Before the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific, the island of Borneo was divided into five territories. Four of the territories were in the north and under British control – Sarawak, Brunei, the island of Labuan, and British North Borneo; while the remainder, and bulk, of the island, was under the jurisdiction of the Dutch East Indies.
On 16 December 1941, Japanese forces landed at Miri, Sarawak having sailed from Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina. On 1 January 1942, the Japanese navy landed unopposed in Labuan. Another small Japanese forces took possession of the undefended Labuan on 3 January, where they advance further and landed at Mempakul on North Borneo territory. After negotiations as to the surrender of Jesselton with the Officers-in-charge of Jesselton and waiting for troop reinforcements, Jesselton was occupied by the Japanese on 6 January through Japanese forces who entered by rail from Beaufort. However, it took the Japanese until the end of the month to conquer the entire territory of British Borneo. The Japanese subsequently renamed the northern part as North Borneo (北ボルネオ, Kita Boruneo), Labuan as Maida Island (前田島, Maeda-shima) and the neighbouring Dutch territories as South Borneo (南ボルネオ, Minami Boruneo). For the first time in modern history all of Borneo was under a single rule.
British Borneo was occupied by the Japanese for over three years. They actively promoted the Japanisation of the local population by requiring them to learn the Japanese language and customs. The Japanese divided North Borneo into five provincial administrations (shus) and constructed airfields. Several prisoner of war camps were operated by the Japanese. Allied soldiers and most colonial officials were detained in them, together with members of underground movements who opposed the Japanese occupation. Meanwhile, local Malay leaders were maintained in position with Japanese surveillance and many foreign workers were brought to the territory.
Towards the end of 1945, Australian commandos were deployed to the island by US submarines with the Allied Z Special Unit conducting intelligence operations and training thousands of indigenous people to fight the Japanese in guerrilla warfare in the Borneo Campaign in preparation for the arrival of the main Allied liberation missions. Following landings in North Borneo and Labuan on 10 June 1945 by a combination of Australian and American forces, the island of Borneo was liberated. The British Military Administration formally took over from the Japanese on 12 September 1945.
Background
The Japanese intention to gain control of Borneo was associated with the concept of a unified Greater East Asia. This was developed by General Hachirō Arita, an army ideologist who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1936 to 1940. Japanese leaders envisioned an Asia guided by Tokyo with no western interference and likened the Japanese Empire to an Asian equivalent of the Monroe Doctrine. The island was seen by Japan as strategically important, being located on the main sea routes between Java, Sumatra, Malaya and the Celebes. Control of these routes was vital to securing the territory.
With the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, Japanese immigrants had been welcomed since the 1900s. Companies such as Mitsubishi and Nissan were involved in trade with the territory. Japanese immigrants had also been in the Raj of Sarawak since 1915, with some of them working as hawkers and some Japanese women working in the red-light district. This presented opportunities for espionage, which were taken up by the Japanese military, especially from 1930. Secret telegrams revealed that the Japanese ships docking regularly at Jesselton were engaged in espionage. In 1940 the Americans and British had placed an embargo on exports of raw materials to Japan because of its continuing aggression in China and the Japanese invasion of French Indochina. Chronically short of natural resources, Japan needed an assured supply, particularly of oil, in order to achieve its long-term goal of becoming the major power in the Pacific region. Southeast Asia, which mostly consisted of European colonies, subsequently became a prime target for Japan. It hoped to obtain resources as well to ending the Western colonialism period.
Invasion
The Japanese invasion plan called for the British territories to be taken and held by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Dutch territories to the south by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The IJA allocated the 35th Infantry Brigade to northern Borneo. The Brigade was led by Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi and consisted of units previously stationed at Canton in southern China. On 13 December 1941, the Japanese invasion convoy left Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina, with an escort of the cruiser Yura, the destroyers of the 12th Destroyer Division, Murakumo, Shinonome, Shirakumo and Usugumo, submarine-chaser CH-7, and the aircraft depot ship Kamikawa Maru. Ten transport ships carried the advance party of the invasion force. The Support Force—commanded by Rear Admiral Takeo Kurita—consisted of the cruisers Kumano and Suzuya and the destroyers Fubuki and Sagiri. The Japanese forces intended to capture Miri and Seria, then move on Kuching and the nearby airfields. The convoy proceeded without being detected and, at dawn on 16 December, two landing units secured Miri and Seria with little resistance from British forces.
Kuala Belait and Lutong were captured on the same day with around 10,000 Japanese soldiers ashore. On 22 December, Brunei Town was captured and the main Japanese force moved westwards towards Kuching after securing the oilfields in northern Sarawak. The Japanese air force bombed Singkawang airfield to deter any Dutch attack. After escorts drove off a lone Dutch submarine, the Japanese task force entered the mouth of the Santubong River on 23 December. The convoy, including twenty transports carrying Japanese troops commanded by Colonel Akinosuke Oka, arrived off Cape Sipang and had completed disembarkation by the next morning. The 2nd Battalion of the 15th Punjab Regiment, which was stationed in Kuching, was the sole Allied infantry unit on the island. Although they resisted the Japanese attack on the airfield, they were soon outnumbered and retreated up the Santubong River. On 25 December, Japanese troops successfully captured Kuching airfield. The Punjab Regiment retreated through the jungle to the Singkawang area.
After the Japanese secured Singkawang on 29 December, the rest of the British and Dutch troops retreated further into the jungle, moving south to Sampit and Pangkalanbun, where a Dutch airfield was located at Kotawaringin. On 31 December a force under Lieutenant Colonel Genzo Watanabe moved northward to occupy the remainder of Brunei, Beaufort and Jesselton. Jesselton was defended by the North Borneo Armed Constabulary with 650 men. They provided little resistance and the town was fully overtaken on 9 January. On 3 January 1942 the IJA invaded Labuan Island. On 18 January, using small fishing boats, the Japanese landed at Sandakan, the seat of government of British North Borneo. On the morning of 19 January Governor Charles Robert Smith surrendered British North Borneo and was interned with his staff. The occupation of British Borneo was thus completed. The Dutch southern and central Borneo were also taken by the IJN, following its attacks from east and west. After ten weeks in the jungle-covered mountains, Allied troops surrendered on 1 April.
Propaganda and assimilation
The Tokyo-based Asahi Shimbun newspaper and the Osaka-based Mainichi Shimbun began publication in Malay in both Borneo and the Celebes Island, carrying news on behalf of the Japanese government. Following their occupation, the Japanese began a process of assimilation of the local people. Propaganda was displayed throughout the Bornean territories and slogans such as "Asia for Asians" and "Japan, the light of Asia" were widely displayed. Ethnocentrism was central to this plan with Japanese values, world view, culture, spirit, emperor worship and racial superiority being promulgated.
As part of the process of Japanisation (Nipponisation), schoolchildren and adults were instructed to go to nihon-go classes to learn the Japanese language. Students had to wear uniforms and a peaked cap with a blue sakura (cherry blossom) emblem, which was replaced by a red one as the students attained higher grades. Each morning students were required to sing the Japanese national anthem with gusto followed by bowing to the Japanese flag before marching to their classrooms. This was done to make the population "think, feel and act like Japanese East Asians". Their treatment of the local indigenous people and Chinese immigrants differed. Attempting to ensure the indigenous local were not their enemies an administrative directive on 14 March 1942 declared that:
Local customs, practices and religions shall not be interfered with for the time being. The impact of the war on native livelihood should be alleviated where possible and within the limits set by the need for rendering occupational forces self-sufficient and securing resources vital to national defence. However, no measures shall be taken for the sole purpose of placating the natives. [Emphasis added.]
A different principle applied to the local Chinese as they were considered to be the only community which could offer a serious challenge to Japanese authority:
The main objective, where the local Chinese are concerned, shall be to utilise their existing commercial organisations and practices to the advantage of our policies ... and measures shall be taken to sever political ties among the Chinese residents of the various areas as well as between them and mainland China.
Attempts were also made to inculcate anti-Western feeling with local government officers required to attend Japanese night classes. Unlike his counterparts in North Borneo and Sarawak which were previously ruled by European officials, the Brunei Sultan, Ahmad Tajuddin, was retained by the Japanese with no reduction in salary. Malay government officials were usually retained in their posts.
Administration
Administrative areas
Under the Japanese occupation British Borneo were divided into five provinces (shūs):
Each of the five shūs had a Japanese provincial governor, or the administration remained in the hands of the local people with Japanese surveillance. Each of the provinces constituted prefectures or ken (県). Jesselton and Sandakan were renamed Api and Elopura respectively.
Occupation forces
Once Sarawak was secured, control of the rest of British Borneo fell to the Kawaguchi Detachment, while neighbouring Dutch Borneo was administered by the IJN. In mid-March 1942, the navy detachment was redeployed to Cebu. The 4th Independent Mixed Regiment, also known as the Nakahata Unit, under Colonel Nakahata Joichi took over the tasks of mopping up operations, maintaining law and order, and establishing a military government. On 6 April 1942, the unit came under Lieutenant General Marquess Toshinari Maeda's Borneo Defence Army who became responsible for the area. His headquarters was initially at Miri, but Maeda considered it unsuitable and moved to Kuching. In July the Nakahata Regiment was reorganised into two 500-man battalions, the 40th and 41st Independent Garrison Infantry Battalions. Maeda was killed along with Major Hataichi Usui and Pilot-Captain Katsutaro Ano in an air crash while flying to Labuan Island on 5 September 1942. The Japanese then renamed the island Maeda Island (前田島, Maeda-shima) in remembrance to him. Maeda was replaced by Lieutenant General Masataka Yamawaki from 5 September 1942 to 22 September 1944.
By 1943 the battalions combined strength had reduced to 500 men. The military government moved its headquarters again in April 1944 to Jesselton. Yamawaki was formerly Director of the Resources Mobilisation Bureau; his appointment in 1942 was interpreted by the Allies as part of a drive to establish Borneo as a significant location for storage of supplies and the development of supporting industry. Law enforcement in Borneo fell to the notorious Kenpeitai, the Japanese military police, who were directly responsible to the military commander and the Japanese War Ministry. They had virtually unlimited power and frequently used torture and brutality. The Kenpeitai headquarters were in a two-storey bungalow on Java Street (Jalan Jawa), Kuching. From April 1944 it was relocated to the Sports Club Building in Api. Japanese justice became synonymous with punishment out of all proportion to the offence. They revived the pre-war civil court system from November 1942, with local magistrates applying the Sarawak Penal Code. With the Allied advance in the Pacific, the Japanese realised that Borneo was likely to be retaken. The Borneo Defence Army was strengthened with additional units and renamed 37th Army. Command passed to Lieutenant General Masao Baba from 26 December 1944.