This video is sponsored by MagellanTV. Long before the outbreak of World War 2,
the Empire of Japan began an expansionist policy to stop the influence of Western powers in Asia.
After the conquest of Manchuria and Northern China in the 1930s,
the Japanese created puppet states and accepted foreign volunteers on its armies
to impose the will of the Emperor. When the war finally broke out and Japan
started conquering British, Dutch, French, and American territories,
waves of volunteers of different nationalities joined the ranks of the Imperial Army.
Following the footsteps of the Wehrmacht, these foreign soldiers became the spearhead troops of
Japanese incursions into new territories, and Chinese, Mongolians, Indonesians, Indians, and
many more Asians soon became the eyes and swords of the Emperor in lands unknown to the Japanese.
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The Empire of the Rising Sun Japan, or the Land of the Rising Sun, has
never been a stranger to war; quite the contrary. Since times of old, its population developed its
own warmongering techniques that resulted in moral codes such as bushido or the way of the warrior.
The Samurai, sometimes compared to the Christian knights of medieval Europe,
embodied the old warrior spirit of the Japanese. These old-fashioned fighting men were ruled by the
bushido code, in which honor and bravery led to overall virtues that a man could possess.
For centuries, the Japanese closed their doors to the influence of external ideologies,
adopting an isolationist posture to prevent contact with men from other nations.
But no stone can be left unturned for too long, and European conquistadors
arrived in Japan by the mid-16th century. From there on, Japan was introduced to a new
age of warfare that ranged from infantry tactics to artillery, arquebusiers, cavalry formations,
and, more importantly, the employment of foreign mercenaries and military advisors.
Then, as the 19th century approached, Japan was forced to open its borders to American trade.
The tremendous technological and economic growth that followed in such a short amount of time
positioned Japan as the main rival of American and British expansionism in Asia.
Now a former empire, the Japanese fought the Russians for the dominance of North-Eastern Asia,
including parts of China, all of Korea, and even the island of Formosa.
The Rising Sun also fought in World War 1 to take control of
the territories controlled by the Germans in the continent.
Then, as the tides of war rose in Europe in the 1930s,
the ambitions of the Empire of the Rising Sun led to diplomatic clashes with the United States.
Both nations wanted to stop each other, but neither ceded any ground.
Instead, the Empire developed an impressive army,
navy, and air force with the cooperation of German advisors from the Third Reich.
Long before Japan invaded Manchuria and Northern China in 1931 and 1932, Intelligence officers
from Tokyo were in communication with Chinese rebels at war with the government.
The army would equip these men to help them take control of the region and enforce the
laws of the Emperor. The same would happen in Mongolia and British, French, and Dutch
colonies in Far-East Asia. First Volunteers
While continuing to establish its supremacy, Japan would use freedom fighters and nationalists
to help them rebel against the westerners and conquer all of Asia.
Following the steps of the Wehrmacht and its recruitment of foreign volunteers to fight the
Soviets in the Eastern Front, Japan opened its doors to anyone who wanted to fight the British,
Americans, French, and other European nations.
The 1941 and 1942 campaigns of South-East Asia and the Pacific were a testimony to
the flocks of volunteers that fought alongside the Japanese soldiers.
The reasons behind the foreign volunteers’ desire to join the Japanese were highly diverse.
Some men were attracted to Japan's pan-Asian and anti-colonial propaganda
whose slogan was ‘Asia for the Asians!’ Meanwhile, others joined with the firm
hope of achieving their countries’ independence if they supported the Japanese during the war.
And then there were others who merely wanted payback against the European settlers.
Despite the brutal treatment of the Japanese towards most Asian nations,
the Empire's Greater East Asia co-Prosperity Sphere managed to attract enough volunteers to
create puppet states all over the continent. Then, as World War 2 continued and the
Allied offensives in Asia intensified,
the outnumbered Japanese military began to rely heavily on its foreign volunteers to
subjugate partisans and neutralize sabotage operations on the occupied territories.
Inner Mongolian Army One of the first auxiliary
forces of the Empire of the Rising Sun were nationalists from Inner Mongolia.
The first approach between these two cultures dates back to the 13th century
when the Golden Horde invaded Japan. Although the Japanese were resentful at first,
diplomatic and military communication with Mongolia resurfaced in the 1920s. This union and
support aimed to prevent Mongolia from falling into the hands of the Soviets and the Chinese.
In 1932, after Japan had conquered Manchuria, their relationship intensified, and Prince
Demchugdongrub, a proud Mongolian who sought to make his country powerful during the epochs of
Genghis and Kublai Khan, sided with the Japanese. The prince wished to break inner Mongolia
from Chinese rule and joined forces with Japanese agents to accomplish his objective.
However, in 1936, he and his fellow Mongolians suffered several defeats
after expanding into Northern China. Then, a year later, the Mongols and Japanese
were defeated once again by the Chinese troops at the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War.
The lack of proper training, equipment, and logistics greatly limited the operational
capacity of the Mongolian allies, and after several reorganizations, the Inner
Mongolian Army was split into four infantry divisions, two cavalry divisions, and Chinese
brigades that comprised a 10,000-strong force. This structure allowed Prince Demchugdongru to
become the head of the puppet state of Mengjiang in 1938.
However, his good fortune ran out when in 1945, the Red Army invaded Manchuria and
Mongolia and promptly eliminated the poorly trained Mongolian cavalrymen.
Collaborationist Chinese Army In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and
established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Then, in 1934, the deposed Emperor of China, Pu Yi,
became the ruler of this state and began putting together an army to establish his rule.
The Armed Forces of Manchukuo would eventually surpass 100,000 men,
including its own air force and navy. However, that was not enough for the Japanese.
As the Imperial Army continued to take control of more areas in China, more puppet states and armies
surfaced, including the Provisional Governments of Peking and Nanking. Both territories amounted
to about 5,000 inexperienced soldiers. By 1940, all of these client armies
were merged into the Reorganized Government of the Republic of China.
The head of the Collaborationist Chinese Army was politician Wang Jingwei, who sought to unite China
and make it a powerful and developed nation. Wang's pro-Japanese army surpassed 300,000
men by 1943 and included several Japanese tanks and artillery pieces.
However, despite the sheer scale of his forces, only the Guards Division with around
30,000 soldiers was considered a reliable force. The rest of the army was controlled by warlords
of uncertain loyalty. Still, the Chinese volunteers would help the Empire of Japan
keep control of all the Chinese provinces and eradicate any revolution attempts.
Burmese Independence Army As the will of the Emperor expanded
overseas and took control of former British and European colonies, the Japanese Intelligence
persuaded local politicians and resistance fighters to raise volunteers for their cause.
Promises of independence or ethnic privileges drew many to serve the Emperor,
including Burma and its leader Aung San.
Before the invasion, a secret force of Burmese men was trained by the Japanese on Hainan
to support the Imperial Army when they decided to strike before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Once accomplished, the Japanese created the Burmese National Army to help them
conquer the region. The army would eventually grow into a force of 200,000 uncontrollable
volunteers that committed atrocities against several minorities in Burma.
Then, after fighting the British in 1943, Aung San quickly grew tired of the Japanese grip.
And by 1945, he rebelled against Japan and declared Burma an independent country
after engaging in talks with the Allies. Indian and Indonesian Volunteers
Although the Japanese never considered India a part of its pan-Asian alliance or
area of dominion, the Empire decided to weaken the bulk of the British Indian Army by aiding factions
that sought independence from the English. After negotiating the creation of an Indian
Legion with Adolf Hitler, Subhas Chandra Bose declared the independence of a Singapore-based
Provisional Government of Free India in 1943 with the support of the Japanese.
The Indian National Army comprised 40,000 men and participated in the engagements of
Arakan Imphal and Burma, but ultimately failed to convince the British Indian
soldiers to defect and join the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Indonesian volunteers
experienced a different fate. After founding the Pembela Tanah Air in 1943,
a volunteer militia of 50,000 men was distributed across Java and Sumatra to impose order.
The men never saw combat, and in 1945 Indonesia declared its independence.
Most of the enlisted men became the founding pillars of the Indonesian Army.
Legacy Ultimately,
the foreign allies of the Imperial Japanese Army were not as effective as the Empire intended. This
was in part because of their very strict racial policies and the little training they received.
However, as the war turned against them,
Japan relied more on these troops to protect the rearguard and supply lines. Eventually,
even these mercenaries were persuaded by the Western powers to fight against the Japanese.
The participation of foreign volunteers continues to be a disputed topic,
and just like it happened with the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, there were foreign Japanese units
who were greatly underestimated and proved their worth on the battlefield.
Thank you for watching our video! Please like and subscribe to our Dark Documentaries channels
to find more exciting historical content. And let us know in the comments below what you
think of the allies of the Imperial Japanese Army during their conquest of Asia and the Pacific.