Figure 1.-- The U.S. Navy before the Pacific War maintained a small Asiatic Fleet. This photograph was taken by U.S. sailor August Liguori some time in 1937-38. He was first a crew member of the 'USS Relief', a hospital ship. At the time this snapshot was taken, he was probably serving on the 'USS Canopus' which was making a port call in British Sarawak, northeastern Borneo. Notice all the metal bands.

Borneo is the third largest island in the world, some 287,000 square miles. The island off the Malay coast was once part of Asia before sea levels fell. It has a mountaneous center. The highest point is Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, an elevation reaching 4,095 meters. At the time of World War II, there were no roads into the interior. Communication and commerce was by riverine transport. This huge island had been divivided between the British and Dutch which were expanding their colonial presence in the area. The Dutch controlled most of the island, the British the northeast coast. The island is located at the center of maritime Southeast Asia and the Dutch portion of the island is today the central portion of Indonesia. At the time of World War II, the Brtish area to the west was divided into three colonial depedencies. Sabah and Sarawak are now part of Malaysia. A third small region was the sultanate of Brunei, now an oil-rich independent country. The rest of Borneo, including most of the interior was part of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. The Dutch began to establish control over the East Indies (16th centuty). This included Borneo, but it was a a huge island of only limited interest. They had only a few coastal trading posts at the time that the British began to tke an interest in the island. A major concern was the Malay and Sea Dayak pirates who had bases in Borneo. They were preying on maritime shipping in the waters between Singapore and China. British colonial involvement began when the British and Dutch governments negotiated the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 to regularize trading ports and estanlish spheres of influence. This British and Dutch-influenced areas developed on the island. British influence increase when the Sultanate of Brunei granted a large area in Sarawak to the English adventurer James Brooke (1842). It was a reward for assistance in quelling a rebellion. Brooke proceeded to establish the Kingdom of Sarawak set himself up as rajah after after paying a tribute to the Sultan. He thus created a monarchyand ruling dynasty. He, his nephew, and great-nephew ruled Sarawak for 100 years, becoming known as the White Rajahs. The British North Borneo Company acquired much of North Borneo which came to be called Sabah (1882). At the time that the British and Dutch became involved in Borneo, oil was of no interest, actually a nusiance. This had changed dramaticlly by World War II. Oil had made possession of primitive Borneo so important that Japan was willing to go to war with not only the British and Dutch, but the United States.

Created: 5:56 AM 5/4/2016
Last updated: 5:56 AM 5/4/2016