The British Military Administration (BMA) was the interim administrator of British Malaya from August 1945, the end of World War II, to the establishment of the Malayan Union in April 1946. The BMA was under the direct command of the Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia, Lord Louis Mountbatten. The administration had the dual function of maintaining basic subsistence during the period of reoccupation, and also of imposing the state structure upon which post-war imperial power would rest.F. S. V. Dommison, British Military Administration in the far East (London, 1956)
Background
Prior to the Japanese occupation, British Malaya was divided into the federated and unfederated states as well as the more directly controlled Straits Settlements. In the 1930s, Edward Gent of the British Colonial Office was in favour of bringing these separate elements closer together. After the Japanese occupation, the British began to consider how to reconquer Malaya and reestablish colonial administration. The planning for the new administration was handled by the Civil Affairs, Malaya Planning Unit (CAMPU) and the Eastern Department of the Colonial Office under Gent. The first phase was to be a Military Administration that returned stability followed by a Malay Union that would bring together all the states under a single government to secure Britain's possessions in Malaya.Post War Colonial Policy, 50 Years of Malaysia: Federalism Revisited, Dr Andrew J Harding, Dr James Chin, Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd, 2014, , 9789814561969
By early 1945, the British had plans to invade Malaya on 9 September under the code name Operation Zipper. However, the Japanese surrendered on 15 August, weeks before the planned invasion. As a result, British arrangements for a gradual re-establishment of colonial administration over Malaya and the other territories were now obsolete and a vast area including Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia, British North Borneo, Indo-China, Sarawak, and Hong Kong was free from colonial control.Military Government and its Discontents: The Significance of the British Military Administration in the History of Singapore and Malaya, Kelvin Ng, Research and Practice in Humanities & Social Studies Education, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
In the period between the Japanese emperor's announcement and the arrival of Allied forces in Malaya, the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army focused its efforts on seizing control of territory across Malaya and punishing "collaborators" of the Japanese regime.Cooper, B. (1998). The Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA). In B. Cooper, Decade of Change: Malaya and the Straits Settlements 1936–1945 (pp. 426–464). Singapore: Graham Brash. A few of the Japanese occupation troops also came under attack from civilians during this period as they withdrew from outlying areas and some defected to the MPAJA.
Condition of Japanese-occupied Malaya
During the initial period of the Japanese occupation the Ethnic Chinese in Malaya were ill-treated by the Japanese because of their support for China in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Malaya's two other major ethnic groups, the Indians and Malays, escaped the worst of the initial Japanese maltreatment. The Japanese wanted the support of the Indian community to free India from British rule. They also considered the Malays not to be a threat. All three races were encouraged to assist Japanese war efforts by providing finance and labour. Some 73,000 Malayans were thought to have been coerced into work on the Thai-Burma Railway, with an estimated 25,000 dying. The Japanese also took the railway track from Malacca and other branch lines for construction of the Siam-Burma railway.
About 150,000 tons of rubber was taken by the Japanese, but this was considerably less than Malaya exported prior to the occupation. Because Malaya produced more rubber and tin than Japan was able to utilize Malaya lost its export income. Real per capita income fell to about half its 1941 level in 1944 and less than half the 1938 level in 1945.Financing Japan's World War II Occupation of Southeast Asia, Gregg Huff and Shinobu Majima, Pembroke College - University of Oxford and Faculty of Economics - Gakushuin University, pp. 7–19
Prior to the war Malaya produced 40% of the world's rubber and a high proportion of the world's tin. It imported more than 50% of its rice requirements, a staple food for its population. The Allied blockade meant that both imports and the limited exports to Japan were dramatically reduced.Malaya before the war, The Japanese Occupation of Malaya: A Social and Economic History, Paul H Kratoska, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1998 , 9781850652847
During the occupation the Japanese replaced the Malayan dollar with their own version.Currency replacement and price freeze, Syonan Shimbun, 23 February 1942, Page 3 Prior to occupation, in 1941, there was about Malaya $219 million in circulation. Japanese currency officials estimated that they had put $7,000 to $8,000 million into circulation during occupation. Some Japanese army units had mobile currency printing presses and no record was kept of the quantity or value of notes printed. When Malaya was liberated there was $500 million of uncirculated currency held by the Japanese in Kuala Lumpur. The unrestrained printing of banknotes in the final months of the war created hyperinflation with the Japanese money becoming valueless at the end of the war.
During the war the Allies dropped propaganda leaflets stressing that the Japanese issued money would be valueless when Japan surrendered. This tactic was suggested by Japanese policy makers as one of the reasons for the currencies falling value as Japanese defeats increased. Although a price freeze was put in place in February 1942, by the end of the war prices in Malaya were 11,000 times higher than at the start of the war. Monthly inflation reached over 40% in August 1945.300 Tons of 'Banana' notes in Kuala Lumpar, The Straits Times, 10 October 1945, p. 3 Counterfeiting of the currency was also rife with both the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) printing $10 notes and $1 notes and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) printing $10 notes.
Because of Allied blockades against the Japanese, Malaya was short of food and medical supplies by the end of the war.
British return
Under Operation Jurist, Penang became the first state in Malaya to be liberated from Japanese rule. The Japanese garrison in Penang formally surrendered on 2 September 1945 aboard HMS Nelson and a party of the Royal Marines retook Penang Island the following day. The British subsequently occupied Singapore, with the Japanese garrison on the island formally surrendering on 12 September. The same day the BMA was installed in Kuala Lumpur. This was followed by the signing of the Malaya surrender document at Kuala Lumpur by Lieutenant-General Teizo Ishiguro, commander of the 29th Army; with Major-General Naoichi Kawahara, Chief of Staff; and Colonel Oguri as witnesses. Another surrender ceremony was held in Kuala Lumpur on 22 February 1946 for General Seishirō Itagaki, the Commander of the 7th Area Army. The British re-occupation of Malaya included the four northern Malay states occupied by Thailand in 1943. It also gradually brought back into force the laws that had been in force prior to the Japanese occupation.
BMA established The BMA was established on 15 August 1945 by Proclamation No 1 of the Supreme Allied Commander of Southeast Asia. The BMA assumed full judicial, legislative, executive and administrative powers and responsibilities and conclusive jurisdiction over all persons and property throughout Malaya including Singapore. Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten became the Director of the Administration in September 1945. Lieutenant General Philip Christison was appointed General Officer Commanding British forces in Malaya.British Military Administration - Malaya, The Straits Times, 7 September 1945, Page 1 Major-General Ralph Hone was given the post of Chief Civil Affairs Officer Malaya (CCAO(M)) responsible for the territory of Malaya.British Document On the End of Empire Vol.1, edited by S. R. Ashton. London: University of London Press, 1995. Further proclamations: disestablished Japanese tribunals were disestablished and replaced by military courts, a Superior Court to deal with people charged with offences against the laws and usages of war and military related offences, and a District Court to try criminal cases and inquiries into death; prohibited the sale of alcohol and civilian foodstuffs to members of the armed forces; made the former Malayan currency legal tender and effectively made the Japanese circulated currency worthless;Banana Money, The Straits Times, 8 September 1945, page 1 and covered the safety of British and Allied Forces and the maintenance of public order and safety. Notices publicizing these also noted that the BMA was temporary in nature. a moratorium was placed on all dealings in land and all financial institutions were closed.Moratorium in Malaya, The Straits Times, 8 September 1945, page 1
For the purpose of streamlining the administration and in preparation for the proposed Malayan Union, postwar Malaya was divided into 9 regions with Perlis-Kedah, Negeri Sembilan-Melaka, and the other states as regions in their own right. The regions were controlled by a Senior Civil Affairs Officer (ranked either Colonel or Lieutenant-Colonel). Earlier, the planning for civil affairs in the Malayan Peninsula was done by the Deputy Chief Civil Affairs Officer, Brigadier H C Willan. The Federal Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur hosted the Civil Affairs Headquarters. In October 1945 this office was merged with the office of the Chief Civil Affairs Officer.Hone, H. R. (1946). Report on the British Military Administration of Malaya: September 1945 to March 1946 (p. 5). Kuala Lumpur: Malayan Union Government Press. Call no.: RCLOS 959.506 HON
Given the military nature of the administration, the official power of some of the pre-war civilian governments' entities were suspended, including the rights of the Malay sultanate rulers. Civil Affairs Officers also acted in the capacity of District Officers. Colonel John G. Adams of the London Irish Rifles (previously injured in action during the Sicilian campaign on the Catania plains) was selected as the President of the Superior Court in 1945.
Personnel Although its name (British Military Administration) implies the BMA was primarily a military organisation. However there were civilian advisers and many of the military officials were civilians in uniform, it too often appeared indifferent to popular concerns. A complication factor was that the BMA had few seasoned professional administrators on whom to call.Stubbs, Richard. Heart and Minds in Guerrilla Warfare: The Malayan Emergency 1948-1960. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Nearly three-quarters of the senior staff had no previous experience in government and only a quarter of the Civilian Affairs senior staff had any knowledge of Malaya.Martin Rudner, 'The Organisation of the British Military Administration in Malaya', Journal of Southeast Asian History 9 (March 1968), p.103. Further, the armed component of the BMA was a source of innumerable complaints. As a British observer noted, "In general the Army behaved, and this goes for the officers also, as if they were in conquered enemy territory'.Khong Kim Hoong, Merdeka! British Rule and the Struggle for Independence in Malaya, 1945-1957 (Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Institute for Social Analysis, 1984), pp. 42-43
Reoccupation