SE 4209 Socio-Economic Change in Southeast Asia

Nur Amalina Kasim (06B0507) BA Education

Topic: The Socio-Economic Disruption of the Japanese Occupation (1941-1945) in Brunei

The Japanese came to South East Asia to obtain the resources that were available in the South East Asian countries and ship them back to Japan. To achieve this objective, they needed to conquer the countries. Brunei was not an exception. The Japanese wanted the raw materials that Brunei possessed, which were mineral deposits, mainly oil. After its capture, Brunei was placed under the Japanese administration. The Japanese officers came to Brunei in late May 1942, a few months after the first landing of the Japanese armies in Dec 1941. They employed the local officers who had served under the British administration and these were mostly the Malay people. However, the life of the people under the Japanese administration did not improve the living standards of the people. In fact, it had become worse than ever. In social aspect, there were social tension between the Malay and the Chinese because the Chinese were left out by the Japanese and were not given any position in the administration. The Japanese harboured resentment for the Chinese because of their help to China during the Sino-Japanese war in 1938. However, despite having their positions and salaries retained, the lives of the Bruneian officers were hardly any better than the general population. Some of them were forced to do unpleasant things for the Japanese such as arresting innocent people. However, the officers did try to carry out the orders without giving too much trouble to the Bruneians. They understood

the people had suffered enough and to be treated harshly by a fellow Bruneian would have been too much for them to bear. The Japanese were also, in fact, did not have any interest to in the social development in Brunei hence many of the government plans, such as to build more schools around Brunei as well as other public facilities were put on halt. Before the coming of the Japanese, the British government had the oil production facilities in Brunei destroyed in line with the Oil Denial Scheme and the Oil Destruction Scheme in order to prevent the oil from falling into the Japanese hands. The effect of this was of course, resulted in the winding down of the economy of Brunei since the oil industry was the major contribution to the growth of Bruneis economy. The Japanese tried to revive the oil production and even though they could not totally restore it, they managed to return the oil production facilities (pipeline and oil wells) to 3/4 of the original size and they were able to produce 1/2 of the production. However, the output of the oil industry was not used to develop Brunei, but instead, they were sent back to Japan. Hence the local people were still suffering from the economic setbacks. Because of the economic setbacks, the people became so poor that many had to live in jungles and used whatever they could get from the jungles to support them. Their conditions were so bad that they had to use the skin barks as clothing. The more to-do people were forced to wear the clothing that were usually reserved for special occasions as they had no ordinary clothes to wear. Fishing was difficult as people had not the sufficient equipments and even a needle was considered a rare item. The low standard of living also resulted in food shortages causing the people to suffer from inadequate food supply and further led to poor health among the people. Many people suffered from diseased such as beri-beri, tuberculosis, and malaria. This problem was intensified during the late 1944 when the Japanese treatment of the population became worse. Most local harvests were taken and none were left for the people. And there were hardly any medicines and medical equipments available, most of these were

seized by the Japanese and transported back to Japan, but no preventive measures to control the diseases were carried out. Hence, the duty to take care of the population fell to the hands of the local officers. Yet there were little that they could do because they did not dare to incur the wrath of the Japanese. Even though the Japanese introduced their currency in Brunei, known as the banana and coconut notes, but they produced the notes in large quantities which resulted in overprinting of the notes. Hence the values of the notes were very small and had little worth. Because of that, trade was reduced to barter. The Japanese also tried to revive the coal industry but were only fairly successful. Thus, as a result of this, the general population began to dislike the Japanese. To most people, the Japanese occupation was an interruption to the social and economic development in Brunei.