World War II and Southeast Asia Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation

From December 1941, Japan, as part of its plan to build an East Asian empire and secure oil supplies essential for war in the Pacific, swiftly took control of Southeast Asia. Japanese occupation had a devastating economic impact on the region. Japan imposed country and later regional autarky on Southeast Asia, dictated that the region finance its own occupation, and sent almost no consumer goods. GDP fell by half everywhere in Southeast Asia except Thailand. Famine and forced labour accounted for most of the 4.4 million Southeast Asian civilian deaths under Japanese occupation. In this ground-breaking new study, Gregg Huff provides the first comprehensive account of the economies and societies of Southeast Asia during the 1941-1945 Japanese occupation. Drawing on materials from 25 archives over three continents, his economic, social and historical analysis presents a new understanding of Southeast Asian history and development before, during and after the Pacific War.

List of figures; List of tables; List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Chronology of World War II in the Pacific; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Southeast Asia in the Pacific War; 2. Administration and social control in Southeast Asia; 3. Finance for Japan's occupation; 4. National product and trade; 5. Transport, public utilities and industrialization; 6. Shortages, substitutes and rationing; 7. Food and famine in Southeast Asia; 8. Food and living standards in urban Southeast Asia; 9. Labour and the Japanese; 10 Costs of war and lessons of occupation; Epilogue and conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.

Gregg Huff is Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. He is the author of The Economic Growth of Singapore: Trade and Development in the Twentieth Century and co-editor of and contributor to World War II Singapore: The Chōsabu Reports on Syonan-to. Gregg has written numerous journal articles, including publications in the Journal of Economic History, Economic History Review, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Oxford Economic Papers, Cambridge Journal of Economics and World Development.