2026 Volume 53 Pages 95-212
On January 1, 1942, Lieutenant General Iida Shōjirō, then the supreme commander of the Japanese forces stationed in Thailand, delivered a radio broadcast addressed to the Thai people. Although the version actually broadcast was a Thai translation, in the original Japanese manuscript presented by the Japanese Embassy to the Thai side, Iida stated as follows:
Your country and our Japan have now, on the basis of the conclusion of the Thai–Japanese Alliance, joined hands to fight together against the enemies of Asia.
Who are the enemies of Asia?
They are Britain and America.
For two hundred years these two powers have, from the peoples of Asia, at times seized land, at times turned countries into colonies, treated their inhabitants as slaves, and, exploiting honest and good people, extracted gold and goods from them.[…] Japan, in the small sense, acts for its own self-preservation and self-defense; in the larger sense, it seeks to expel British and American influence from the lands of Greater East Asia, to liberate the peoples of East Asia, and to construct a bright and happy East Asia—an East Asia for the East Asians, freed from Anglo-American oppression. (National Archives of Thailand, Bo.Ko.Sungsut 2.1/4)
Although Thailand was an independent country, key sectors of its economy—finance, rice exports, the teak forestry and sawmilling industry, and tin mining—were in a state of domination by British capital. As discussed in the first part of this study (No. 50 of this journal), following the 1932 constitutional revolution the new People’s Party government strengthened its orientation toward economic nationalism, seeking to restrict foreign and Chinese capital.
From Lt. Gen. Iida’s speech cited above, one might infer that Japan’s policy, once Anglo-American influence had been expelled through the Thai–Japanese Alliance, was to strengthen Thailand’s economic independence. In reality, however, contrary to Iida’s rhetoric, Japan—having eliminated its rival (Britain) in Thailand at the outbreak of war and secured an exclusive and superior position vis-à-vis Thailand—harbored a clear ambition to replace Britain and to bring Thailand under its own political and economic domination.
Having seized as enemy property the British-capital rice export trade, teak forestry, and tin mining enterprises, Japan proposed to Thailand the establishment of joint Thai–Japanese companies to manage these former enemy assets, with the aim of bringing Thailand’s principal industries under its control.
Japan’s initial intentions extended beyond securing control over Thailand’s major industries. They also included inserting Japanese advisers to replace the prewar British financial adviser (See note 131 of this paper), monopolizing maritime shipping (See note 120 of this paper), and otherwise exercising comprehensive control over the Thai economy.
In response to these imperial ambitions on the part of Japan to replace Britain as the dominant power in Thailand’s economy, the People’s Party government, committed to economic nationalism, resisted by seeking to “Thai-ize” British assets rather than hand them over to Japan. The resulting clash of interests between Japan and Thailand thus emerged as the first serious contradiction under the Thai–Japanese Alliance.
Simultaneously with the Japanese advance into Thailand on December 8, 1941, the Japanese military seized and administered as enemy property the businesses and assets of British, American, and Dutch nationals (in addition to those of Denmark’s East Asiatic Company).
On the Thai side as well, immediately after the provisional signing of the Thai–Japanese Alliance on December 11, Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram, as Supreme Commander of the armed forces, on December 13 ordered provincial administrative authorities to undertake, in substance, the seizure and administration of enemy property.
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