Japan's Unlikely Allies in WW2

Immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Imperial Japan launched several invasions and assaults on European and American colonial and imperialist provinces across the Pacific Islands and Eastern Asia.
Japan’s Empire was, however, overextended, outmanned, and facing deteriorating supplies, making it essential for them to acquire new lands for their resources and to recruit troops from their occupied territories.
This would allow them to create a buffer between them and the Japanese Islands, and continue their expansion efforts across the Pacific and Asian continent to maintain their pressure on the Asian colonies of Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, France, New Zealand, and the United States.

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Narrator:

Chris Kane

[simple-commentator-not-rea]

Apperently, Poland was also an unexpected ally to Japan during WWII. Through shared distrust towards the Soviet Union, Japan supposedly relied on Polish spies, and the Japanese government even rejected Poland's declaration of war. Prime minister Tojo Hideki argued that the UK and USA forced the Polish government in exile to make that declaration and considered it legally null and void.

[samsmotzzz]

Post WW2, many Japanese military officers, soldiers, and pilots stayed in Indonesia after the nuking. They helped build the Indonesian Air Force with leftover Zero's, Ki-84s, Ki-43s, and D3A1 Val Bombers. Japanese volunteers played a vital role in the liberation of Indonesia from Dutch colonial rule.

[killerrogue]

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was an interesting character himself. He was very logical in terms of the reasons for Indian independence, but at the same time left a troubled legacy by allying with the Axis, who considered him as the "Indian Samurai" and someone who could spark a revolution once on the Indian soil. He was a great threat to the British Empire. He is a respected personality both in India and Japan. Even the airport in Kolkata is named after him. A lot of web series and movies are dedicated to him which can be found online. He deserves his own video for once.

[darthkarnage]

My grandma told me that during the occupation, the Korean conscripts that Japanese brought over where even more brutal and terrifying than the regular Japanese soldiers.

[mantic]

The animations are getting better now! I subscribed to Simple History when the channel is still getting large with a thousand subs and now i keep watching it because of the animation. The thing is i watched the History of WW1 in Simple History and The animation is somewhat new and now Simple History grew and grew with more subs and more views the animation and background change over the past year! Keep the good job Simple History finding new kinds of History for the Viewers.

[theoneandonlydetraebean]

"You save us, Japan!"
"Saved? Oh I wouldn't say that! More like *under new management*. "

[HellCorps]

There are another two of Japan's allies that haven't been mentioned:

One is Thailand, who paved way to Malaya that lead to Japan's success

Two is Second Philippine Republic, another puppet state under Japanese rule

[napoleonibonaparte]

The incorporation of the Manchukuo army into the Chinese Red Army became one of the biggest mistakes Chiang Kai-shek made, as they went to him first but he rejected their service because of their collaboration.

[kilotun]

Likely a tall tale, but apparently when Aung San met with the British general to ask for help kicking out the Japanese, the Englishman (who I believe was Sir William Slim) mentioned that the Burmese only seemed to support the British when they were winning. The prompt reply was "Of course! Why would we support you when you're losing?"

[Thomas-rlxd]

Please do a video on the battle of Delville wood. As a South African it would be truly amazing to see our troops remembered on this channel.

Thank you...

[lucianoosorio]

“They took Guam, the Gilbert islands, hong king and the Philippines. They forced Thailand to join them so they can move their troops into Malaya. They sweated through Singapore, North Bornio, the East Indies, New Guinea, the Solomons and they were now threatening Northern Australia and the boarders of India.”

[danielnavarro]

A famous quote, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

[shawnofdanaukota]

I have seen Man in High Castle, I think of how they faced massive uprisings as their allies: Burma, Australia, India and China have rise up to end their tyranny.

[coleboone]

I feel like a part two would be needed since Siam and Indonesia didn’t even get mentioned and could have used more explanation on the Koreans and Chinese since they felt a little rushed

[couriersix]

During World War II Japan had an "ally" in Indonesia called PETA or Pembela Tanah Air (Defenders of the Homeland) an Indonesian volunteer army founded on October 3, 1943 in Indonesia by the Japanese occupation. The Japanese intended PETA to assist their troops in resisting a possible invasion by the Allies.

[GauravMuralidharan]

You omitted the part where when the British practically Handed over Indian soldiers to the Japanese to be taken as POWs ...
Hence the soldiers felt betrayed by the British Empire for whom they fought

[mfinland]

There's also Indonesia/Dutch East Indies. They never saw fighting the Allies during WW2, but there are military conscription and brutal labor activities. Due to very high populations, Japan promised them for independence, especially Sukarno (Indonesia political activist before becoming president). He became Japanese trustworthy propaganda tool, so the local citizens can join and follow the Japanese military conscription. The Japanese trained them in how to use riffles, vehicles, and tanks. After the war, the Indonesian soldiers that had been trained by Indonesia are put into use in the Independence war against the Allies, who wanted to reclaim back their Japanese lost territorial control in Southeast Asia.

There's also Thailand, the most notable Japanese ally during the war. Contribute in the fighting against French Indochina and Britain in Burma and Malaya. They were invaded by the Japanese in 1941, but only for 5 hours until ceasefire was announced. Not know much from that, but they were Japanese only bestie during that war.

[pdenigma]

There should be a part 2, there are many more collaborationist organizations to cover

In Vietnam there were the Cao Dai
In the Philippines, there were the MAKAPILI and the Bisig-Bakal ng Tagala
In Malaysia there were the Giyugun
In Indonesia, there were the PETA and the Hei-Ho

[brianlong]

The majority of the Manchuria army was Japanese, and the majority of them surrendered when the emperor ordered it, the invasion of Manchuria by the Soviets was right at the end of the war an estimated 40k Japanese and Soviets even got to shoot at each other, a pretty small amount seeing as there was about 660, 000 Japanese in Manchuria and 330, 000 in Korea, with about 200, 000 Manchukuo and 40, 000 Mengjiang troops, vs 1.5million Soviets.

The Japanese military was 7.6million strong when it surrendered and it also had 1million allies/ pupets so a total of about 8.6million.

[Jets]

Never thought this video would happen. Thanks Simple History!