SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Burma was the most geographically isolated part of the Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia and hosted the largest concentration of Japanese troops in that region. These conditions encouraged political maneuvering, including the grant of nominal independence to Burma in 1943, that complicated Japanese economic goals in Burma. The Japanese both prioritised military needs, including the construction of a railway connecting Thailand and Burma for military purposes, as well as opening up the country for experimentation with strategic crops by Japanese companies and economic advisers. This emphasis on Japan’s wartime needs and the decline of Japanese shipping during the war, prevented economic developments that could have made up for the loss of European markets for the former British colony, leaving Burma impoverished and contributing to Burma’s defection to the invading Allies in 1945.