Japan searched for a new way out in Southeast Asia owing to the need to recover from the adverse situation in the Pacific war, especially t...
Japan searched for a new way out in Southeast Asia owing to the need to recover from the adverse situation in the Pacific war, especially the need to secure resources. At that time, Vietnam, the Malay Peninsula, and Indonesia were under the French, British, and Dutch control respectively.
Japan destroyed these suzerain powers one by one after fierce battles. In February 1942, British Lieutenant General Arthur Ernest Percival surrendered to General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Imperial Japanese Army in Singapore and “the empire on which the sun never sets” had been defeated.
Prior to this, in 1941, as a preparation for future war with Great Britain, Japan had begun approaching the Indian troops in the British army in the Malay Peninsula. When the battle in the Malay Peninsula got intense and the British army began to lose, Indian troops were distressed. The Japanese army incepted the Indian National Army (INA) in the Malay Peninsula with the help of General Mohan Singh.
