The War's Aftermath
These two Japanese cities were destroyed by atomic bombs in August 1945, leading directly to Japan's surrender.
What are Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
This nationalist leader founded the PNI party and declared Indonesian independence on August 17, 1945.
Who is Sukarno?
This was the official name for Japan’s planned self-sufficient bloc of Asian nations, supposedly free of Western influence.
What is the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere?
This Cambodian monarch navigated a "Royal Crusade" to achieve independence from France in 1953.
Who is Norodom Sihanouk?
This leader headed the Viet Minh resistance against the Japanese and declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945.
Who is Ho Chi Minh?
This Dutch official attempted to implement a "federal solution" to retain influence in Indonesia after the war.
Who was Hubertus van Mook?2
Meaning "Defenders of the Fatherland," this Japanese-trained volunteer army provided crucial military experience to Indonesian youth.
What is PETA (Pembela Tanah Air)?
This surprise carrier-based attack on December 7, 1941, marked the beginning of the Pacific War for the United States.
What is the attack on Pearl Harbor?89
The French restoration of this ancient temple complex inadvertently fostered a powerful sense of national identity among Cambodians.
What is Angkor Wat?
This conservative Malay leader led the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and negotiated Malayan independence in 1957.
Who is Tunku Abdul Rahman?
American codebreakers successfully cracked this high-level Japanese diplomatic cipher before the attack on Pearl Harbor. A colour found in the name of a movie the Oprah Winfrey starred in to much acclaim, and Prince sung about.
What is Purple?
This is the year the Netherlands finally recognized Indonesian sovereignty after years of military conflict and international pressure.
What is 1949?1more_horiz
Built with the forced labor of Allied POWs and Asian "romusha," this project is a notorious example of Japanese exploitation.
What is the Burma Railway?
This first Khmer-language newspaper, founded in 1936, became a vital vehicle for early Cambodian nationalist sentiment.
What is Nagara Vatta?
Taking place in August 1945, this event saw the Viet Minh seize power across northern Vietnam following Japan's surrender.
What was the August Revolution?
This international body was established in London in 1942 to pool the results of Allied investigations into war crimes.
What is the United Nations War Crimes Commission?
A Dutch Minister of Colonies famously stated that this specific island was the "cork on which the Netherlands floats."
What is Java?
In March 1945, Japan carried out this sudden military action to eliminate the remaining French administration in Indochina and Cambodia
What was the coup de force?
This Cambodian nationalist leader was forced into exile by the French but briefly returned to serve as Prime Minister during the 1945 Japanese occupation.
Who is Son Ngoc Thanh?
This term refers to the communist-led insurgency in Malaya from 1948 to 1960 that the British fought to suppress.
What was the Malayan Emergency?
Following his deposition in 1970, Sihanouk controversially threw his support behind this radical group in Cambodia.
Who are the Khmer Rouge?
These were the two primary agreements negotiated between the Indonesian Republicans and the Dutch prior to full independence.
What are the Linggadjati and Renville Agreements?
This term refers to the Japanese policy of requiring colonial subjects to practice Emperor worship and adopt Japanese customs.
What is forced acculturation?
Historian David Chandler used this French phrase to describe the impact of independence in 1953, suggesting that "the more things change, the more they stay the same."
What is "plus ça change plus ça la même chose"?
This major famine in northern Vietnam, occurring during the occupation, killed nearly two million people and fueled revolutionary fervor.
What was the 1945 famine?