Word: haiphong
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...Government." Major General Issaku Nishihara, head of a big Japanese mission now in Indo-China to squeeze concessions out of the new Vichy-appointed Governor General, Admiral Jean Decoux, whipped out an ultimatum. He demanded on threat of immediate invasion the use of French IndoChina's chief port, Haiphong, as a naval and air base, and permission to transport Japanese equipment and troops over the French-owned Indo-Chinese Railway for an attack on South China...
Faced with the prospect of double invasion in addition to internal revolt, Vichy's unhappy emissary pleaded for time to communicate with his Government. The French Colonial Government canceled military leaves, closed the port of Haiphong, suspended railway traffic throughout the colony, manned coastal defenses, barricaded streets and squares in Haiphong, prepared to evacuate women and children from coastal towns. A Japanese fleet steamed outside Haiphong, and Japanese troops on the Japanese-occupied Chinese island of Hainan prepared for active duty. News from French IndoChina stopped, blocked by censorship...
...virtually completed the occupation of Indo-China-without a single test of the Mandel defenses. "Traffic Examiners" swarmed into the country in mufti, in Army khaki and Navy blue, piloting airplanes and driving little brown automobiles. They proceeded to chart airports, survey highways, estimate the troop traffic which the Haiphong-Kunming railway might carry if Indo-China should by any chance allow troops to cross her territory. Merchants arrived lugging the Oriental equivalents of carpetbags. Three destroyers lay off the port of Haiphong. A large fleet, including no less than 18 troop transports, sped South Seawards from Formosa, destination unknown...
...report to his superiors, and his impetuous second-in-command, an angry colonel named Kenryo Sato, was reported to have made new demands: 1 ) Japan should be allowed to move troops into China by the Indo-Chinese railway; 2) Japanese naval planes and vessels should get port facilities at Haiphong; 3) all work on the French defenses should cease at once. If only the first demand were granted, Japan would probably be able to force a Japanese peace on China...
...make doubly sure of IndoChina's good faith, part of Japan's South China Fleet formed a ring around the port of Haiphong "to watch for the time being." Troops billeted on Nanning closed in on the Indo-Chinese border, and fresh forces were concentrated on Hainan Island...