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The Japanese divided North Borneo into five provincial administrations (shus) and constructed airfields. Several prisoner of war camps were operated by the Japanese. Allied soldiers and most colonial officials were detained in them, together with members of underground movements who opposed the Japanese occupation.
On 18 January 1942, using small fishing boats, the Japanese landed at Sandakan, the seat of government of British North Borneo. The North Borneo Armed Constabulary, with only 650 men, hardly provided any resistance to slow down the Japanese invasion. On the morning of 19 January, Governor Charles Robert Smith surrendered British North Borneo ...
A map showing the progress of the Borneo campaign. The plans for the Allied attacks were known collectively as Operation Oboe. [13] The invasion of Borneo was the second stage of Operation Montclair, [1] which was aimed at destroying Imperial Japanese forces in, and re-occupying the NEI, Raj of Sarawak, Brunei, the colonies of Labuan and British North Borneo, and the southern Philippines. [14]
North Borneo had been occupied by troops from the Imperial Japanese Army since early 1942 following the Japanese invasion of Borneo; prior to this the area had been a British territorial possession. [2] [3] Following its occupation, the area's oil resources had been exploited for the Japanese war effort.
During World War II, the Japanese invasion of Borneo began with the unopposed landing of the Japanese forces at Miri and Seria on 16 December 1941, with the objective of securing oil supplies. [42] On 1 January 1942, the Japanese navy landed unopposed in Labuan. [43] The next day, the Japanese landed at Mempakul in North Borneo.
[2] [3] [4] Under the Japanese occupation of British Borneo, Beaufort was an important communications centre for the Japanese forces in the region. [1] Allied operations to retake Borneo from the Japanese began on 1 May 1945 with an amphibious landing on Tarakan off the northeast coast of Borneo.
The Japanese divided Indonesia into three separate regions; Sumatra (along with Malaya) was placed under the 25th Army, Java and Madura were under the 16th Army, while Borneo and eastern Indonesia were controlled by the 2nd South Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) based in Makassar.
Japan attacked British and American territories with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific on 7/8 December 1941. Action in this theatre ended when Japan announced an intent to surrender on 15 August 1945. The formal surrender of Japan ceremony took place on 2 September 1945.