Review

Reviewed Work(s): Japan's Role in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements 1940 to 1945. by
Willard H. Elsbree
Review by: Hugh Tinker
Source: International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 30, No.
3 (Jul., 1954), pp. 386-387
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Institute of International
Affairs
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2605821
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 I954] SOUTH EAST ASIA 387

silent. Thus, Chapters I and II on Japanese preparations for overlordship in

South and East Asia are brimming with new information, though even here we
are sometimes left in mid-air. We are offered (p. I7) a fascinating glimpse of a
Japanese proposal to Chiang Kai-shek, whereby the latter was to come to terms
in consideration of receiving Tongkin and North Burma: but we are left without
any hint as to what, if any, were Chiang's reactions.
The succeeding chapters dealing with the response to Japanese occupation
from the politicians and peoples of South East Asia are of much lower quality.
Treatment of events in Indonesia is reasonably full and accurate. Burma is also
considered at some length, but the author labours under several different kinds
of misunderstanding. He does not mention the recruitment and training in
Japan of Aung San and his 'thirty comrades'. The role of the Burma Inde-
pendence Army in stirring up communal strife, and as a political power, is not
even considered. He does not mention the Thakins. In short, he entirely mis-
conceives the impact of Japanese rule upon the evolution of independent Burma.
Treatment of the Philippines is surprisingly thin, considering the ample material
the author might have drawn upon. Indo-China and Malaya are considered only
in barest summary. Siam is not even referred to, despite its key-place in the war-
time scene. The rag-tag 'Indian National Army' and the shadowy 'Azad Hind
Government' are accorded an utterly inflated importance.
The author's conclusions are sound, but somewhat obvious: Japan served as
a catalyst in the development of South East Asian nationalism, creating the
opportunities which national leaders then exploited. But unaccountably Mr
Elsbree lays down his pen just before the climax is reacheld-the vital weeks be-
tween Hiroshima and the allied landings-ancd the most important chapter is left
unwritten.
HUGH TINKER

NORTH FROM MALAYA: Adventure on Five Fronts. By William 0. Douglas.

London, Gollancz, I954. 352 PP. Index. 8"x 54". i6s.
MR DOUGLAS' book is a record of his travels a couple of years ago in Malaya,
the Philippines, Indo-China, Burma, and Formosa. Though the author records
much that is of interest, the book as a whole is disappointing. Eminent lawyer
though he is, Mr Douglas seems to display a certain lack of discrimination in his
acceptance of other people's opinions. This is particularly apparent in his sec-
tion on Indo-China, from which one concludes that in his opinion, reflecting the
extreme nationalist view in Vietnam, nothing the French have ever done or are
likely to do can be right. To take another example, in writing about the situation
in Burma in I945-6, Mr Douglas has evidently swallowed the nationalist line,
without considering whether the information given him is or is likely to be im-
partially stated. In other respects, too, the author reveals a curious blindness.
What is one to make of the following passage? 'France has never offered Viet-
nam complete independence. She has never even offered Vietnam the degree of
independence that a dominion such as India and Canada enjoys in the British
Commonwealth' (p. 204): the fundamental lack of grasp of the structure of the
British Commonwealth which is here revealed is quite staggering in a man who,
surely, should have some knowledge of the subject of Comparative Institutions.
Nor is there anything really constructive in the general suggestions of policy ad-
vanced in the concluding section of the book. It is hardly helpful to say that,
'Not one official American voice has proclaimed that the only government that
can save Vietnam from Communism is an anti-French government'. Since it is
apparent that only with foreign military aid can any Vietnamese government
save the country from Communism, and since it is clear that no country but
France is prepared to expend its military forces in Vietnam, the view that it is
essential to set up a governlment of an anti-French character in Vietnam stands
self-condemned.
B. R. P.

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