Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) was a resistance movement in Japanese-occupied Malaya during World War II. It originated among ethnic Chinese cadres of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). Some units were trained by the British. The equipment and skills gained in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese served the MPAJA in good stead when it fought Commonwealth forces, during the postwar Malayan Emergency (1948-60).
Long before Malaya fell to Japan in 1942, many Chinese Malayans had been hostile to Japan, because of the Second Sino-Japanese War (which began in 1937). It was joined by isolated Allied personnel who had been left behind in the retreat and/or had escaped prisoner of war camps. The MPAJA also benefited from the collapse of the Malayan economy due to the Western campaign against Japanese shipping. This cut off Malaya's tin and rubber exports to Japan. The Japanese had already cut off exports to the West. It also caused hunger in traditionally rice-importing regions of Malaya. Many ethnic Chinese, brought in to work on the rubber plantations and tin mines, moved into the jungle and cleared land to grow food. They formed a large pool of undocumented people who could be persuaded or intimidated into supporting the MPAJA. Basing themselves in the jungle within reach of ethnic Chinese or Malay communities, the MPAJA waged a low-level insurgency against the Japanese. In fact many of their combat operations were assassinations of collaborators and Chinese associated with the Guomindang.
[edit] References
- Bayly, Christopher Alan and Harper, Timothy Norman, Forgotten armies: the fall of British Asia, 1941-1945, London: Allen Lane, 2004. ISBN 0713994630
- Chapman, F. Spencer, The Jungle is Neutral, Corgi Books: London, 1957
- Chin Peng, My Side of History, as told to Ian Ward and Norma Miraflor, Singapore: Media Masters, 2003. ISBN 9810486936
- Chin,C.C. and Karl Hack, "Dialogue with Chin Peng --- New Light on Malayan Communist Party",
Singapore University Press: Singapore, 2004
