The Fall of Malaya 1942

A short history of the growing British economic and political power in Malaya during the 18th, 19th and early 20th Century.  The large scale immigration of Chinese and Indians to work in British owned tin mines and rubber plantations.  The defeat of the British Army by the Japanese Empire in 1942.  The Japanese occupation of Malaya between 1942 and 1945 with its brutal repression of the ethnic Chinese population.  A biography of Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, the commander of the British Army in Malaya in 1941.

To be published on September 1st.

Season three of ‘When the Cold War got Hot’, featuring the war in Malaya between the British Army and a Communist Army will begin in September.  This podcast series will look at the background to war which began in 1948 and follow the story to its end in 1960.  Looking at the leading figures and events in that war.  A war that looked to much closer in likely outcome in 1951 when Communist terrorism was rampant in Malaya, where even the most important British official in Malaya was not safe.

As a bonus there will an extra four episodes of the Indonesian Confrontation when the Soviet backed Government of Indonesia fought a war in North Borneo against Malaysia and the British Commonwealth.  That war would in 1965 produce a dramatic chance in the balance of power between the West and the Communist powers heavily in favour of the west.

In the first episode I look at the background to the war with the British loss of its colony in Malaya to the Japanese Empire in 1942 and the Japanese repression of the ethnic Chinese during from 1942 to 1945..