Book description
The vast crescent of British-ruled territories from India down to
Singapore appeared in the early stages of the Second World War a massive
asset in the war with Germany, providing huge quantities of soldiers and
raw materials and key part of an impregnable global network denied to
the Nazis. Within a few weeks in 1941-2 a Japanese invasion had
destroyed all this, almost effortlessly taking the 'impregnable
fortress' of Singapore with its 80,000 strong garrison, and sweeping
through South and Southeast Asia to the frontier of India itself. This
revolutionary, absolutely gripping book brings to life the entire
experience of South and Southeast Asia in this extraordinary period,
telling the story from an Indian, Burmese, Chinese or Malay perspective
as much as from that of the British or Japanese. Effectively it is the
story of the birth of modern South and Southeast Asia and the hopes and
fears of the dozens of 'forgotten armies' marching through the jungle
battlefields, so many dying for causes swept away by the reality that
emerged in 1945. Even as the British successfully fought back in the
bloodiest battles in South and Southeast Asia's history, there was no
going back to colonial rule. Christopher Bayly is Vere Harmsworth
Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge and a
Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Tim Harper is a Fellow of
Magdalene College, Cambridge.
