This study aims to understand how Malay national awareness matured during the wartime period, and is primarily concerned with the exact nature of the impact of the three and a half years of Japanese rule on the political, economic, and social aspects of Malay society. With this aim in view, first of all, this paper examines the historiography of the Japanese occupation of Malaya, focusing on “interruption” and “transformation” arguments. Secondly, this study considers Japan's objectives in invading Malaya. Thirdly, this work examines the development of Malay national awareness under Japanese rule, highlighting the hidden dynamics behind the Malay struggle for the development. Based upon this investigation, this paper shows that Malay national awareness was consolidated mainly by the creative adaptation of the Malays to the new circumstances, not as a result of the deliberate intentions of the Japanese as the “interruption” school argues.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
HitamAziz. (1980). “Shamsuddin Saleh.” in KimKhoo KayFadzilOthmanMohd. (eds) Sastera dan Sasterawan. Kuala Lumpur: Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia
2.
AdamsTheodore. (1944). “The Malay in Malaya.”Asiatic Review, Vol. 40
3.
AkashiYoji. (1970). “Japanese Policy towards the Malayan Chinese, 1941–1945.”Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2
4.
AkashiYoji. (1985). “The Japanese Occupation of Malaya: Interruption or Transformation?” in McCoyAlfred W. ed. Southeast Asia under Japanese Occupation. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies Monograph Series No. 22
5.
AkashiYoji. (1991). “Japanese Cultural Policy in Malaya and Singapore, 1942–45.” in GoodmanGrant K. ed. Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War II. New York: St. Martin's Press
6.
de V. AllenJames (1967). The Malayan Union, New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies Monograph Series No. 10
7.
BamadhajHalinah. (1975). “The Impact of the Japanese Occupation on Malay Society and Politics (1941–1945).”M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Auckland
8.
BendaHarry J. (1966). Continuity and Change in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies Monograph Series No. 7
9.
BendaHarry J.IrikuraJames K.KishiKoichi trans. (1965). Japanese Military Administration in Indonesia: Selected Documents. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies Translation Series No. 6
10.
ChapmanSpencer F. (1949). The Jungle is Neutral. New York: W. W. Norton
11.
KhengCheah Boon. (1983). Read Star Over Malaya. Singapore: Singapore University Press
12.
KhengCheah Boon. (1989). “The Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1941–45, Ibrahim Yaacob and the Struggle for Indonesia Raya,”Indonesia, No. 28
13.
KhengCheah Boon. (1992). From PKI to the Comintern, 1924–1941: The Apprenticeship of the Malayan Communist Party, Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program
14.
OnnChin Kee. (1946). Malaya Upside Down, Singapore: Federal Publications
15.
ElsbreeWillard H. (1953). Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movement, 1940 to 1945, Cambridge: Harvard University Press
16.
SilviaFoo Mei Lian. (1986/87). “The Japanese Occupation of Singapore, 1942–1945.” B.A. Thesis, Department of History, National University of Singapore
17.
“From George Maxwell to Edward Gent.” (August 10, 1945). Colonial Office(CO) 273/671/50790/43
18.
GoodmanGrant K. ed. (1991). Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia During World War II. New York: St. Martin's Press
LauAlbert. (1991). The Malayan Union Controversy 1942–1948, Singapore: Oxford University Press
21.
ChaiLee Ah. (1956). “Singapore under the Japanese, 1942–1945.”B.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Malaya, Singapore
22.
LeeLee Say. (1981). “A Study of the Rice in Kedah before and during the Japanese Occupation.”Malaysia in History, No. 24
23.
GheeLim Teck. (1977). Peasants and Their Agricultural Economy in Colonial Malaya, 1874–1940, Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press
24.
McCoyAlfred W. (1980). Southeast Asia under Japanese Occupation. New Haven, Yale University Southeast Asia Studies Monograph Series No. 22
25.
IsmailNadzri binMohd.. (1987/88). “Keadaan Ekonomi dan Beras Negeri Kedah Sewaktu Pentadbiran Jepun dan Thai, 1941–1945.”B.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Malaya
26.
ChingOong Hak. (1990). “Kerjasama British dengan Parti Komunis Malaya dan Kuomintang: Kesan-Kesannya terhadap Dasar-Dasar British di Tanah Melayu (1941–1945),”Jebat, No. 18
27.
IbrahimOthman bin. (1988/89). “Pendudukan Jepun di Pulau Pinang, 1941–1945.”B.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Malaya
28.
OwenFrank. (1960). The Fall of Singapore, London: M. Joseph
29.
RobertsonEric. (1986). The Japanese File: Pre-War Japanese Penetration in Southeast Asia, Singapore: Heinemann Asia
30.
RoffWilliam. (1967). The Origins of Malay Nationalism, New Haven: Yale University Press
31.
SohByungkuk. (1993). “From Parochial to National Outlook: Malay Society in Transition, 1920–1948,”Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of History, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
32.
SoenarnoRadin. (1960). “Malay Nationalism, 1900–1945.”Journal of Southeast Asian History, Vol. 1, No. 1
33.
Al-AttasSyed Naguib. (1963). Some Aspects of Sufism as Understood and Practised among the Malays, Singapore: Malaysian Sociological Research Institute
34.
EingTan Ding. (1963). Rice Industry in Malaya, 1920–1940, Singapore: Department of History, University of Singapore
35.
TracyMohan K. (1970). “The Impact of the Japanese Occupation on Nationalism(s) in Malaya.”M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Wisconsin
