Locating Japanese Military Records on Indochina 1940-45
From: David Biggs
Date: Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 9:47 AM
To: vsg <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear List-
Is anyone familiar with Japanese record groups describing the military occupation of Indochina from 1940-45?
I understand that the Japanese military destroyed much of its records before the end of WW2 and that American forces seized much of what remained, removed them to Washington and the National Archives then returned some decades later.
Given the hasty departure of Japanese forces from Indochina, did local copies of records in Vietnam wind up in Vietnamese national archives? Are there Kenpeitai records?
From David Marr's fine book, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, I see references to Masaya Shiraishi's essay "La Présence japonaise en Indochine" and works by the edited volume by Shiraishi Takashi, Indochina in the 1940s and 1950s.
There are very extensive military records of the French 1850s-1956 and Americans 1943-1975, but I have yet to find materials on the Japanese interlude.
Best,
David
--
David Biggs
Department of History
1212 Humanities & Social Sciences Building
University of California - Riverside
Riverside CA 92521
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From: David Del Testa
Date: Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 10:10 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear David,
Years ago, I wrote to the Japanese Ministry of Defense and to the National Library of Japan asking to examine the lists of names of people repatriated to Japan from Indochina and I received a curious reply. Both responses indicated that ALL records pertaining to Japan's involvement in Indochina had been permanently sealed and could not be examined. While I couldn't believe that even Japanese researchers couldn't gain access, I did the replies quite strong in their tone. Hopefully it is not true.
Best wishes, David
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From: Liam Kelley
Date: Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 10:50 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear David,
The Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, or JACAR, might be worth a look.
http://www.jacar.go.jp/english/index.html
Liam Kelley
History Department
University of Hawaii
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From: sarah womack
Date: Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 11:19 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear David,
the total inaccessibility of Japanese wartime records is one of those pervasive rumours that fortunately turns out to be only partly true. I spent a year and a bit on the Japanese records for most of Southeast Asia, and there's actually more out there than you would expect.
There are limited Japanese-language records in Aix-- most of the wartime material there (which is considerable) is in French or Vietnamese, and outside of the personal, novella-length confessions of leading advisors and officers is mainly concerned with local and provincial-level administration and (as one would expect) infrastructure and transport of goods. There are some Kenpeitai records, but not as many as in some other parts of Southeast Asia.
Japanese-language materials are in fact difficult to get out of Japan, but fortunately the vast majority of those are actually translations of English- or other regional-language documents anyway. There is a more or less permanent Japanese presence at NARA Archives II for precisely that reason, and the archivists there (particularly Eric Van Slander) are extremely helpful and generous with their time. NARA holds the most original Japanese documents that I am aware of; probably the second largest collection that I saw was in various places in the Netherlands, but not many of those are on Indochina.
The problem with getting at any of these collections either in Aix or at NARA is that the wartime organisation of records at Aix is uncharacteristically weak, and organisation of practically anything regardless of period at NARA is an absolute disaster. Fortunately, there are archivists at NARA who have very good Japanese; this is not the case at Aix, and they seem uncertain themselves as to what exactly is in there. I got all sorts of things on food distribution, urbanism and transport, but didn't have the time to look much beyond my immediate subject.
Hope this helps,
Sarah
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From: Marc J. Gilbert
Date: Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 12:03 AM
To: "dbiggs@ucr.edu" <dbiggs@ucr.edu>, Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I have a dispatch from Tokyo regarding an interview with the director of the office responsible for managing the East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, forwarding his answer when asked to what degree the Japanese sought to encourage a nationalist movement in Southeast Asia.
BRISTAS, Tokyo to SACSEA, 18 October 1945. “From interrogation of Nagai Mikio, Secretary [G]reater East Asia Ministry since Nov. 1943, it appears greater East Asian Ministry as such had little concern with Independence Movements and could only have promoted them at the expense [of] its main object namely economic and industrial exploitation of occupied countries in [the] interests Japan. Burma where Japanese had fewer economic interests was different case . . . out of 13 FIC students who visited Japanese universities none has studied politics.”
David--if you are interested I can dig up the citation and other scattered references in British archives.
As you probably know, over five thousand Japanese soldiers chose not to surrender to Allied forces in French Indo-China and joined ranks with the Vi?t Minh, whose anti-French cause they served with valor and success, some for over a decade. See Christopher E. Goscha, “Belated Allies: The Technical Contributions of Japanese Deserters to the Vi?t Minh (1945–1950),” in A Companion to the Vietnam War, ed. Marilyn Young and Robert Buzzanco (London: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), 37–64. I imagine Chris would have further information from the French archives.
Best,
Marc
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From: will pore
Date: Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 4:04 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear All:
If you read Japanese, documents of the Japanese Diplomatic Records Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ajia rekishi shiryoo senta-, Gaimushoo gaikyo shiryokan, Gaimushoo jiku), is online. When I accessed them a few years ago, I found documents going back to the late nineteenth century. You might give it a try. Unfortunately, I do not have the URL I used.
Will Pore
--
William F. Pore, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Global Studies
College of Economics and International Trade
Pusan National University