1942: French Indo-China

In 1940 and 1941 the Vichy government had agreed to ever greater Japanese military and economic control over this colony of 23,000,000 people. As a result, large numbers of Japanese troops entered Indo-China; the Japanese army and navy received the use of valuable bases; and important commodities, such as rubber, anthracite coal and rice were sent in increasing quantities to Japan. After Pearl Harbor, Indo-China played an important part in the conquest of Southeast Asia. From its soil Japanese troops struck westward into Thailand, while its ports were used by the Japanese navy on its way to Malaya and the East Indies. Japan's successes during the winter of 1941-42 revealed that Vichy's surrender of Indo-China had helped to undermine the whole British-American-Dutch position in Southeast Asia.

In 1942 information about Indo-China was fragmentary. On April 21 the United States State Department protested to Vichy against negotiations that were going on between Japan and the Vichy French Governor-General of Indo-China, Admiral Jean Decoux, for the transfer of French shipping to Japanese hands. Early in July it was reported from Japan that the colonial government, which in 1941 had already surrendered part of its territory to neighboring Thailand, had now made an additional cession to the latter country. In September the United States Office of War Information declared that the natives of Indo-China were becoming less friendly toward the Japanese, who at first had not been unwelcome as an alternative to the French. The change in attitude was attributed in part to Japanese devices for securing forced labor. On Nov. 2 Tokyo announced that the recently formed Greater East Asia Ministry of the Japanese cabinet had begun negotiations for a new economic agreement with Indo-China. Soon afterward the Allied offensives in North Africa and the subsequent disintegration of the Vichy regime created a general atmosphere of tension in Indo-China. German broadcasts spoke of the arrest of French officials in the colony on charges of being followers of General de Gaulle and the Fighting French. The Vichy Governor-General remained in office under Japanese control and, according to a Chinese report early in December, was cooperating with Japan in building up a native army. Later in the month the Ta Kung Pao, leading Chungking newspaper, reported that an organization called the All Indo-China Anti-Imperialist League had established a pro-Allied provisional government 'somewhere in Tonkin.' Its aims were said to be immediate collaboration with the United Nations and complete independence for Indo-China after the war. Resistance was advocated both to the Japanese and the Vichy French military forces.

Since Indo-China was beyond the reach of Allied land or naval forces, activity against the colony during 1942 was confined to air raids on some of the important cities. In January, United States and Chinese aircraft attacked Hanoi, and in August United States planes bombed the port of Haiphong, starting great dock fires and hitting a 4,000-ton steamer. Late in November, United States bombers and fighters struck twice — once at Haiphong and once at a coaling port up the coast from that city. On Dec. 14 the Gialam airdrome at Hanoi was bombed. Raids on Indo-China were conducted from Chinese bases and were confined to the extreme northern part of the colony.

1941: French Indo-China

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.

1940: French Indo-China

Indo-China is the name of France's colonial possessions in the eastern portion of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, and consists of the Colony of Cochin-China and the Protectorates of Tongking, Laos, Annam, Cambodia and Battambang. It covers a territory of roughly 280,000 square miles, and has a population of about 23,000,000 people. The territory is administered by a French Governor-General with headquarters at Saigon in the southeastern part of the peninsula, under whom are the Governor of Cochin-China and the Resident Superiors of the Protectorates.

The threat to the French colonial possession of Indo-China, which had been anticipated by the government of France since the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in the summer of 1937, became a reality in the summer of 1940. In anticipation of this, France had, from mid-summer of 1937 to the spring of 1940, expended more than 3,000,000,000 francs on defense measures, and in addition to this the Indo-China budgets for 1938 and 1939 provided for another 800,000,000 francs for such purposes.

The capture of the Chinese city of Nanning by the Japanese armed forces in November 1939, was a source of grave concern to the Indo-Chinese authorities, since Nanning is only 82 miles from the Indo-Chinese border. This concern was shared by the Indo-Chinese people themselves who, following the course of the war in China, have lost faith in Japan's declaration of benevolent intentions towards all countries of the Far East, and have looked to the French to save them from conquest by Japan.

When the fall of France seemed imminent in June 1940, Japan announced to the western powers that she would strongly object to seeing Indo-China placed under the protection of either Great Britain or the United States. When France signed an armistice with Germany on June 18, Japan at once requested the French authorities to stop all traffic in arms and munitions on the Indo-China railway destined for the armies of Chiang Kai-shek, and also asked that 'inspectors' be stationed at various places along the road to examine all shipments destined for the Chungking Government. These requests were granted. Shortly after, a further demand was made for the passage of Japanese troops through Indo-China for an attack on China by way of the Province of Yunnan. France was at first unwilling to accede to this request, but after somewhat lengthy negotiations, permission was granted. On Sept. 23 an agreement was signed between Japan and the Vichy Government for (1) the immediate landing of a 'limited' number of Japanese troops at Haiphong, the port for Hanoi in northern Indo-China; (2) the establishment of air bases in Tongking, including one base near Hanoi; (3) permission for the Japanese to bring in only 6,000 troops to garrison the air bases; and (4) the right to maintain a 'few effectives' at Haiphong.

Even before the agreement was signed, Japanese troops had crossed the border of Indo-China at Dong Dang in the northeast, where they were stopped by the French after some fighting.

Late in November, further demands were made by Japan, involving the control of Saigon, a large and important naval and commercial base in the southeast, which demands would, if granted, constitute a threat to the British naval base at Singapore, and also to the American naval base at Manila across the China Sea. These demands were still under consideration as the year closed, and meanwhile sporadic fighting occurred between Indo-Chinese and Japanese troops until late December.

Difficulties also arose with Thailand, Indo-China's neighbor to the West, after the fall of France in June. Immediately upon the signing of the Franco-German armistice, Thailand massed troops along the Indo-China border, and at the same time presented demands for a remarking of the boundary line between the two countries, which had been under dispute for some time, and also for a return of certain territories in the districts of Laos and Cambodia, which Thailand claimed France had taken forcibly from her in 1907. The Vichy Government rejected Thailand's territorial demands, but expressed a willingness to discuss settlement of the boundary dispute. Thai troops crossed the Indo-China border in September, and from that time down to the end of the year, there was almost constant fighting along the entire length of the Mekong River which lies between the two countries. As the year closed a French mission was preparing to go to Bangkok to try to arrive at an amicable settlement of the border disputes. See also JAPAN; THAILAND.