Figure 1.--There were Japanese Army warehouses filled with rice and other foods all through the famine. Starving people in Hanoi rioted (March 1945). Here Japananese soldiers are beating people in Hanoi trying to steal rice from a cart. Vo An Ninh, can be found at the Museum of Vietnamese History in Hanoi.

French Indo-China, escpecially southern Vietman and Cambodia with land enriched by the MNekong River were the breadbasket of Southeast Asia. Vietnam featured prominently in Japan's move to war. Chinese nationalists had received some shipments of war material through Tonkin (northern Indo-China). With the fall of France (June 1940), the Japanese demanded concessions and basing rights (June 1940). French officals loyal to the new Vichy Government complied. The Japanese made clear thhat they were prepared to use force if necessary, but preferred the fiction of continued French control. The Japanese from occupied southern China attacked two Tonkinese (northern Vietmam) towns before retiring back into China. In their wake they left 800 dead French (September 1940). Initially Japan just moved forces into northern Vietnam. While France could not react, the United States reacted with an emargoe on raw materials. America had cracked the Japanese diplomatic (Purple) code Magivc. Thus thus knew a great deal about what the Japanese objectives were and they contrasted sharply from the public protestations of peace. It was continued American demands for Japan to withdraw from China which caused the Japanese to decide that war with the United States was necessary. The United States had also moved the Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbor to back up its resistance to Japanese expansionism. Then Japan moved troops into south Vietnam. This put the Japanese into position to strike a Maiaya and the oil rich British Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. The United States responded with an oil embargo (July 1941). Japan resonded with the devestatuing carrier attack on Pearl Harbor (Decemnber 1941). After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese moved forces in Indo-China west through Thailand to invade the British in Burma. One of the goals was to block military shipments to the Chinese nationalists along the Burma Road. The Japanese also moved south into Malay to attack the British bastion at Singapore. Vietnamese resistance to foreign (both French and Japanese) occupation gradually developed, led by Ho Chi Min. The Japanese allowed nominal French administration to continue under Adm. Jean Decoux. Axis ally Thailad used the opportunity to seize disputed territory in Cambodia and Laos. Several sharp engagements resulted until the Japanese Military Commission ordered the French to withdraw abd awarded the territory to their Axius ally. Indo-China especially the Mekong Delta was an important center of rice production. Throughout Southeast area, Japanese press ganging of labor and seiuzure of draught animals adversely affected rice and other food production. The Japanese also wanted jute and cotton production increased to meet textile requirements. And much of the available food producr=tion w turned over to the mikitary or shipped to Japan. Thee actions were commonly carried out by the French clons still in nomimal control of the colony's adminitration. The Japanese seized the Mekong rice harvest in the last year of the War. Wihout supplies from the south, an estimated 1-2 million people in central and northern Indo-China starved or died from disease because of their weakened condition (1944-45). The siutuation was worst in Tonkin, but condituons were very difficult in other areas as well. The Japanese reportedly used some of the rice for fuel. America delivered some weapons to the Vietnamese guerillas. They rarely, however, attemopted to attack the Japanese, but husbanded the weapons for use against the French after the War. The French dutifully followed Japanese orders until the new French Government iordered colonial officials ordered an uprising (March 1945). The Japanese brutally put down the risung and took full control of Indochina. After the Japanese surrender the French attempted to restablish their colonial authority, leading to the first Vietnam War.