistique de L'Union Française Outre-Mer, 1938–48, Chapitre J—Commerce Extérieur (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale de France, 1948), J-166.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁶ United States Army, Japan, Assistant Chief of Staff, G3, Foreign Histories Division, Hattori, Colonel Takushiro and others, ‘History of Imperial General Headquarters, Army Section’ [Japanese Monograph No. 45], Tokyo, revised 1959, p. 250, in War in Asia and the Pacific, vol. 3. By the end of 01 1945, the Imperial General Headquarters had instructed the Southern Army about the methods relating to lines of communications, especially underlining the fact that the Southern Army had to be ‘fully self-sufficient’.Google ScholarIbid., pp. 250–1.

¹⁷⁷ Yuki, Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu, 507.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁸ See Allen, Louis, ‘The Japanese Coup of 9 March 1945 in Indo-China’, in 1945 in South-East Asia—Part One (London: Suntory-Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines & the LSE, 1985), 19.Google ScholarIn the earlier half of 1944, the Japanese demanded that the Government General of French Indochina supply ¥310 millions to the occupation army. Rice supplies to the occupation forces were determined as equal to ¥64 millions which was subtracted from the above amount, making ¥246 millions the sum to be submitted in the first half of 1944. By early 03 1945, the Japanese received ¥100 millions out of the agreed target of ¥150millions.Google Scholaribid. Marr, David noted the total accumulated sum of 723 million piastres by 03 1945. Marr, ‘World War II and the Vietnamese Revolution’, 133. According to Shiraishi, ‘during the five months after the Japanese coup, Indochina provided another 700 million piastres, about three times as much as the yearly revenue of Indochina's general budget in 1945’.Google ScholarShiraishi, Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence’, 11. Part of such funds was said to have been paid back to the Government in Paris after the war. Nguyên Khác Dam, Su That Vê Hai Triêu Nguoi Chêt Dói Nam 1945. 72–3.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁹ [United States Army], Headquarters, Far East Command, Military History Section, Special Staff, Lt. Sukai, Colonel Tateki and others, ‘French Indochina Area Operations Record’ [Japanese Monograph No. 25], Tokyo, 1952, p. 13, in War in Asia and the Pacific, vol. 6.Google ScholarSee also Marr, , ‘World War II and the Vietnamese Revolution’, 133–4, for related discussion.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁰ Tsuchihashi, , Gunpuku Seikalsu, 504–5.Google Scholar

¹⁸¹ Kido's Diary Entry of 01 13, 1945 in Exhibit 3340-Kido's affidavit, in The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, vol. 13: Transcript of the Proceedings in Open Session/Pages 30, 421–32, 971 (see fn 143), p. 31,112.Google Scholar

¹⁸² [Koiso Kuniaki's] Defense Document 2531-Exhibit 3375 in transcripts of the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, in The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, vol. 13, pp. 32, 243–4.Google ScholarSee also Allen, Louis, ‘The Japanese Coup of 9 03 1945 in Indo-China’, 16.Google Scholar

¹⁸³ Ibid., 16–17.

¹⁸⁴ Tsuchihashi, , Gunpuku Seikatsu, 516.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁵ Ky-Nam, Nguyên, Hôi—Ky 1925–1964, Tâp II: 1945–1954, [Memoirs 1925–1964, vol. II: 1945–1954] (Saigon: Nhut-báo Dân Chu Mói, 1964), 168–9Google Scholarand Hoe, Pham Khác, Tu Triêu Dinh Hué Dên Chiên Khu Viêt Bac [From the Hué court to the Viêt Bac resistance zone] (Hue: Nha Xuât Ban Thuân Hóa, third printing, revised edition, 1987), 14–18.Google Scholar

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¹⁸⁷ See Headquarters of Japanese Southern Army, ‘History of the 38th Army’ Exhibit No. 663 in transcripts of the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, in The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, vol. 3, pp. 7, 180–1.Google ScholarSee also Elsbree, Willard H., Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements, 1940 to 1945 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1953), pp. 25–6. Even as late as in 1965, such a strain in Japanese attitude towards genuine independence was reflected in the argument by playwright Fukuda Tsuneari, for example, who contended that Vietnam was not ready to be on her own, pointing out that allowing Vietnamese independence would be ‘more criminal and cruel than what the United States is doing in Vietnam—including the bombing of the North’.Google ScholarTsuneari, Fukuda, ‘Let's Not Make the United States Stand Alone,’ in Journal of Social and Political Ideas in Japan 4:1 (04 1966), p. 82 as quoted in Havens, Fire Across the Sea, 31.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁸ See Kim, Trân Trong, ‘Loi Tuyên-Cáo Cua Nôi-Các Vói Quôc-Dân’ [Proclamation of the cabinet to the people,] 05 8, 1945, in Thanh Nghi, no. 108, May 12, 1945, p. 24Google Scholarand Hoe, Pham Khác, Tu Triêu Dinh Hué Dên Chiên Khu Viêt Bac [From the Hué court to the Viêt Bac resistance zone] (Hué: Nha Xuât Ban Thuân Hóa, third printing, revised edition, 1987), 37–8.Google ScholarKim, Trân Trong however later deliberately omitted this part of the ‘Proclamation’ in the appendix of his memoirs. See Pham Khac Hoe, 37–8.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁹ See Hoe, Pham Khác, Tu Triêu Dinh Hué Dên Chiên Khu Viêt Bac, 37–8. An ex Japanese official who had lived in Vietnam during the Greater East Asia War told the present author: ‘The War must be won first!’.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁰ See Kim, Trân Trong, Mót Con Gió Bui (Kiên Van Luc) [A gust of wind and dust], completed in 1949, (Sai Gon: Vinh Son, 1969), 90–1.Google ScholarHe wrote in exile in Phnom Penh in 1949: ‘Japan used to be a country of [our] same East Asian culture, but later had followed Europeanization, using malicious means to expand its imperialism. Japan had earlier annexed Korea and Manchuria, later also wanted to invade China and other Asian countries, occupied by the Europeans. Though using slogans such as ‘allies and the same race’ and the name of ‘liberating the oppressed people,’ the dark designs of the Japanese were to draw all benefits to them. Their policies were, therefore, full of contradictions. Their deeds did not match their words. Their policy was that of hegemony, which is very fashionable in today's world. They used humanitarian words to lure people into their trap, making it easy for them to rule. What they did, in fact was for their own interests, not at all for justice’. Kim, Trân Trong, Mot Con Gió Bui, 12.Google Scholar

¹⁹¹ See Bao-Dai, , Sa Majesté, Le dragon d'Annam (Paris: Plon, 1980), 108–9.Google ScholarSee also Yuki, Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu, 541.Google Scholar

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¹⁹³ Decoux, , A la barre de l'Indochine, 449 and Nguyên Khác Dam, Su That Vê Hai Triêu Nguoi Chêt Dói Nam 1945, 123.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁴ ‘Rapport de…Mordant sur ses fonctions de Délégué Général en Indochine’, Hanoi 6.10.45, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Paris, Fonds États Associés, C. 20, d. 342, as cited in Tønnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of August 1945, 303.Google ScholarSee also Son, Pham Van, Viet-Su Toan-Thu, 703 and Hoang Co Thuy, Viêt Su Khao Luân, p. 1837 for related discussions. At the time of the 9 03 1945 Coup d'état, there were about 40,000 European civilians in Indochina. Soon after the coup, around 8,500 French soldiers and colonial troops were imprisoned.Google ScholarSee Smith, Ralph B., ‘The Japanese Period in Indochina and the Coup of 9 March 1945’ JSAS, 9, 2 (1978), pp. 282 and 287.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁵ By the end of the war, there were about 110,000 Japanese troops in French Indochina and about 693,000 in the whole Southern Area. For details, see Note by the Secretary of the Defence Committee ‘Feeding of Japanese Forces on Surrender’, DO (45) 11, 7th 09, 1945, CAB 69/7, London, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁶ Nitz, Kiyoko Kurusu, ‘Independence without Nationalists? the Japanese and Vietnamese Nationalism during the Japanese Period, 1940–1945,’ in JSAS (Singapore), XV, 1 (03 1984): 129.Google ScholarSee also Son, Pham Van, Viet-Su Toan-Thu, 703 and Hoang Co Thuy, Viêt Su Khao Luân, pp. 1833 a nd ‘837 for related discussions.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁷ Ienaga, Saburo, The Pacific War, 1931–1945, 178.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁸ ‘Therefore people had to starve in Mitsui store’, explained Tsuchihashi. See Yuki, Tsuchihashi, Gunpuku Seikatsu, 547. Mitsui was the company that was authorized to control ‘Japanese purchases of food stuffs’, as referred to earlier.Google Scholar

¹⁹⁹ Nguyên Quyêt, Ha Nôi—Tháng Tám: Hôi Ky (see fn. 28 ), 9.Google ScholarSee also Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Nam Ha [Nam Ha province study committee of Party history], So Thao Lich Su Dang Bo Nam Dinh-Ha Nam [Brief history of Party in Nam Dinh-Ha Nam provinces] (Nam Ha: Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Nam Ha, 1970), 81 and 168.Google Scholar

²⁰⁰ In May 1945, for example, a fight took place in Gia village (Dan-Phuong district, Ha-Dong province) between the peasants and this rice collection corps. So Thao Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Tarn Ha-Dong-Son-Tay, 105.Google Scholar

²⁰¹ Any indigenous village officials jugded as inefficient were severely punished. Ibid., 104.

²⁰² Ibid., 103.

²⁰³ Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Ha Bác [Ha Bác province study committee of Party history], So Thao Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Tam Bác Ninh [Brief history of the August revolution in Bác Ninh province] (Ha Bác: Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Ha Bác, 1967), 61–2.Google Scholar

²⁰⁴ See Vinh, Khuât Thi, ‘Vinh Tuong Vung Day’ [Vinh Tuong district stands up] in Nhung Ngay Cách Mang Tháng Tam—Hoi Ky Tap I [August revolution days—memoirs volume I] (Vinh Phu: Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Vinh Phu, 1974), 86–7 for details.Google Scholar

²⁰⁵ Ms Khuât comments that the struggle to protect their rice by Yên Lac people failed ‘because the local people had not been well prepared and organised enough’. Khuât Thi Vinh, ‘Vinh Tuong Vung Day’, 87. Many thousands of famine victims were reported in Vinh Phúc province.Google ScholarSee Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang Tinh Vinh-phúc [Vinh-phúc province study committee of Party history], So Thao Lich Su Cách Mang Tháng Tam Tinh Vinh Phuc (1939–1945) [Brief history of the August Revolution in Vinh Phuc province (1939–1945)] (Vinh-Phúc: Ban Nghiên Cúu Lich Su Dang, 1966), 54.Google Scholar

²⁰⁶ ‘Memoranda for Secretary of State James Byrnes from Donovan, O. S. S. Director William J. September 5 and 6, 1945’, in Vietnam: The Definitive Documentation of Human Decisions, vol. 1, p. 71.Google Scholar

²⁰⁷ Annuaire du commerce chinois du Sud Vietnam (Saigon: La chambre de commerce chinois du Sud Vietnam, 1953) and U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Nippon senso keizai no hokai [The effects of strategic bombing on Japan's war economy], trans. Masaki, Chifuyu, 2nd ed. (Tokyo: Nippon Hyoronsha, 1972; orig. pub. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946), table C-121, as cited in Figure 2 of Yukichika Tabuchi, ‘Indochina's Role’ (see fn 92) 88.Google Scholar

²⁰⁸ According to Ngô Vinh Long, however, 40,000 tons of rice were exported to Japan from Indochina through the Mitsui Bussan Company in early 1945. See Ngô Vinh Long, Before the Revolution, 132.Google Scholar

²⁰⁹ Ministère de la France d'Outre-Mer (see fn 175), J-166.Google Scholar

²¹⁰ Telegram from Mr Bevin to Lord Halifax, 22 December 1945, CAB 122/512, London, Public Record Office. According to this British source, 500,000 tons of rice were exported from Indochina in 1944 and 922,000 tons in 1943, bigger than the statistics of Japanese rice imports from Indochina according to the American source published in Japan as cited in Yukichika Tabuchi, ‘Indochina's Role’ (see fn 92) 99.