Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina

Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina
Part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II
Date9 March 1945[Note 1]
LocationFrench Indochina
Result

Japanese victory

  • French Indochina temporarily[1] dissolved into the Empire of Vietnam, Kingdom of Cambodia, and Kingdom of Laos
  • Guerrilla war conducted by British and French commandos and indigenous rebels until August
Belligerents
 Empire of Japan

France France

Air support:
 United States
Commanders and leaders
Empire of Japan Yuichi Tsuchihashi
Empire of Japan Takeshi Tsukamoto		 France Jean Decoux (POW)
France Eugène Mordant (POW)
France Marcel Alessandri
Strength
64,000 soldiers[2] 16,500 French troops
48,500 Colonial regulars
Casualties and losses
Unknown 2,129 killed
15,000 captured or interned[3]
Central Pacific

Southeast Asia

Southwest Pacific

North America

Japan

Manchuria

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina, known as Meigo Sakusen (Operation Mei-go),[4] or Operation Bright Moon[1] took place on 9 March 1945 towards the end of World War II. With Japanese forces losing the war and the threat of an allied invasion of Indochina imminent the Japanese were concerned about an uprising against them by French colonial forces. The Japanese therefore attacked the French in every center and removed them from administrative control of Indochina. The Japanese were then able to install several puppet governments that would acquiesce with their military presence and forestall a potential invasion by the allies.

Background

A map of French Indochina.

French Indochina comprised the colony of Cochinchina and the protectorates of Annam, Cambodia and Tonkin, and the mixed region of Laos. After the fall of France in June 1940 the French Indochinese government had remained loyal to the Vichy regime and in September the same year Japanese troops invaded and took control of northern Indochina but allowed the Vichy French administration to remain.

By 1945 the Vichy regime had ceased to exist in Europe, but its colonial administration was still in place in Indochina, though the governor Admiral Jean Decoux had recognized and contacted the Provisional Government of the French Republic.[5]

Prelude

Though originally content with exploiting the French authorities, the Japanese attitude towards Indochina changed after a series of reversals in the Burma Campaign and the Pacific. In order to reinvigorate its war effort and stave off the threat of a potential French uprising, the Japanese planned to overthrow the colonial administration and intern Indochina's garrison. They would then establish several friendly puppet governments and win the support of the indigenous populations.[6]

On the eve of the Japanese coup the French garrison of Indochina comprised about 65,000 men, of whom 48,500 were locally recruited tirailleurs under French officers.[7] The remainder were French regulars of the Colonial Army plus three battalions of the French Foreign Legion. Since the fall of France in May - June 1940 no replacements or supplies had been received from outside Indochina. In August 1940 Admiral Decoux had signed an agreement under which Japanese forces were permitted to occupy bases across Indochina. At the beginning of 1945 approximately 30,000 Japanese troops were located in the country, a force that was substantially increased by reinforcements withdrawn from Burma in the following months.[8] These troops had equipment superior than the French's.[6]

Coup

In early March 1945, Japanese forces were redeployed around many of the main French garrison towns. On the 9 March, the Japanese delivered an ultimatum for the French troops to disarm, without warning. In the same evening Japanese forces attacked the French in every center.

Those who refused to surrender were usually massacred. In Saigon, senior Japanese officers invited the French commanders to a banquet. The officers who attended were arrested and almost all were killed.[9][10]

Most of the heavy fighting took place in the North near the Chinese border. In Lang Son the two senior Vichy officials, General Emile-René Lemonnier and Resident Camille Auphalle, were executed by decapitation,[9] after refusing to sign surrender documents.[10] The most determined French resistance was at Dong Dang where a company of Tonkinese Rifles and a battery of colonial artillery held out for three days before being massacred.[11]

Further West however, and under the leadership of Major-General Marcel Alessandri, a column of 5,700 French troops, including many Foreign Legionnaires[10] fought its way out of Hanoi towards Son La. Here Alessandri hoped to establish a temporary headquarters to regroup and resupply.[6] Eventually the French withdrew to China.[9] Two auxiliary vessels also manged to avoid capture.[12]

The Republic of China and the United States were reluctant to start a large-scale operation to restore French authority, as they did not favour colonial rule. Both countries ordered that their forces provide no combat assistance to the French, but General Claire Lee Chennault went against orders, and aircraft from his 51st Fighter Group and 27th Troop Carrier Squadron flew support missions for the French forces retreating into China.[13]

In less than 24 hours, the majority of French Indochina's armed forces were suppressed. The entire French colonial administration was dismantled. Practically all French civil and military leaders were made prisoners, including Admiral Decoux.[14]

Aftermath

French scholar Paul Mus, who had escaped Hanoi by foot on 9 March, argued as early as August that French colonialism had been "blown out of history" by the coup.[1] Looking back years later, diplomat Jean Sainteny said the coup had "wrecked a colonial enterprise that had been in existence for 80 years."[1]

Establishment of puppet governments

The Japanese urged declarations of independence from the traditional rulers of the different regions, creating a new Empire of Vietnam, Kingdom of Cambodia and Kingdom of Laos under their direction. Emperor Bảo Đại complied in Vietnam and collaborated with the Japanese. King Norodom Sihanouk also obeyed, but the Japanese did not trust the francophile monarch.

Nationalist leader Son Ngoc Thanh, who had been exiled in Japan and was considered a more trustworthy ally than Sihanouk, returned to Cambodia and became Minister of foreign affairs in May, then became Prime Minister in August. In Laos however, King Sisavang Vong, who favoured French rule, refused to declare independence, finding himself at odds with his Prime Minister, Prince Phetsarath Rattanavongsa.

Guerrilla conflicts

Commandos from the British liaison organisation Force 136 had been conducting minor operations in French Indochina since late 1944. After the coup, French and British reinforcements were parachuted into Indochina and conducted guerrilla operations against the Japanese. French troops who had escaped from the Japanese coup in March joined the French and British commandos to take part in the fighting. French resistance groups had more latitude for action in Laos, as the Japanese had less control over this part of the territory. However, the commandos lacked precise orders from their governments and the practical means to mount any large-scale operations.[2]

The French and Lao guerrilla groups also lacked significant firepower, but nevertheless managed to gain control of several rural areas. In northern Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh started their own guerrilla campaign against the Japanese and established their bases in the countryside without meeting much resistance from the occupying forces, who were mostly present in the cities.[15] The Viet Minh lacked the military force to launch a full-scale offensive against the Japanese, and their actions were limited to a few attacks against IJA military posts.[16]

In France, recently liberated from German occupation, the French Far East Expeditionary Corps was established and prepared to be sent to Indochina to fight the Japanese.

However, Japanese troops surrendered when Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's capitulation in August. On August 16, the Japanese garrisons officially handed control to Bảo Đại in the North and the United Party in the South. This, however, allowed nationalist groups to take over public buildings in most of the major cities. The Viet Minh were thus presented with a power vacuum, and on the 19th the August Revolution commenced in which the Viet Minh took power.[9]

On 25 August 1945, Bảo Đại was forced to abdicate in favour of Ho and the Viet Minh. As Bảo Đại abdicated, the Viet Minh took control of Hanoi. In most of French Indochina, the Japanese did not oppose the Viet Minh's takeover as they were reluctant to let the French retake control of the French colony. The French troops who had been arrested in March were kept in jails by the Japanese. Imperial Japanese Army troops briefly clashed with Viet Minh guerrillas in Annam, but there were no major military engagements.[17] One exception was the Thái Nguyên Province, where Japanese troops refused to surrender and battled with the Viet Minh from 20 to 25 August 1945. They finally surrendered on 26 August 1945, and the Viet Minh took possession of their weapons.[18] Ho Chi Minh proclaimed Vietnam's independence on 2 September 1945.

Return to Allied control

Troops from the United Kingdom—the 20th Indian Division under Major General Douglas Gracey—and the Republic of China (National Revolutionary Army) entered the country in late August and started disarming the Japanese troops. They were joined by the French Far East Expeditionary Corps, which arrived in September. Jacques Massu's troops took control of Saigon.

French Indochina was left in chaos by the Japanese occupation. Admiral Jean Decoux, who had supported the Vichy regime instead of Free France, was sent to France to face trial. In Laos, Phetsarath Rattanavongsa's Lao Issara deposed the King in October and declared the country's independence, but its government had to flee in April 1946, as the French troops advanced towards Vientiane. In Cambodia, Son Ngoc Thanh was arrested by the French. Ho Chi Minh found himself in partial control of north Vietnam, setting the stage for the First Indochina War.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The coup took place on 9 March, but isolated fighting carried on by besieged and retreating French troops lasted further into March.

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hock, David Koh Wee (2007). Legacies of World War II in South and East Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 23–35. ISBN 9789812304681.
  2. 1 2 Grandjean (2004)
  3. ↑ Marr p. 61
  4. ↑ Kiyoko Kurusu Nitz (1983), "Japanese Military Policy Towards French Indochina during the Second World War: The Road to the Meigo Sakusen (9 March 1945)", Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 14(2): 328–53.
  5. ↑ Jacques Dalloz, La Guerre d'Indochine, Seuil, 1987, pp 56–59
  6. 1 2 3 Smith, T. O. (2014). Vietnam and the Unravelling of Empire: General Gracey in Asia 1942-1951 (illustrated ed.). Springer. ISBN 9781137448712.
  7. ↑ Rives, Maurice. Les Linh Tap. p. 93. ISBN 2-7025-0436-1.
  8. ↑ Porch, Douglas. The French Foreign Legion. pp. 511–513. ISBN 0-333-58500-3.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Windrow, Martin (2004). The Last Valley. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  10. 1 2 3 The Damned Die Hard by Hugh McLeave
  11. ↑ Rives, Maurice. Les Linh Tap. p. 95. ISBN 2-7025-0436-1.
  12. ↑ World War II in the Pacific: An Encyclopedia
  13. ↑ Bernard Fall, Street Without Joy, Stackpole Books, 1994, p.24-25
  14. ↑ Huynh 1971, p. 764.
  15. ↑ Laurent Cesari, L'Indochine en guerres, 1945-1993, Belin, 1995, pp 30-31
  16. ↑ Philippe Devillers, Histoire du Viêt Nam de 1940 à 1952, Seuil, 1952, page 133
  17. ↑ Philippe Franchini, Les Guerres d'Indochine, vol 1, Pygmalion-Gérard Watelet, 1988, pp 200-205
  18. ↑ Cecil B. Currey, Vo Nguyên Giap – Viêt-nam, 1940–1975 : La Victoire à tout prix, Phébus, 2003, pp. 160–161

Sources

External links

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