The Japanese occupation of South East Asia during the Second World War

This article reviews recent Japanese- and English-language publications to assess scholarly interchange between the two languages and the effects on South East Asia of Japan's Second World War occupation. The economic and social impact on Borneo, Malaya and Singapore of the Japanese interregnum was devastating. In Burma and Indonesia, military training given by the Japanese fundamentally shaped the post-war order. The authors find surprisingly little cross-over between those writing in Japanese or in English and argue that greater academic exchange, possibly facilitated through translation, would enhance understanding of wartime South East Asia.