Word: thailand
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Next Move? If Japan was still unready to undertake war with Russia by attacking Siberia, and wished to avoid the war with Britain and the U.S. that would follow an attack on Singapore or the Indies, her most likely next move would seem to be on Thailand. Under pressure, the Government of Premier Luang Pitul Songgram granted Japan a 10,000,000-baht ($3,600,000) loan, recognized Manchukuo as a token of friendship. (It was carefully explained that the recognition of Manchukuo had been chosen as a lesser evil than recognizing Puppet Wang Ching-wei at Nanking.) Japan continued...
Before a foot or wheel had touched the ground, the well-drilled Japanese Foreign Office had turned its attention to the campaign's next objective, Thailand (whose biggest politico, Major General Phya Bahol-pronounced Peeya B'hoon-last month hastily took the non-political yellow robe of a lama, entered a monastery). It looked, said the Foreign Office's Tokyo newspaper, as though Thailand would need the strong helping hand of an outside country to keep the British from disrupting "the good relationship that has developed between Japan and Thailand...
Outward signs pointed to a move to the south. The press started a campaign designed to show that Great Britain, the U.S. and Chungking were plotting the "encirclement" of Japan. There were hints that Thailand, which had a mild domestic crisis last week, might need Japanese "protection." Pointing straight at the easiest mark, Domei accused French Indo-China of persecuting pro-Japanese Annamites, of maintaining "close economic, military and political relations with Great Britain and the United States." Domei called for "counter-measures." The Japan Times and Advertiser, Foreign Office mouthpiece, said flatly: "If the alarming picture of anti-Japanese...
...March the Japanese got valuable new bases when their forced "mediation" ended the war between: 1. Thailand and Indo-China...
...Palau, 500 miles closer to the U.S. than the Philippines, continue on to Portuguese Timor in the East Indies; to the west they roar to Shanghai, other Chinese cities; to the southwest they fly over Formosa to Canton, then over French Indo-China to Bangkok in pro-Japanese Thailand. The eastern and western arms of their airlines form a giant horseshoe around the Philippines (see map). To gain these far-flung routes Japan used fat subsidies, even bullets. They shot down at least two defenseless, passenger-carrying planes of competing China National Aviation...