Events growing out of the Franco-Japanese accord of Aug. 30, 1940, sanctioning the entrance of Japanese troops into Tongking which occurred a month later, steadily reduced Indo-China to the status of a Japanese protectorate during 1941. Thailand's invasion in January 1941, benevolently observed if not abetted by Japan, eventually resulted in the cession of roughly 26,800 square miles of Indo-Chinese territory in Cambodia and Laos (see THAILAND). On May 6, three days before the peace treaty containing these cessions was signed, Japan and Indo-China concluded two agreements for 'economic collaboration' after negotiations in Tokyo lasting nearly six months. These economic pacts, as enforced by the Japanese during the rest of the year, thoroughly subordinated Indo-China's economy to the needs of Japan.
The first agreement, ostensibly based on principles of reciprocity and most-favored-nation treatment, actually included terms which favored Japan with respect to most normal items in a commerce and navigation treaty: shipping, entry of nationals, acquisition of movable and immovable property, establishment of companies, and imposition of taxes. Noteworthy special provisions admitted Japanese capital to the development of agriculture, mining and hydraulic concessions. The second agreement, even more comprehensive, related to trade, tariffs and payments. It admitted Japan's chief products either duty free or at reduced minimum duties and imposed only minimum duties on all other Japanese products. The trade provisions specified the amounts of rice, maize, rubber and minerals which Indo-China would export to Japan, and the amounts of Japanese textiles and other articles to be sent to Indo-China. Payment was to be on a purely yen-piastre basis, and Japan's rice purchases — the largest item — were to be covered by an Indo-China guarantee of payment to its rice merchants.
Less than three months later Japan made another turn of the screw — this time in its political relations with Indo-China. By July there were at least 12,000 Japanese troops in Tongking, or twice the maximum permitted by the 1940 agreement. Under the new Japan-Indo-China 'defense accord' of July 29, 1941, the maximum number of Japanese troops admitted to the French colony was increased to 40,000 or 50,000. All limitations on their location were waived. Japanese troops occupied both Saigon and the strategic Cam Ranh Bay, in southern Indo-China, and swiftly pushed westward to the borders of Thailand. Within a few weeks, the Japanese Army controlled all transportation facilities, internal communications, and the chief ports. The French Army in Indo-China was disarmed and interned. The Indo-China government, stripped of its administrative powers, was reduced to a liaison body between the French people of Indo-China and the Japanese authorities directing the occupation. In November the colony's administration was taken in hand by a mission of 350 Japanese specialists, headed by Kenkichi Yoshizawa.
This wholesale overthrow of French political authority, beginning at the end of July, quickly reacted on the status of the economic agreements previously concluded. Any remaining pretense of reciprocity was swept aside. The Bank of Indo-China, backbone of the colony's financial and economic structure, entirely succumbed to Japanese domination. Ostensible Japanese payments for barracks, land, equipment and other military requirements were met with funds placed at the disposal of Japan's agents by the Bank of Indo-China, and the drawing account soon reached hundreds of thousands of piastres. The quotas of Indo-China commodity shipments under the May 6 trade pact were arbitrarily increased, while the goods promised in exchange were either delayed or failed to materialize, thus building up an increasing balance of worthless yen credits in Japan. The rice exports to Japan covered by Indo-China piastre payments to its merchants added further to the yen balance credited to the colony's account. As the Bank of Indo-China's note issue mounted, inflation began. Tax exemptions favoring Japanese as against other foreign nationals led to an influx of Japanese businessmen into Hanoi, Saigon and other centers, indicating that local industry and trade, especially with the favorable provisions affecting investment of Japanese capital, would soon be infiltrated if not confiscated.
Despite the mulcting of the colony, French authorities at Vichy continued to play the game with Japan up to the end of the year. On Dec. 5 the Vichy government categorically asserted that the number of Japanese troops in Indo-China did not exceed 50,000. On Dec. 10, Vichy announced the conclusion of a new 'defense agreement' at Hanoi. A more detailed announcement, broadcast from Tokyo on Dec. 12, stated: 'The supreme commander of the Japanese forces in Indo-China and the French Indo-Chinese government, on the night of Dec. 8, completed a military agreement for cooperation between the Japanese and the Indo-Chinese forces, on the basis of the joint defense agreement with the French colony which was concluded in July of this year.' After Dec. 8 the American, British and Dutch consuls in Indo-China were placed under surveillance at their consulates. On Dec. 21 Admiral Jean Decoux. Governor-General of Indo-China, assumed the office of French High Commissioner in the Pacific, presumably to assert Vichy 'influence' over New Caledonia, French Oceania and other De Gaullist held territories which Japan might seize. See also JAPAN.
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