History of Southeast Asia

This year three holidays fall on April 1: April Fool's Day, Easter and Passover. Now you have another reason to celebrate; Episode 42 is now available! This episode begins coverage of the Burma campaign, a nasty jungle war that would go on between Japan and the Allies for the rest of World War II in the Pacific. Today we will see the Japanese conquest of Burma (modern Myanmar), from December 1941 to May 1942. The conquest did not take five months because of Allied resistance, as was the case in the Philippines, but because of the rugged terrain and the size of the territory that was to be occupied. I was hoping that I wouldn't need a map for the next episode, but so many place names are mentioned that it now looks necessary. This one shows the Japanese advance (red) in Burma/Myanmar in April 1942, and the escape routes used by the Allies to evacuate the British colony (blue). Source: Ibiblio.org (https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-C-Burma/maps/USA-C-Burma-3.jpg). (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/Japanese_Conquest_of_Burma_April-May_1942.jpg) Here General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell leads his staff and a group of soldiers, as they retreat from Burma to India, in May 1942. The good news is that there were 114 people in the group, and Stilwell did not lose a single one. Source: History.army.mil. (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/Stilwell1942.jpg) Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)

Now it is time to finish what we started in Episode 38 (https://www.blubrry.com/hoseasia/31051079/episode-38-the-battle-for-the-philippines-part-1/), and cover the conclusion of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. Although the Japanese win again, it takes five months for them to conquer the islands, a longer time than any of their other campaigns so far, because both the Americans and Filipinos were united in resisting them. Both of the maps below are thumbnails. Click on either one to see the full-sized map in a separate tab or window. First, for your benefit, I have reposted the map pf Bataan and Corregidor from Episode 38. Source: the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, on the University of Texas website. (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/bataan_th.jpg) And here is the best map I have found so far about the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. It is the only one that gives equal attention to activities in the central and southern islands, in addition to the campaign on Luzon. Source: Indohistorian.tumblr.com (http://indiohistorian.tumblr.com/post/69455158207/the-most-reliable-hi-res-map-ive-seen-of-the) (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/Philmap_th.jpg) Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)  

This episode is a break from the narrative usually presented. Recently Charles Kimball was interviewed for another podcast, History Fangirl, to give the historical background behind Thailand and Bangkok. A copy of that interview has been reposted here. And below is a link to the podcast of Stephanie Craig, the History Fangirl; check it out to see what other places she has visited. Bangkok and the Kingdom of Siam (https://historyfangirl.com/bangkok-kingdom-siam/) Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)  

It only took three months for the Japanese to conquer most of Indonesia, an area the Dutch had dominated for more than three hundred years. This episode continues the World War II narrative of the previous three episodes, by covering the strategy and tactics Japan used in the world's largest archipelago. Here is the companion map, showing the paths taken by the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies. As you can see, they ignored no island large enough to matter. At the end of February 1942, they also landed on both ends of Java. By the end of March, the only unconquered areas were eastern Timor (where Australian guerrillas resisted until February 1943) and western New Guinea. (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/Indonesia1942.jpg) Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)

Episode 38 continues on the topic the podcast has been covering since the year began -- World War II in Southeast Asia. This time we will see the Japanese invasion of the Philippines begin, but it won't finish in this episode; resistance to the Japanese is far tougher here than it was in Malaya and Singapore. And this episode will also give the biography of the American commander, Douglas MacArthur, up to 1941, because he will be a key figure in the war from this point on. Here is the first of two maps that will help you understand the narrative. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, both they and the Americans concentrated most of their attention on Luzon, the largest and most important island. On this map you can see where the Japanese landed, and their movements until General MacArthur withdrew the American and Filipino troops to Bataan and Corregidor. This is a public domain map that apparently was created for the website History.army.mil, but I found it on several websites, including Wikipedia and Historylink101.com. (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/pimap2.jpg) And here are Bataan and Corregidor, seen close up. Like the previous map, it shows the places I will talk about in this episode. The source is the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, on the University of Texas website. This map is a thumbnail; click on it to see the full sized map. (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/bataan_th.jpg) Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)  

In the last episode you heard about Japan invading China, occupying French Indochina, and bombing Pearl Harbor. Now this episode covers the 1941 Japanese invasion of Thailand, Malaya, and Singapore. Are you ready? (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/Malaya1942.jpg) Here is the companion map, showing the campaign in Malaya, December 1941-January 1942. The red dates are the dates when the Japanese conquered specific locations, while the blue date indicates when the British formed a defensive line to protect Johore, the southernmost of Malaya's nine sultanates. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)  

Happy New Year, and to begin 2018, the podcast will begin covering the course of World War II in Southeast Asia. We will start by looking at the events in the early twentieth century that motivated Japan to conquer most of East Asia and the western Pacific, and we will finish with the event that brought the United States into the war, the attack on Pearl Harbor. (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/neasia/EastAsia.jpg) This map is a simple, graphic representation of Japan's strategy during World War II. Most of the area within the gold circle was under Japanese rule by the end of the 1930s. To complete the conquest of that area, the Japanese became interested in the resource-rich green circle (most of Southeast Asia), and they would add that between 1940 and 1942. Note the symbols indicating the minerals that Japan wanted and needed. After Pearl Harbor they also went for the lands within the red oval, plus Wake Island and part of the Aleutian Islands on the right, to form a defensive perimeter around the other areas. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)  

This is the last episode in the French Indochina mini-series (the others are Episodes 25, 26 and 34), and the last episode for 2017. Here we wrap up by looking at the development of nationalist movements in Vietnam before World War II, with special emphasis on Ho Chi Minh, who will be the most important nationalist after the war. Finally we will meet the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao, two new religious sects that got started in South Vietnam in the early twentieth century. (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/ho-chi-minh-courte-biographie.jpg) Here is how Ho Chi Minh looked when he lived in Paris, between 1917 and 1923. Not only was he young and clean shaven, he lived under several false names, his favorite being Nguyen Ai Quoc. (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/HoChiMinh.jpg) And here is the Ho Chi Minh you're familiar with, if you know anything about the Vietnam War. This picture was taken sometime in the 1950s. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)

For Episode 34, we continue our look at Southeast Asia in the early twentieth century (up to 1941), with a visit to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, while the French were running those countries. If you're interested in the Vietnam War coming later on, you may consider this episode a prequel, or a table-setting episode. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)

This episode continues our narrative on Southeast Asia in the early twentieth century, by looking at Indonesia, then called the Dutch East Indies, from 1901 to 1941 (A.D.). First we will learn how oil was discovered in the islands, and how it replaced spices as Indonesia's most important product. Then we will see how the Dutch administered the islands during that time. Finally we will follow the development of Indonesian nationalism, and meet Sukarno, the first leader of modern Indonesia. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)  

For our 32nd episode (33rd if you count the introduction), we will return to the Southeast Asian mainland, and cover the history of Burma, modern-day Myanmar, in the early twentieth century. In particular we will concentrate our attention on the nationalist movements that sprang up, to oppose British rule. Three of the nationalists we will meet here, Aung San, U Nu and Ne Win, will become important in future episodes, so remember their names! (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/BU-66.jpg) This sample of Burmese money is a 90 Kyat bill, issued in 1987, and on the front it shows Saya San, who led an unsuccessful revolt against British rule in 1931. 90 Kyat bills were a legal denomination because Ne Win believed that 9 and multiples of 9 were lucky numbers, but that’s a wild story I am saving for another time. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)  

With this episode, we begin a narrative completely in the twentieth century, so welcome to recent history! Here we also conclude the four-part miniseries about the Philippines, around the beginning of the twentieth century. This time we will cover the years from 1902 to 1941, looking at the minor wars that came after the Philippine Insurrection (or Philippine-American War, if you're politically correct), and seeing how Americans and Filipinos learned to work together, so that the Philippines can become independent someday. (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/Taft1901sm.jpg) The first civilian governor that the United States put over the Philippines was a future US president, William Howard Taft. He served from 1900 to 1904, and because he weighed 325 lbs., Americans remember him as their biggest president. Here he is in 1901 riding a water buffalo, or as the Filipinos call it, a carabao. Can you tell which is bigger? (http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/seasia/Knocking-Out-the-Moors-.jpg) And here a scene from the final battle of the Moro War, the battle of Bud Bagsak. This was painted in 1963, fifty years after the battle took place, so I have a feeling some details were left out, like the fact that the Moros had their families at the site of the battle. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/? code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)

This is the third episode in the mini-series we are currently doing about the Philippines. Here we cover the three-year war the Americans fought to keep the islands after they arrived in 1898. This also completes our narrative on Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)  

This episode covers the part of the Spanish-American War that was fought in the Philippines. In doing so we will introduce the last colonial power to come to Southeast Asia, the United States. In the past the narrative could cover centuries of events with one episode, but this time almost everything happened in one year, 1898. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)

This episode catches up on the Philippines, a part of Southeast Asia the podcast last talked about in Episode 14. Here you will hear how Spain lost its tight grip on the islands, and the development of Southeast Asia's first modern nationalist movement. The narrative will cover events in the 1700s and most of the 1800s, and end right before the United States got involved in the Philippines, the topic of the next episode. Do you think you would like to become a podcaster on Blubrry? Click here for the details on joining. (http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=HSEASIA) Enter my promo code, HSEASIA, to let them know I sent you, and you will get the first month's hosting for free! Support this podcast! (https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif)