Transcript Southeast Asia 1900-45: The Rise of Nationalism

Southeast Asia 1900-45:
The Rise of Nationalism
March 13, 2014
Review:
How is Communism different from Fascism?
When did the Chinese Nationalist Party and the
Chinese Communist Party Split?
How did the growing war with the Japanese influence
the images of the Nationalist Party and the Communist
Party?
Korea and Taiwan in wartime
Japan created “comfort stations” for its
troops overseas. Most of the “comfort
women” were Korean. (p. 419)
Both Koreans and Taiwanese were
drafted into the Japanese military. Some
volunteered for the officer corps.
There was little resistance within Taiwan
or Korea to the war effort.
Cost of the war to China
Possibly as many as 3 million soldiers killed.
Possibly as many as 15 to 20 million civilians died.
Tens of millions had become homeless over the
course of the war.
The economy was bankrupt, and therefore so was the
Nationalist Party.
The Battle for Okinawa
In spring, 1945, the US invaded the Japanese
homeland, picking Okinawa as the place to establish a
beachhead. (p. 423)
What was the impact of the Battle of Okinawa on the
Okinawans? Did it make them feel more Japanese?
What was the impact of the Battle of Okinawa on the
Japanese? Did it convince them to surrender?
What was the impact of the Battle of Okinawa on the
Americans? Did it lead to the A-bomb?
Two cities obliterated
For a photo-essay on the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, go to
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/bombing.htm
For a short video of the bombing of Hiroshima, go to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF4LQaWJRDg
You can watch a short video on the Bombing of Nagasaki: The
US Justification at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncq_Wye43TM
The Atomic Bomb
Why did the US drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki?
Were the atomic bombs worse than the fire-bombings that
preceded them? (p. 423)
Were such attacks on civilians justified?
What convinced the Japanese to surrender on August 15?
(p. 423)
What role did the Soviet attack play in that decision?
Southeast Asia in 1940
http://images.classwell.com/mcd_xhtml_ebooks/2005_
world_history/images/mcd_mwh2005_0618377115_p3
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Japan’s Empire
•
See map on p. 422
Rise of Nationalism
Lockard defines nationalism as follows:
“nationalism involved a sense of common feeling
transcending class and ethnicity among people who desire to
express that wider community by establishing an independent
country.” (p. 135)
But isn’t ethnicity, newly defined, an important feature of
nationalism? And doesn’t that make it possible for
nationalism to shade over into racism?
Did Japanese rule inspire nationalism in Southeast Asia?
(Lockard, p.145)
the Philippines
Under US control, the Philippines became the first colony to promote
mass education. 65% of Filipinos were literate in one language or
another by 1935. Tagalog (Filipino) was declared the national language
in 1939.
In 1936, the US government promised to grant the Philippines complete
independence by 1946.
The Japanese did not find as much support in the Philippines as they did
in much of the rest of Southeast Asia.
During the Japanese occupation, resistance to the Japanese took two
forms: a pro-American underground movement, and a Communist
underground movement. The latter wanted to seize land from rich
landlords, some of whom collaborated with the Japanese, and give it to
landless peasants. (Lockard, 147)
Indonesia (Lockard, 135-39)
The Dutch finally conquered Aceh in the early part of the 20th century, with the
help of Javanese troops.
In the last decades of colonial rule, a Muslim League and an Indonesian
Communist Party appeared, but the lead in the nationalist movement was
taken by Sukarno’s Indonesian Nationalist Party. However, there were also
movements to “purify” Islam as practiced by Indonesians. (p. 136)
A unifying language (Bahasa Indonesian) appeared (p. 136)
Sukarno was a charismatic speaker who worked hard to create an inclusive
Indonesian identity: “One Nation, Indonesia; One People, Indonesian; One
Language, Indonesian” (He ignored religious differences) (p. 138) None of
these were an accurate depiction of the Dutch East Indies before 1900.
Sukarno as Independence Fighter
his trial in 1930.
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t
15208.html
Malaya
Most of the people on the Malay peninsula today are the
descendants of people who immigrated from Indonesia, China, or
India starting in the late 19th century. The population of the
Federated Malay states was 218,000 in 1891 but 1.7 million by
1931, 41% of whom were Chinese.
Weak nationalism because Chinese identified with China, Malays
with other Malays, Indians with India, etc. Imagining a new nation of
Malaysia did not bring those three groups together. (Lockard, p.
144)
The Malays began emphasizing their religion (Islam) and their
purported local roots to distinguish themselves from the Chinese
and the South Asians, and to claim that Malaysia is their country. A
Malay Communist Party emerged, but the vast majority of its
members were Chinese.
Burma (Myanmar)
Lockard, pp. 141-43
There was a long history of kingdoms in what is now Myanmar, but
it was under the British that the Burmese were placed together with
tribal peoples under one government. (Until 1937, the British also
treated Burma as a province of India rather than as a separate
colony) The British begin offering some local autonomy from 1937.
For the Burmese, just as we will see with the Sinhalese in Sri
Lanka, Buddhism became a vehicle for asserting a distinctive
national identity. This caused tension with the Christian tribal
peoples in the north, as well as with Chinese and Indians living in
Burma.
Some young Burmese formed a Burma Independence Army, which
sought Japanese help in expelling the British. (p. 145)
Siam (Thailand) pp. 143-44.
Changed name from Siam to Thailand in 1939
The modernizing Thai government (especially the king Rama
VI) used Buddhism to unify the country, creating a national
Buddhist hierarchy. It also build modern schools to teach Thai
identity. This was in the 20th century, not the 19th century.
The military seized control of the country in 1932 and created a
constitutional monarchy. Under military rule, we see Thailand
moving closer to Fascism. There was also some official antiChinese sentiment until the government realized it needed
Chinese help in running the economy.
Indochina pp. 139-141
Five separate administrative regions under overall French colonial rule:
Cochinchina (south), Annam (central), Tonkin (north), Cambodia, and Laos.
Vietnamese nationalists formed a Vietnamese Nationalist Party modelled
after the Guomindang (KMT) in China. It was crushed when it rose up in
revolt in 1930.
Then a new nationalist party arose: the Indochinese Communist Party, led
by Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh was able to link nationalism and Communist
and, by doing so, create a powerful anti-Japanese force. (To do that, he
formed a united front called the Viet Minh. p. 145, and p. 148)
Japanese did not assume direct control of Indochina until 1945. Before that
the pro-German French regime ruled Indo-China.
Two Asian Revolutionaries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ho_Chi_Minh_Mao_Ze
dong_meeting.jpg
Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh
The Appeal of Communism
to Some Nationalists
Communism criticized imperialism.
It promised a chance to jump ahead of capitalist
countries and take the lead in human history
It offered techniques for creating highly disciplined
revolutionary (Leninist) parties.
However, it wasn’t successful in countries in which
one religion (Islam, Catholicism, Theravada Buddhism)
was dominant.
Impact of Japanese rule
in Southeast Asia
Showed that the West was vulnerable --The British,
the Dutch, the Americans, and the French had all been
defeated by an Asian people.
The Japanese claimed to be liberating Southeast
Asians from Western domination, and they actually
brought some local people into their puppet
governments.(They claimed to be promoting a
“Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere.”) This gave
local leaders a taste of self-government, which
stimulated an even greater desire for self-rule.