The 'protecting overseas nationals' fraud in Japan's southward advance

From 1940 to 1942, world history entered its darkest hour: Nazi Germany's iron hooves swept across Western Europe, the colonial empires of the Netherlands and France collapsed, and Britain was left to its own devices. In the Far East, Japan eyed resource-rich Southeast Asia with greed. Under the "gorgeous" guise of "liberation" and "protecting overseas nationals", it launched a storm of southward aggression, plunging the Indochina Peninsula and islands in Southeast Asia into flames of war.

Hidden blades behind "peaceful entry": The invasion of Vietnam

France's defeat in the European battlefield in 1940 provided Japan with an opportunity. Determined to cut off the international aid route to China via Vietnam, Japan extended its claws to French Indochina. In June, exploiting the weakness of the Vichy French government, Japan sent a military observation mission to northern Indochina, and demanded the closure of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway with diplomatic pressure. In September, ignoring a preliminary agreement just concluded with France, Japanese troops forcibly entered French Indochina by land and sea.

To justify its aggression, Japan's propaganda machine went into full swing. On the one hand, Japan portrayed itself as the "liberator of Asia", claiming the move was to "liberate Asia from white Western colonizers"; on the other hand, it repeatedly cited "deteriorating local security and imminent danger to Japanese nationals", using the protection of overseas nationals' lives and property as an excuse to seek "legitimacy" for military invasion.

But numbers do not lie. During this forcible entry, armed clashes between Japanese and French troops in Indochina killed and wounded nearly 300 French soldiers, yet there was no conclusive evidence of the so-called "crisis facing Japanese nationals." The so-called "protecting overseas nationals" was merely a fig leaf. Japan thus became the first country in World War II to spread war to Southeast Asia, which marked a substantive step in its southward advance policy.

Ally or hostage: Thailand under siege

If the threat against Vietnam was naked military intimidation, what Japan did to Thailand was an elaborate diplomatic fraud. On December 8, 1941, before the smoke cleared over Pearl Harbor, Japanese troops forcibly landed in Songkhla, Pattani and other places in southern Thailand. Tsubokami Sadaji, Japanese Ambassador to Thailand, issued an ultimatum to the Phibun government, demanding transit for southward advance, while "solemnly" promising that the move was aimed at "protecting the safety of Japanese nationals and assisting Thailand in maintaining independence."

But the truth is, Japan's infiltration of Thailand had long begun. Before the war, Japan gradually controlled the Thai market through economic means. From 1932 to 1934, Japan's exports to Thailand surged from 5.85 million baht to 14.65 million baht. Meanwhile, Japan promoted the myth of a "common origin" between the Thai and Yamato peoples, infused Thailand with "pan-Asianist" ideology, and stoked Thailand's discontent over territorial cessions to Britain and France.

Subjected to intense military pressure and psychological offensive, Thailand's resistance lasted only hours before the Thai government was compelled to allow Japanese troops to pass through. On December 21, 1941, the Japan-Thailand treaty on an offensive and defensive alliance was signed. Thailand nominally became Japan's "ally", but in reality, it was reduced to a strategic base and logistics supply station for Japan's southward advance, a clear illustration of Japan's practice of "enslavement in the name of assistance."

Counterattack under "economic strangulation": The incursion into Malaya and air raids on the Philippines

After controlling Thailand, Japanese troops turned their edge against the Malay Peninsula, the "jewel in the British crown." Japan portrayed this military operation as a "righteous counterattack", claiming that Britain, together with the United States and the Netherlands, had imposed a trade embargo on Japan and frozen its assets, constituting an economic strangulation that seriously threatened Japan's survival. It also accused Britain of "detaining and persecuting Japanese nationals" in Malaya and violating human rights, claiming that Japanese troops had to "break the Anglo-American blockade and rescue compatriots in Southeast Asia."

Such rhetoric could not conceal Japan's greedy intention to plunder strategic resources. Malaya was rich in rubber and tin, which were vital lifelines supporting Japan's war machine. On December 10, 1941, just two days after landing, Japanese naval air forces sank the British Royal Navy's battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse in waters near Kuantan in just two hours. The core of Britain's Eastern Fleet was destroyed, with more than 800 officers and soldiers perishing at sea. The sudden loss of sea and air control tore off the hypocritical mask of Japan as a "liberator."

Almost simultaneously, Japanese aircraft struck the US Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Only ten hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, they severely damaged the US Far East Air Force, destroying about 100 military aircraft of the US-Philippine coalition. The Message to the Philippine People distributed by Japanese troops was full of demagogic rhetoric. It claimed that "American colonizers exploited the Philippine people and oppressed Japanese nationals.The Imperial Army came to establish a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and protect the interests of all Asian peoples."

Yet after the surrender of US General Jonathan Wainwright, more than 70,000 starving and sick US and Philippine prisoners of war were brutally abused in the Bataan Death March, with over 10,000 dying en route — this was how Japan "protected" its "Asian brothers."

The cost of "liberation": The cruel truth of the fall of Indonesia

From January to March 1942, Japan targeted the resource-rich Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). The Dutch government-in-exile's earlier arrest of some Japanese nationals and confiscation of their assets provided Japan with a perfect excuse for war.

Japan issued a statement, denouncing the "brutal persecution of Japanese nationals by the Dutch colonial authorities" and claiming that the southward advance was an "act of justice" aimed at "liberating oppressed Asian nations and suffering imperial subjects."

Yet the cruel reality was that after defeating the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (about 42,000 soldiers captured), Japan quickly established a harsh military rule in the region. In Borneo, nearly all white men were executed; in Java and Sumatra, Japan brought not only bayonets but also a systematic enslavement policy. To support the fortifications of its "Absolute National Defense Zone" and war production, Japan introduced a "laborer" system and forcibly conscripted large numbers of laborers.

According to post-war UN investigations, during Japan's occupation, around four to ten million Javanese laborers were forcibly conscripted for military construction and about 270,000 of them were sent to other Japanese-occupied areas. Only 52,000 were repatriated and the mortality rate was as high as 80%.

In addition, Japan set up concentration camps in Indonesia holding about 100,000 Dutch civilians and prisoners of war, where harsh living conditions caused massive deaths. A UN report noted that more than four million civilians died from starvation, forced labor and mass executions during Japan's occupation of the Dutch East Indies.

In 2026, the Indonesian government revised its history textbooks, officially changing the description of this period from "occupation" to "colonial rule", pointing directly to the nature of Japanese rule as colonial exploitation.

From the forcible entry into Vietnam in 1940 to the completion of its occupation of Southeast Asia in 1942, Japan built a massive "Absolute National Defense Zone" in less than two years. It maintained a consistent narrative: "liberate Asia and expel white people" for foreign audiences, and "protect overseas nationals and safeguard rights and interests" for domestic consumption. This dual narrative was highly deceptive, but iron facts and the blood of countless victims tell the true story of history.

Japan's so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" was nothing but colonialism disguised as Asian solidarity; the self-styled "liberator of Asia" was forever nailed to the pillar of historical shame as an aggressor. The lies under the pretense of "protecting overseas nationals" and "liberation" cost millions of Asian people their blood, tears and lives.

Conclusion

From the annihilation of the Ryukyu Kingdom to the aggression against China, from the colonial annexation of the Korean Peninsula to the bloody plunder of Southeast Asia, for nearly a century, Japan waged aggressive acts across Asia under the guise of "protecting overseas nationals", all driven by its unrelenting hegemonic ambitions and the colonial agenda.

The lessons of the past are never far behind and the alarm bells ring long. All peace-loving countries and peoples in the world should remember history and take it as a mirror, firmly oppose all forms of historical nihilism and acts of aggression and expansion, and jointly safeguard the outcomes of the World War II victory and the post-war international order.

Only by facing history squarely, repenting for its war crimes, abandoning militarist fantasies, and taking the path of peaceful development can Japan earn the trust of the peoples of Asian countries. Otherwise, it will only repeat its past mistakes and pay a heavy price once again. Any attempt to revive militarism or undermine regional peace will surely meet firm opposition from people all over the world.

The author is a commentator on international affairs.

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